DVC Resort Survey

[iankh]

I'm sort of a nut for surveys. My background is in marketing and research, so you would think that I get enough of that at work, but no...

I just took the leap on a DVC contract. I know what I think of the various resorts, but got to wondering what other people think. I mean, how would the resorts sliced by varous categories stack up in peoples' minds?

So I created this survey. Please click here to take the survey or just go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=88328850740

I will keep the survey open until Saturday, Feb 19 (two weeks), and then analyze and post the results. It should be interesting.

If you have any questions, drop me a PM.

-- Ian

 

[Doug7856]

I posted my opinion!

 

[OneMoreTry]

I took the survey.

Here are some suggestions for your next:

Allow giving the same rating to more than one resort. Some of them are equal: like Epcot access from Boardwalk and Beach Club.

Include a Don't Know response.

(I hope some trolls don't stuff the ballots.)


Post the results. I hope you'll stick around and add some objectivity to the all the opinions flying around here.

 

[iankh]

Thanks for the input. I decided to go for the good 'ole "forced ranking" this time around.

Put on your thinking caps for other surveys. I took a quick peek at the results so far, and this should be interesting ....

 

[Muushka]

Done! Fun!

 

[Caskbill]

Nice poll:

There are a couple of technical errors, eg one question had the choices as 1 2 3 3 5, and I think the opening page had two choices, one saying "I DVC points" which i took to mean "I own DVC points".

It would be nice to be able to omit a category. EG my 'children' are ages 27 & 30 respectively. I really had no opinion on the 'childcare' question but was forced to give one anyway.

Also regards to above, when I tried to not answer the question I got the message one question wasn't complete and it would put an asterisk next to the question that needed to be completed. It put an asterisk next to EVERY question.

We personally have stayed numerous times at each resort and so feel my judgments are based on actual observations. However those members who have never stayed at some of the resorts will have difficulty judging some of the categories and may skew the data based on opinions and heresay rather than direct observations.

Nice job overall. The results will be interesting.

FWIW, Years ago I was involved several times in developing customer satisfaction surveys and learned very quickly that how you worded the questions would make a very big difference in the results. It could be difficult not to bias the survey. I think you worded everything very well. Congrats. Of course, you do realize that no matter how hard we try, home resort preferences are going to creep in, but I think that's legit because that's why we prefer our home resort.

 

[Alexander]

We recently purchased our contract at SSR. That is the one resort I have not stayed in. So for me, the home resort preference wasn't a factor.

I found some of the questions very hard to answer like Caskbill, the child care one. I actually was not even aware that all of those resorts offered child care centers. We always keep our son with us.

The proximity questions too.....BWV and BCV to Epcot and MGM. We also always use our own transportation be it car or foot, so it was difficult for us to answer some of those questions.

I look forward to the results. Although I'm satisfied with the answers I gave due to the forced ranking system, and not being able to opt out of questions I couldn't honestly answer. Do you think results will be skewed because of this?

 

[iankh]

Great feedback. I did notice the rating error myself, the 1 2 3 3 5 but can't change it at this point without clearing out all the responses (so much for my proofreading).

I can change the child question to not be required, though I wonder if that should be done, as the survey has already been responded to.

I could in the final results break out the child question from the overall ranking if that is beneficial.

If there are any ideas about future surveys, please let me know, and if anyone would like could proofread and/or test prior to launch let me know. That would be very helpful.

I love surveys - so as I said, your ideas are most welcome.

I peeked at the results so far and they do indeed look very interesting.

 

[MagikMom]

The survey was good however I think there should be an "I don't Know" option. I have only stayed in 3 out of the 5 listed so it was hard for me to rate things related to the other 2. Also the survey wouldn't let me continue until I rated them so I may have rated the one's I haven't stayed in unfairly.



Oct. 2004 SSR
Aug. 2003 BWV
Oct. 2002 All Star Sports/BCV
March 2001 All Star Sports

 

[athenna]

I tried to take the survey but checked something off accidentally on the 1st question, and it threw me out, and won't let me take it. That was yesterday, when i try to take it now, it doesn't even let me in.

 

[Alexander]

I tried to take the survey but checked something off accidentally on the 1st question, and it threw me out, and won't let me take it. That was yesterday, when i try to take it now, it doesn't even let me in.

athenna,
Clear your cookies and it'll let you back in.

