Service user survey

A service-user survey collects experiences and views from people who take part in an operation, service or intervention. The result is used to understand how service users experience, for example, how they are treated, safety, accessibility, information, involvement and quality, and gives the organisation a structured basis for follow-up, prioritisation and improvement. The purpose is to give service users the opportunity to influence and to give the organisation better knowledge of how the support or intervention works in practice. A good service-user survey should not only describe satisfaction – it should help the organisation understand what works, which needs are not being met and where improvements can make the greatest difference.

A service-user survey is usually aimed at people who use a publicly funded or needs-assessed service, while a customer survey more often concerns a commercial customer relationship. Service-user surveys often need to take greater account of accessibility, a dependent position, privacy, sensitive data and target groups who may need support to take part.

Both public and private organisations can run service-user surveys, for example social services, individual and family care, elderly care, home care, residential care homes, LSS and disability services, healthcare and treatment services, housing and support services, school and education, municipalities and regions, and private health and social care providers. The setup needs to be adapted to the target group, the organisation and how the result will be used.

Yes. Entergate's solution fits both public organisations and private providers in health, social care and social services. The survey can be adapted to the organisation's structure, target groups, brand, reporting needs and data-protection requirements.

Start by deciding which decisions the survey should support. After that, target group, question areas, collection method, timetable and how the result should be analysed and fed back are defined. A well-thought-out process usually includes defining purpose and desired result, deciding which service users should have the opportunity to take part, choosing relevant and understandable questions, planning distribution, information and any support, testing the survey before it is sent out, following participation during collection, analysing results and any non-response, feeding back the result, and deciding on actions and follow-up.

Yes. You can start from an existing question set, reuse questions from previous measurements or develop a new setup together with Entergate. If the results are to be compared over time, it is important not to change central questions or response scales without first assessing how the change affects comparability.

Yes. Own questions can be added to capture local needs, priorities or changes in the organisation. Each question should have a clear purpose, because too many questions can make the survey harder to answer and increase the risk of abandoned responses. Entergate can help you prioritise and quality-assure the questions.

Yes. Questions, language, instructions, response options and distribution can be adapted to different target groups' needs, for example different versions for children, guardians, older people or people with different communicative and cognitive conditions. The differences still need to be planned so that the results can still be analysed in a meaningful way.

It depends on which survey and which year it concerns. Participation in SKR's national service-user surveys follows SKR's current instructions, timetables and procured solutions. Entergate can help organisations with their own or local service-user surveys and with recurring follow-up between national measurement occasions. Contact us and we will go through what is possible in your case.

There is no optimal number that fits everyone. The survey should be as short as possible but extensive enough to answer its purpose. Prioritise questions that lead to knowledge the organisation can actually use – questions that do not affect decisions, follow-up or improvement should normally be removed.

The frequency should follow the organisation's needs and ability to act on the result. An annual or recurring larger measurement fits many organisations and can if needed be complemented with shorter follow-ups in particular areas. The important thing is that the organisation has time to analyse, feed back and carry out improvements between the measurements.

Clear information, high accessibility and a well-thought-out distribution plan are often more important than reminders in themselves. The conditions improve when the purpose is explained clearly, it is clear how the answers will be used, the questions are relevant and understandable, the survey is a reasonable length, service users can respond in a channel that works for them, staff and other people concerned know about the survey, reminders are used in a respectful way and service users are told what previous views have led to.

There is no general response rate that is always good. The assessment depends among other things on the size of the target group, how people have been contacted and who has not responded. A large number of responses is not automatically representative if certain groups are systematically missing, so the response rate should always be assessed together with non-response, target group and the purpose of the survey.

It depends on the size of the target group, the variation in the answers and how the result will be broken down. Small groups can give valuable qualitative insights but also mean greater uncertainty and privacy risk. If the result is to be compared between many units or target groups, more responses are normally required. Entergate can help you choose a reasonable analysis level.

It can be possible for a relative or guardian to answer on behalf of the service user, but it needs to be clear who has answered and from which perspective, because a representative cannot always convey the service user's own experience. If both service users and representatives take part, the answers should normally be kept apart in the analysis. Children and young people can also take part in a service-user survey, if it is designed according to their age, maturity and situation, with understandable questions and response options. The organisation then also needs to assess legal basis, information to guardians, voluntariness and how any sensitive or concerning answers should be handled.

