Business Perceptions Survey: Standard Questions and Methodology

/ Business Perceptions Survey
Standard Questions & Methodology /
This briefing is aimed at helping new and existing Better Business for All (BBFA) partnerships undertake local business perception surveys. It includes a set of sample questions along with a practical tips and things to consider when running a survey. It is based on the experience of surveys delivered by other partnerships and seeks to share and build on good practice. The briefing also provides top tips for analysing surveys.
Why should we conduct a survey?
There may be tens of thousands of businesses in your area. They will come from different sectors, range from new start-ups to well established businesses, and vary in size from sole traders to large multi-national companies. Their experience of complying with regulation will be quite different, and capturing the views and experience of this diverse range of businesses can be a challenge – this is where surveys come in useful.
A survey can provide:
  • Robust evidence on what local businesses want and need to inform your BBfA action plan and offer to business.
  • Credible and compelling data to support any engagement with Councillors, Chief Executives and the Local Enterprise Partnership.
  • Information specific to your area – businesses will want to know you’ve made the effort to do this and not simply extrapolated from national or regional data.
  • Intelligence on areas of good practice that can be celebrated as well as aspects that may warrant further scrutiny by the partnership.
  • An opportunity to get in touch with your businesses to not only ask about their views, but also to tell them about the BBfA partnership and its vision.
  • A cohort of businesses that want to engage in the programme and are willing to be consulted in the future.
  • An opportunity to better understand the real business perception of local regulatory services – local authority led surveys tend to report high satisfaction rates but these are not reflected in national surveys with businesses reporting a fear factor associated with answering satisfaction surveys.

What do we want from our survey?

Planning your survey is critical – there’s no substitute for putting in some time as a partnership in thinking about what you hope to get from your survey before starting on the question writing phase, and then refining these. In most cases, you will want feedback on performance and ways to improve your service, but you should frame questions so that they are relevant to the aims of your partnership and will allow you to take action. Think about whether the responses you receive will add value and what they would prompt your partnership to do in response. Also consider if your partnership has a particular focus, for example on service commercialisation or information provision, and tailor your survey questions to make sure your survey provides the detail you want on these aspects.

What questions should we ask?

Annex A includes a bank of questions grouped under different category headings. These provide a framework for a business survey and you can choose from these to build your survey – up to 10 questions is ideal. The categories are:

  • Business demographics – you may want some insight into who your businesses are so you can develop your relationship with them, identify and target/prioritise any specific sectors, and segment your approach to business engagement in any communications strategy. As you’ll be working alongside your Economic Development and Growth Hub colleagues these questions will also be of interest to them.
  • Engaging with businesses – you will want to know how your interactions with businesses are perceived, whether they feel comfortable approaching you for advice, consulted and ‘heard’, and how you might improve the way you communicate and deliver your service.
  • Understanding businesses – you may want to know if businesses feel your officers have the right knowledge and skills to support them, awareness and understanding of the pressures facing businesses, and an appreciation of how regulation and the way it is delivered can impact on businesses.
  • Supporting economic growth – all partnerships will have local growth as a key priority and will want to develop their reputation with businesses as part of the wider support package.
  • Supporting compliance – you will want to know that the information, guidance and advice you provide to help businesses meet their responsibilities to comply are suitable and effective, in other words, what business wants and needs. You will also want to know how businesses would like to receive this information.
  • Focus on advice – whilst you will want to know that businesses can easily access the advice they need to support compliance (this is covered under the section on business engagement above), you may also want to know how much they value the advice provided and to gauge their awareness/understanding of and appetite for Primary Authority.

How can we maximise the number of responses we get?

Businesses are generally inundated with surveys and response rates to electronic surveys can be poor, typically around 10%, but there are ways to boost numbers participating:

  • The fewer questions you ask, the higher participation is likely to be – around 10 questions are considered ideal taking on average 5 minutes or less to answer. Many more than this may cause businesses to abandon the survey part way through with no information collected.
  • Although this may primarily be an online survey, accessibility is important. Make sure the online survey version can be answered on any device – tablets and smart ‘phones included. Making the survey available through a URL will allow it to easily be included in partner e-bulletins and newsletters, signature lines and to be relayed on by business organisations etc. to their members. Consider making paper based versions available – these could be delivered when making business visits or sent out with other routine communications.
  • Trail blaze the survey in any partner communications with businesses. Officers visiting premises can mention the survey. That way they’ll know it’s coming, understand more about its purpose and be more likely to respond.
  • Create a subject line that will entice businesses – e.g. ‘Help shape the way we regulate you- take our 5 minute survey’
  • Write an effective invitation – this needs to start on an appreciative note, explain who and what the survey is for, tell businesses how long it will take to complete (and this should be 5 minutes or less), when it needs to be completed by and say what you plan to do with the results. An example covering email is included in Annex B.
  • Make sure respondents know their responses will be treated as confidential – reassuring businesses that they will be reported anonymously will allow them to put their privacy concerns at ease and will encourage them to answer all questions truthfully.

