The Use of Customer Satisfaction Surveys in Public Agencies

The Capstone team conducted an exploratory project on survey methods, design, and administration for New York City’s Depart-ment of Youth and Community Development (DYCD). Together with DYCD, the team designed a customer satisfaction survey to be sent to community-based organizations under contract with the agency. The objective of the survey is to develop an effective feedback system so the agency can better meet the needs of its contractors. For this project, the Capstone team researched previous DYCD customer satisfaction initiatives and various survey methodologies, conducted an external review to determine how other human service agencies used customer satisfaction surveys, and explored the options of using web-based applications to administer the survey.