Listening and responding to residents through surveys

London Borough of Ealing offers services

for the 342,000 residents of London’s third

largest borough. More than 3,500 of the

council’s employees manage services ranging

from housing and schools to parking and

recycling. SurveyMonkey Enterprise helps

Ealing employees stay in touch regularly

with residents and make sure their feedback

affects decisions about borough services.

At a Glance

Situation

• Surveying residents via paper

surveys or door-to-door visits

is slow and costly

• Local government departments want

to manage their own surveys, yet

need a central way to share results

Survey Results

• By eliminating paper surveys,

costs drop by as much as £5,000

pounds per mailing

• Residents’ panel gains higher

engagement with fewer members,

with more frequent surveys

Smarter Decisions

• Residents provide valuable

feedback for streamlining payments

and processes for the housing

benefit system

• Consultations on new parking

regulations are now managed

through surveys, fast-tracking

implementation of parking zones

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Community Feedback Case Study

“We have a duty to

consult with Ealing

residents when

making decisions,

big or small, that

affect them—but surveying a diverse

population on a wide range of issues

is challenging for our lean staff to

manage. SurveyMonkey Enterprise

makes it easy for every department to

run its own surveys, collect feedback,

and act on what they learn.”

– Rajiv Ahlawat, Research and Consultation Manager, London Borough of Ealing

What decisions did you make using survey feedback?

About twice a month, the council

reviews the need for new or existing

Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs),

which limit how and when people

can park in an area. We use

SurveyMonkey to get feedback

from local residents. The decision

to institute a CPZ is almost entirely

based on the results of these

surveys—if a majority of residents

do not want it in their area, the

proposals are not taken forward.

– Rajiv Ahlawat, Research and Consultation Manager, London Borough of Ealing

Finding out how more than 340,000

borough residents feel about everything

from council housing to parking zones is a

big undertaking, especially if you’re going

door to door or mailing thousands of paper

surveys. SurveyMonkey Enterprise eliminates

resource-intensive personal visits as well

mailing/inputting expenses for Ealing, while

also boosting engagement from community

members.

“The results from our surveys inform decisions

the council makes, so it’s important that we

get accurate feedback from our community,”

explains Rajiv Ahlawat, Research and

Consultation Manager for Ealing. “But every

department—such as housing, transport, and

children’s services—needs to manage its own

surveys in a way that saves time and money,

and draws as many responses as possible.

We needed to find a user-friendly way to do

online surveys.”

SurveyMonkey Enterprise gives Ahlawat

and his colleagues the mix of easy survey

administration and fast feedback that they

need. “Last year, there was a big change

in how social benefits were paid out for

housing allowances—the payments from

the central government were given to local

governments to administer,” Ahlawat says.

“The changes were complex, and we had

to introduce residents to the new scheme.

By using surveys, we discovered which

elements of the policy residents like or didn’t

like, and we aligned the council tax support

system with their needs.”

SurveyMonkey Enterprise also helps

transform how Ealing council regularly

surveys a residents’ panel, which fields both

general queries, such as opinions on quality

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of borough services, to specific questions,

like what to name a resident’s feedback

feature on the Ealing website.

“We initially had 3,000 residents sign up

for the panel, but since we didn’t have ways

to reach them online, we asked questions

using newsletters and paper surveys,”

Ahlawat says. “This was costly, and the

response rate wasn’t very high. Today, our

panel consists of 800 people, but they’re

much more engaged, so we can survey

them more frequently.”

Learn more about how SurveyMonkey

Enterprise can help your entire team make

smarter decisions.

Visit surveymonkey.com/enterprise today.