How should we deliver the survey?

Using your Growth Hub as a ‘route to market’ is key here. They will usually have expertise in designing and launching surveys and may have access to online survey tools such asSurvey Monkeywhich can also be used to analyse information. They will have a ready-made ‘audience’ of businesses registered on the Hub. Additionally, lists of businesses held by regulatory services can be used, along with distribution through networks/newsletters/ebulletins sent out through the Local Enterprise Partnership, other business representative organisations such as the Chambers of Commerce and Federation of Small Business, and Economic Development departments.

Annex A: Business Survey Question Bank

Business demographics

  1. Which of the following local authorities is your business based in and which does it trade in? (tick all that apply)

Based in / Trades in
Local Authority A
Local Authority B
Local Authority C
Local Authority D
  1. How many employees do you have?[1]
  • None- I’m a sole trader
  • 1-9 (Micro)
  • 10-49 (Small)
  • 50-249 (Medium)
  • 250+ (Large)
  1. Which of the following sectors does your business operate in? (choose one)[2]
  • Engineering and manufacturing
  • Construction
  • Creative and digital industries
  • Energy and the environment
  • Financial and professional services
  • Food and hospitality
  • Food and drink manufacturing
  • Farming
  • Life sciences
  • Healthcare
  • Information, communication and technology
  • Retail
  • Leisure and tourism
  • Transport
  • Other- please state
  1. Which of the following best describes the stage your business is at?
  • Start-up –ready to or recently (within the last year) started trading
  • Growing –selling more, more customers, taking on staff
  • Surviving –turning over a profit
  • Established –thriving business with a place in the market and loyal customers
  • Expanding –into new markets, new products, new locations
  1. Which areas of regulation are most relevant to your business (tick all that apply)
  • Food hygiene
  • Trading standards
  • Licensing
  • Fire safety
  • Workplace health & safety
  • Pollution control / air quality
  • Planning
  • Building control

Engaging with businesses

  1. How much do you agree with the following statements about your relationship with your local regulators (environmental health, trading standards, licensing, fire service officers etc.)?

Strongly agree / Agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Disagree / Strongly disagree
I know how to get in touch with them for advice on how to comply
They encourage me to seek their advice
It is easy to get their advice on how to comply
I feel I can approach them without fear
I have a good relationship with regulatory officers
I trust my local regulators
I believe they treat me fairly and consistently
I know how to complain if I’m not satisfied with the service or a decision
They actively seek my views and feedback
I feel my views are ‘heard’ and acted upon
  1. How could local regulators improve the way they work with businesses? (tick all that apply)
  • By having a single point of contact for compliance matters
  • By organising our services to reduce overlaps & duplication where we can
  • By offering advice on how to comply as part of a wider business support package
  • By offering advice, support or training tailored to your business needs on a cost recovery basis
  • By taking part in business-led meetings and networking events
  • Other (please specify)

Understanding businesses

  1. Do you think your local regulators have a good understanding of the following?

Yes / No
All the other issues that businesses have to deal with
Specialist knowledge about your business sector
How to adapt their approach e.g. to different sizes and types of business
How long it takes to find information, advice and guidance on how to comply
The impact of enforcement on business
The impact of new or changed regulations and policies on business
The burden of preparing for and dealing with inspections
How to engage constructively with business
  1. How could local regulators improve their understanding of the pressures faced by business? (free text answer)

Supporting economic growth

  1. How much do you agree with the following statements about the contribution of local regulators to business success?

Strongly agree / Agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Disagree / Strongly disagree
They are part of the local business support package
They have a role to play in supporting economic growth
They save me time and money by helping me comply with the law
They help me identify and reduce risk
Their advice on how to comply helps my business reputation
They give me the confidence to plan for future growth and investment
They ensure a level playing field for business

Supporting compliance

  1. Where do you currently go for advice on how to comply? (tick all that apply)
  • Council or fire service officer
  • Council or fire service website
  • Growth Hub
  • National regulator or Government department websites (e.g. HSE, Food Standards Agency,.GOV.UK)
  • Trade associations / Federation of Small Businesses / Chamber of Commerce
  • External consultants
  • Primary Authority officer
  • Other (please specify)
  1. How would you like to receive advice on how to comply from your local regulators? (tick all that apply)
  • Telephone
  • Email an officer
  • In person, e.g. tailored advice visit
  • Drop-in advice session
  • Website
  • Social media e.g. twitter
  • Step-by-step guide e.g. for start-ups
  • Newsletter
  • Training events
  • Webinar training
  • Notification service e.g. about new regulations or changes to existing ones
  • Live chat facility
  • Business Networking Events / Fairs
  • Other (please specify)

Focus on advice

  1. How much do you agree with the following statements about receiving advice on how to comply from your local regulators?

