Workshop Feedback Forms!! We’ve all been there, you’ve taken the day out to attend some valuable new learning. The trainer / facilitator has spent a lot of time and effort making sure they provide you with good content and exercises to improve your particular skill set.
And then it happens………
Right at the end of the day, when your brain is full and your mind is thinking about what you need to pick up on the way home for tea, an A4 sheet of paper gets handed out to all the delegates.
Before you go……(*mental groan*)
“Can you just give me your thoughts about today using this Workshop Feedback Form”.
Capturing the feedback is vital for the facilitator (it’s a key tool to both improve their future courses, but also statistical marketing content and testimonials to attract new business and course bookings) but using this style of capture has a number of down sides:
- You’ve had a great day, but the last feeling generated is a pain point
- Delegates feel awkward writing comments in front of the facilitator (will they recognise my pen/handwriting? How can I hand it in with a few others so it’s not obvious which was mine?)
- Many personality types prefer to think/digest a little longer before giving their assessment
- Feedback given is rushed and not properly thought through
- It’s a time consuming admin task to collate and type up the answers from multiple feedback forms and report this back to the end client.
Many facilitators fail to do the last point, often simply scanning through for any problem areas, and thus failing to capture and utilise the valuable content that will attract them more business!
So how can Workshop Feedback Forms be smarter?
I recommend the following approach, which I use with my clients who are training providers:
- Electronic feedback form (mostly mandatory multiple choice answers and 1, maybe 2 free text comment fields)
- Distributed via email 30 minutes before the end of the workshop (facilitators advise of this at the end of the session)
- A deadline date given to submit their responses
- 2 follow up reminders (with link button) sent to those who haven’t completed before the deadline.
- Upon close of the workshop feedback, consolidated reports are available as an easy download in a variety of formats, and a summary sent back to the end clients (to show how fabulous their employees thought the course was!)
The benefits of this approach?
- Ease of completion for delegates – via PC / phone / tablet at a time convenient to them
- Anonymity (which generates honesty – fake feedback is of no use to anyone!)
- Quick – up to 60 seconds to complete (unless they decide to write an essay!)
- Zero admin for the facilitator
- Suits all personality types (quick responders and those that like to digest)
- Multiple course feedback can quickly and easily be combined and used for proposals / marketing content / client reports.
- Within a week of the event the end client has received quality data that demonstrates the value the trainer has provided (crucial for repeat bookings!)
- Delegates leave on a high (not a groan!)
- Environmentally friendly!
Worried about the response rate when delegates have left the room? I see a 70% – 100% response rate using this approach with my clients.
Trainers – save yourself the time and hassle – bin those forms
Delegates – advise your trainer there is a better way
Banish those Workshop Feedback Forms!!!
If you’re a trainer who’d like to smarten up their workshop/training feedback approach, get in touch via Teresa@ClarityCX.co.uk
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