User satisfaction

Measuring user satisfaction within the NHS

Satisfaction with knowledge and library services (KLS) usually relates to the quality of service provision.

Satisfaction measurements can help assess whether the library meets required service standards, or whether the KLS provision meets the expectations that users have for the library.

However, satisfaction cannot tell you whether your services make a difference or how the information or services you have provided are used. For this you need to measure impact.   

There are a range of ideas below from simple measures of satisfaction to more complex questionnaires or approaches.    

Simple questions could be added to a wider impact survey, such as  

• “Were you satisfied with the service you received?”  

• “Was the information relevant to your needs?”  

• “Was the information provided in a timely manner?”  

Measuring satisfaction in the NHS  

The NHS emphasis is on measuring patient satisfaction.  National Programmes collect data to measure the quality of the patient experience with NHS services with the Friends and Family Test widely used as a simple measure to determine whether patients have been satisfied with their inpatient care.    

Answers are ranked from “extremely likely” to “extremely unlikely” and participants have an opportunity to explain rankings by adding comments.   

The question could be easily adapted for use by health libraries.  It would provide simple data in line with that collected across the organisation.  

For example , “How likely are you to recommend our knowledge and library service to colleagues if they needed similar information or resources?”  

This feedback could be used to improve the quality of knowledge and library services  to users. 

User Satisfaction Tools

No service is perfect.  To improve, users need to tell us about any “niggles” and annoying experiences so that these can be tackled.

See the questionnaire and guidance in the documents section.

The survey uses a similar methodology to the Generic Impact Survey.  Encourage use of the survey for key instances of use of the Library and Knowledge Service, for example literature searches.  This encourages clarity and focus.

Hively software (other software providing similar functionality is available) provides instant feedback from users through an addition to the e-mail footer.  Learning from this work is also provided.

User Satisfaction Group
Karen Wight, Tracy Owen, Lucy Gilham, Paula Elliott, Gil Earl, Dominic Gilroy, Clare Edwards

Measuring satisfaction in academic institutions and academic libraries  

Click the plus symbols to find out more about these user satistfaction tools.