Strongly agree / Agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Disagree / Strongly disagree
I value the advice provided by my local regulators
The advice provided is timely
The advice provided reduces my exposure to enforcement action
I can access specialist advice if I need it
The advice provided is tailored to my business
There is a joined-up approach to the way the advice is provided
I’d like more advice than just that needed to comply with the law
  1. Primary Authority is a government backed scheme which can provide the business with robust and reliable advice on how to comply from a single local authority which other local authorities must take into account in their dealings with business.

Yes / No
Are you aware of the Primary Authority scheme?
Would you like to know more about Primary Authority?
Are you already involved in a Primary Authority partnership?
Would you like to participate in Primary Authority?

Information capture

  1. If you would like more details about this project, or would like to get involved in shaping how regulation is delivered locally please include your contact email address below.

Annex B: Exemplar Covering Email

We want to save you time and money, and make it quicker and easier for you to comply with the law. Local regulation takes many forms. It includes trading standards, environmental health, animal health, licensing, planning and fire and community safety and to help develop a new approach to regulation in the [local area] we need your help.

If you are involved in running a business in [insert area] we need your help to develop a new approach to how we regulate you.Reducing the impact of red tape on business is a priority for [insert individual LA names]. That’s why we've set up a new project between businesses, the [local area], Growth Hub, business representatives and local regulators called 'Better Business for All'.

Please take 5 minutes to give us your honest feedback about your experiences of regulation and how you think we can make the process quicker and easier for you.

Annex C: 10 Tips for Analysing and Reporting Your Survey

You’ve successfully delivered your survey, the responses are all in, so now it’s time to analyse the data. If you’re using an online survey tool this will do much of the work for you in terms of number crunching, calculating percentages and generating graphics and collating free text answers. It’s down to you however to interpret this information collected and develop insights from it. This doesn’t need to be as complicated as it sounds. Here are some pointers for how to go about analysing your survey:

  1. Analyse your survey as soon as possible – the longer the responses sit there, the more out of date the information they contain can become. It is therefore essential to begin work on your analysis as soon as possible.
  2. Use your in-house expertise – your Growth Hub partners will probably have run surveys and may be able to help in this respect, your Council may also have a research and intelligence team.
  3. Refresh you mind about the purpose of your survey – this will probably be to develop a baseline on which to build your BBfA programme of action but different partnerships will have different emphases. Keep the type of result that would be most valuable at the top of your mind- it will help you to find what you’re looking for more easily in the survey results.
  4. Start by looking at how well your survey performed – was your response rate good and if it was better or worse than expected can you explain why? Did businesses avoid answering any particular questions? This will help when explaining your results and also if you repeat or do another survey.
  5. Take an overview of the results – look at responses to the demographics questions- who answered, was there a particular business size or sector that stand out? Look through the rest of the survey making notes on what you see as the most interesting results- what are the expected, unexpected, pleasant or worrying findings?
  6. Break down the results – now look at responses to each question in detail and in relation to one another. For example, question 6 might suggest businesses are fearful of approaching local regulators, but is this the same across all businesses surveyed or is it limited to specific types or sizes of business? This will provide insight into where to target your effort.
  7. Look at the open text comments – these will tell you why some businesses answered as they did and will give you some ideas about what you could do differently. I businesses that feel strongly about a certain issue they are more likely to add comments. If there are lots of negative comments about the same thing then this gives a pretty clear message that this is something you need to tackle.
  8. Use your analysis to tell the story – once you’ve worked through the steps above you’ll start to see a story emerge. This takes your analysis beyond just describing it- it will help you identify the key themes for reporting and will link back to your original purpose for doing the survey.
  9. Presenting the data – the way you present your data should make the results clear and easy to see at a glance.Most online survey tools will allow you to summarise data as percentages and produce visuals such as bar and pie charts. Free text answers can be captured in ‘word clouds’. If using percentages, sample data is not accurate to this level and rounded figures have more of an impact (e.g. use 80% as opposed to 79.85%).
  1. Reporting the results – your final report should be clear, well organised and logical. It also need to be tailored to the audience so you may need separate versions for your partnership and for communication with the businesses. You don’t need to present your entire analysis – stick to the key themes and annex the rest. As a guide it is useful to include the following sections:
  2. Executive Summary
  3. Introduction/background
  4. Methods
  5. Findings
  6. Conclusions and recommendations
  7. Appendices (including all the tables of results for reference and a copy of the original questionnaire)

If you need further assistance with analysing your survey results, please discuss with the Strategic Regulation team in Regulatory Delivery.