User Satisfaction Surveys in Eurostat and in the European Statistical System

2008 Conference on Quality in Official Statistics Rome, 8-11 July 2008 Pierre Ecochard, Martina Hahn, Claudia Junker [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Background

 The LEG on quality and the CoP  32 surveys in the framework of the ESS Peer Review exercise  Commitment to a user orientation of European official statistics

Proposed methodology

 Basis: IMF’s Data Review of Standards and Codes  Common questionnaire – Uses of official statistics – Assessment of the quality of the statistics  Target population: known users High flexibility

Outcome of the surveys: stylized facts

   17 NSIs used the proposed questionnaire 3 outsourced the survey Sample size varies from 61 to 8530 Low comparability    Users think statistics are presented in an easy-to-understand way It is easy for them to access the data on the website Users of NSIs tend to think that the statistics are of a similar quality to other European countries – With notable exceptions

How to improve the methodology: Questionnaire design

 Question should: – be clear and unambiguous; – not make unreasonable assumptions about the respondent  Improvement directions – More involvement of data collection experts – More customized questionnaires

How to improve the methodology: Data collection methodology

 Improving the representativity of the sample – Known users or website/library users?

 Increasing response rate – by proposing non-financial incentives – by improving questionnaires and their dissemination

How to improve the methodology: Harmonization of user satisfaction surveys

 Harmonize – questionnaires – data collection methodologies  Benefits: – Obtain more comparable results – Share good practices and gain efficiency

Eurostat user satisfaction survey

 Content of the questionnaire – Based on proposed version but adapted to Eurostat – Three blocks of questions  Implementation mode – Timing – Internet based survey for general users – E-mail based for known users – Comment boxes  Dissemination – Different results for two groups of users – Report placed on web-site – Improvement actions to follow-up

Eurostat user satisfaction survey

 Interesting results – Most used: NA, employment statistics, demography statistics – Methodology and metadata in high demand for better understanding – Timeliness / Completeness assessments differ – General quality assessment – Main value added of Eurostat’s data – Main concerns  Ways to improve Eurostat user survey – More questions on quality dimensions – More / different questions on user support – More answering options for some questions – Discuss the target of the survey – Timing of and resources for the survey