Message-ID: <9605278358.AA835886741@lancelot.rtptok.epa.gov> Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 07:33:30 EST From: mailto:GOOZNER.ALAN@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV> Subject: Re[2]: Nonprofit Entrepreneurship Research To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
I believe USAID has projects to assist PVO's and NGOs to
give them the training and tools to be more effective in
their missions. One interesting program is a "customer
survey" to see how well USAID is doing in providing these
services to these organizations.
I was interested in putting together a proposal to turn this
evaluation tool into an exercise for the local organizations
to use themselves. The purpose is to be able to identify
your customers, determine the services and products that
they need and desire, and to assess the level of service
provision that is now present.
I have been successful at the USEPA to design and implement
a customer survey that not only evaluates program components
but also prioritizes the components as to their importance
to the customer. In this way a statistical technique can
be employed that prioritizes the areas for improvement by
analysis of the deviation from the mean of individual
item rating scores. This can be done with x,y, plots or
horizontal bars to see the customer service performance
"gaps" - difference between perceived performance and
importance.
The effort is not to go in your organization, let you know
how bad you are doing and then leave; but to offer training
and to develop measurement instruments in the form of
focus group discussion guides, questionnaires for customer
surveys etc and to offer training on how to administer a
customer service monitoring program. This would give
managers of such organizations a valuable tool to fine tune
their program and be more effective with the resources they
now have. Donors when observant of this efficient
management would be more willing to offer additional
assistance.
I have not been able to find an audience over at USAID to
make such a proposal for a program to offer this type of
training and assistance to NGOs and PVOs.