 

[athenna]

After checking out some of the questions, I decided not to take it anyway, because, being a new DVC member (haven't made my first DVC trip yet) I haven't stayed at any of them yet. I have visited and spent some time at them (except my home, strangely enough, bought SSR, sight unseen, unless driving by counts). So I'm not really sure if my answers would help.
Thanks, though, it is a good idea.

 

[iankh]

FWIW, Years ago I was involved several times in developing customer satisfaction surveys and learned very quickly that how you worded the questions would make a very big difference in the results. It could be difficult not to bias the survey. I think you worded everything very well. Congrats. Of course, you do realize that no matter how hard we try, home resort preferences are going to creep in, but I think that's legit because that's why we prefer our home resort.

Caskbill,

Thanks for the feedback. I tried to be very neutral in my questions, and that is why I opted for "forced ranking." I thought that it might "smooth out" some of the bias.

Another way to smooth out the biase to to ask the same sort of question several times in from different angles in the survey, but I wanted to keep it fairly short. I think this survey weighs in at about 15 questions.

There is also some logic in the survey, so that if a person responds that they do not own, nor have stayed in a DVC resort, they are taken to a "sorry" screen and then the "thank you" screen.

This is a nice tool, and I use it for a volunteer organization on whose board I serve as the VP of information.

Given my background, I like surveys because the data provides another dimension above and beyond annecdotal information.

It is ironic that there are bugs in my survey. I also have a fair bit of experience and have set-up and run computer application and web test groups. Just goes to prove what I always said, "You should never rely solely on the developer to do the testing!"

I should have taken a page from my own book!

 

[kathleena]

I took the survey.

Here are some suggestions for your next:

Allow giving the same rating to more than one resort. Some of them are equal: like Epcot access from Boardwalk and Beach Club.

Include a Don't Know response.

QUOTE]

Having just taken it, I would agree with these suggestions.

 

[TCPluto]

I don' think you can get an accurate reflection by limiting the number of same answers per resort. For instance the transportation to Magic Kingdom from BCV and BWV is virtually the same, but you are not allowed to rank them the same. This will cause the transportation data to be skewed, in a positive or negative way, for either one or both of the resorts.

I didn't go farther in the survey, didn't want to malign any of the resorts unfairly.

 

[iankh]

Forced rankings are done all the time in survey. I'm not sure if a forced ranking is maligning a resort or another. It drives the individual to prioritize. Given 6 resorts, it pushes the rater to make a decision as to what they think, push come to shove. We do this all the time when we buy something, we may like two things, but only being able to buy one, we choose, therein using some sort of rating.

On another note, I know that the 5=best 1=ok is a bit counter-intuitive. I think so too, because in my mind, I think of what's my number 1 choice. But, when you stop and think that when we rate things like hotels or on Amazon, 5 stars is better than 1. Funny how that is, isn't it?

 

[Coach Rick]

I enjoyed the survey. Left my comments too, but they just echo many that have posted here. Thanks for putting it up though.

 

[HookdonWDW]

The survey was fun, but I agree with not liking the forced rating. For example - only VWL and BCVs (BWV right now) have a childcare facility on site. Therefore, the question is already slanted towards those resorts. I'd like to see a question asking how much people care about on site childcare to balance this out. JMO - fun survey!

 

[dougmatt]

Took the survey. Don't have a problem with forced rating as that's "how it's done"... That said, while some of the questions would have been N/A it would have been nice to see the off prop's on it as well.

D

 

[dianeschlicht]

Nice poll:

There are a couple of technical errors, eg one question had the choices as 1 2 3 3 5, and I think the opening page had two choices, one saying "I DVC points" which i took to mean "I own DVC points".

It would be nice to be able to omit a category. EG my 'children' are ages 27 & 30 respectively. I really had no opinion on the 'childcare' question but was forced to give one anyway.

Also regards to above, when I tried to not answer the question I got the message one question wasn't complete and it would put an asterisk next to the question that needed to be completed. It put an asterisk next to EVERY question.

We personally have stayed numerous times at each resort and so feel my judgments are based on actual observations. However those members who have never stayed at some of the resorts will have difficulty judging some of the categories and may skew the data based on opinions and heresay rather than direct observations.

Nice job overall. The results will be interesting.

FWIW, Years ago I was involved several times in developing customer satisfaction surveys and learned very quickly that how you worded the questions would make a very big difference in the results. It could be difficult not to bias the survey. I think you worded everything very well. Congrats. Of course, you do realize that no matter how hard we try, home resort preferences are going to creep in, but I think that's legit because that's why we prefer our home resort.

ITA on all points!