It is very easy, when developing questions to ask customers about issues that are of great concern to the department, service providers and stakeholders – questions that may not be at all relevant to the concerns of customers.

Customer feedback questions need to reflect customer needs, experiences of services and customer outcomes.

Three steps are often taken to identify core questions of relevance to customers and these are:

1. Use existing business information and customer input to identify what customers think and experience, for example:

• Complaints systems, demand for services, waiting lists.
• Frontline employee feedback.
• Ministerial correspondence.
• Stakeholder advisory groups.
• Accounts, Budget, costs of services and over runs.
• Customer listening groups.
• One-on-one interviews with customers.
• Previous customer surveys.

These results are used to identify the core drivers of the service performance and customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

2. Test the relevance and clarity of the questions by surveying small customer focus groups and/or piloting a sample survey of the questions.

3. Ensure feedback questions also elicit information that will be useful to the planning, improving and reporting requirements of the department.