Accessibility requires more than a technically working web survey – the questions need to be understandable, navigation consistent and the response options clear, and the survey should be tested with representatives of the target group when possible. Entergate's solutions are accessibility-adapted according to WCAG 2.1 AA, and Entergate can help you work with plain language, structure, question length and target-group adaptation. esMaker also has support for multilingual surveys in the same form, so the respondent can choose a relevant language without the organisation needing to build separate surveys. Translations should be quality-assured so that the meaning of the questions and the response scales remain comparable.

The survey can be distributed through, for example, personal or open links, email and SMS. Which channels work best depends on the target group, the need for reminders, the requirements for anonymity and how the sample is to be followed. If the target group also needs paper, interview or support when answering, this should be planned as part of the overall method.

Yes, but the support needs to be organised so that the service user's own answers are not influenced. The person helping should, for example, be able to explain how the form works or read out a question without interpreting, evaluating or suggesting answers. The service user should feel that participation is voluntary and that the answers do not affect the help or care the person receives.

The survey can be designed anonymously, but it depends on the chosen method and which data is collected. An anonymous survey means that the answers cannot be linked to an identifiable person. If the organisation uses personal links, contact details or very detailed background variables, the survey may instead be confidential, which means there can be a technical or administrative possibility to link the answer to a person, but that access is limited and the information is protected. Do not use the word anonymous if answers can actually be identified, directly or indirectly. This needs to be communicated correctly to respondents.

The commissioning organisation needs to establish purpose, legal basis, which data is necessary and how long it should be stored, and roles, responsibilities and instructions are documented in relevant agreements. The survey should follow the principles of data minimisation, purpose limitation, storage limitation and appropriate security. A service-user survey can contain sensitive personal data, for example about health and disability, but only when the organisation has a basis for the processing and the data is really needed for the purpose of the survey. Each background question and free-text field should therefore be reviewed carefully, and in many cases the purpose can be achieved without collecting identifying or sensitive data. Entergate can help you plan the technical setup, but the organisation's data-protection responsibility and any data protection officer should be involved when the survey processes data that needs protection.

All data storage in Entergate's platforms takes place in Sweden, which gives the organisation a clear basis for assessing data storage, security and personal-data processing. To reduce the risk of individuals being identified in the result, you should limit the number of background variables, avoid unnecessarily detailed breakdowns and set rules for when results from small groups may be shown. Free-text responses also need to be handled carefully because people can write names or other identifying details, and permissions and report views should be designed so that users only get access to the information they need.

Yes. Authorised users can follow collection and the response rate in esMaker, which makes it possible to spot low participation in time and assess whether information, distribution or reminders need to be adjusted.

Yes, if the questions, target groups and collection methods are sufficiently comparable. Differences should be interpreted together with response rate, target-group composition, non-response and local conditions, and a comparison should be used for learning and improvement, not as a simplified ranking without context. By keeping central questions, response scales and method choices, you can also follow development between different measurement occasions over time. If questions or target groups change, this should be documented so that the organisation understands which comparisons are still fair. Entergate can help import previous years' results so that you can compare against previous years.

The result should be fed back, discussed and linked to responsible activities. A good after-process can include quality assurance of the result, analysis of patterns, differences and non-response, dialogue with the operations concerned, prioritisation of improvement areas, decisions on responsibility, activities and timetable, feedback to service users and follow-up at the next measurement. Service users should be told what the survey showed and what the organisation plans to do – the feedback needs to be understandable, accessible and adapted to the target group, because it strengthens credibility and shows that participation mattered. The survey creates value only when the result is used.

The support is adapted to the organisation's needs and can include planning and method support, review of target groups and purpose, question design and quality assurance, adaptation of an existing survey set, technical setup, multilingual surveys, distribution and reminders, quality-assured reports and permission-controlled result views. The exact setup is decided together with you. Surveys and forms in esMaker can also be adapted to the organisation's graphic identity with, for example, logo, colours and typefaces, while the design needs to preserve good readability, clarity and accessibility.

The timetable depends on target group, scope, number of languages, question set, distribution channels and reporting needs. A simpler survey can be prepared relatively quickly, while a larger survey with several target groups, organisational levels and specially adapted reports requires more planning. The price depends on the scope of the survey and which support you need. After a first conversation, Entergate can propose a realistic timetable and a setup with a quote adapted to your organisation.

During the first conversation we go through your organisation, target group, current way of working and what you want to get out of the survey. After that we show relevant parts of the platform and propose a possible setup, next step and a reasonable scope. The conversation is free of charge and involves no obligation.