When it comes to your camp, ensuring everyone is having a great experience and will happily return year after year is a top priority. You’ve done everything you can possibly think of to meet everyone’s needs, provide programs that create lasting memories and create a safe and inclusive environment for all, yet you still have a feeling that you might be missing something. But how do you go about finding out what can be done to improve your camp? Send out satisfaction surveys! Not just to your participants/parents but also to your staff.
Survey Platforms to Use
There are a variety of platforms you can use to host your survey—it all depends on what your preferences are, what your budget is and what tools you currently have at your disposal. Some are free and some come at a freemium, but if you want more features, you will have to pay. Either way, you can create a survey and easily email or text it out to participants/parents and employees alike. Remember to give the recipient the ability to take the survey anonymously or share their information if they wish.
Google Forms
If you are familiar with the tools Google provides to those that utilize its email platform, then Google Forms is a great way to create a survey. You can select from multiple question types, easily drag and drop if you need to reorder the questions and customize the survey to fit your camp’s branding. Once you've sent out the survey, you’re able to see responses in real-time or review the raw data in Google Sheets if you prefer to take a deeper dive.
Survey Monkey
While Survey Monkey claims to be free, that only means users have access to the most basic of tools the platform offers. The basic (and free) plan offers the ability to ask up to 10 questions and collects up to 40 responses per survey. You will also have access to some survey templates. If you’re looking for more freedom and customization, a paid subscription would be your best bet. Which subscription you choose determines which features you will have at your disposal.
Zoho Survey
Much like Survey Monkey, Zoho Survey also has multiple plans that offer better features the more you pay. It does, however, have a free plan that features unlimited surveys at only 10 questions per survey. But unlike Survey Monkey, instead of 40 responses per survey you can have up to 100. Zoho Survey also offers a plethora of templates, the ability to share your survey on social and get real-time responses. If you’re looking to customize the surveys you send to match your camp’s branding, you will have to upgrade.
Questions to Ask
Once you have your survey format chosen, you can then create questions based on your audience. We prepared a few questions to ask for parents/participants, as well as staff. While you can create multiple choice answers, you might also want to include the option for those taking the survey to write in their own answers and explanations.
Participants/Parents
- What is one area we can improve?
- What are the top areas in need of improvement?
- What are our strengths?
- How can we better serve your family?
- Do you feel that our camp is a safe space for your child? If not, why?
- What growth did you observe in your child during camp?
- Rate the grounds and facilities.
- What two to three words (or more) can summarize your child’s experience?
- Did you or your child feel that the staff cared about their experience?
Staff
- What can we improve upon to make your experience as an employee better?
- Do you feel that our camp is a safe space for you?
- If you could change anything about working for our camp, what would it be?
- Do you feel you’re able to be open and honest with us?
- Do you feel listened to and heard?
How to Get Recipients to Take Surveys
Now that you have your survey ready to go, how do you go about getting responses? You’ve sent the surveys via email, texted links, talked about them to parents and staff in-person and included QR codes on flyers but have yet to get the number of responses that you were hoping for. So what is a camp director to do? Offer incentives like discounts to parents and perks like the ability to win a free day of PTO for staff. It’ is all up to you and your budget.
ACTIVEWorks Camp & Class Manager Helps Run Your Camp With Ease
At ACTIVE, we help camps across the country stay top of mind among their audience, and grow year after year with seamless, easy-to-use camp management software. Once we learn a bit more about your camp, we can connect you with a software specialist to find the perfect technology for your unique needs. Whether you need day camp registration software to cut down on processing time or a more focused solution to generate revenue, our experts are here for you.
Get started today to take your camp to the next level—this year and beyond!
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