CSS has earned a reputation for being highly efficient and accurate. We survey over 2.5 million sample members annually for a range of organizations, and we have a proven ability to manage multi-mode surveys to achieve high overall response rates across all policy-relevant domains within a tightly scheduled field period. We are industry-leading experts in:
We help our clients target the questions they need answered, and we work with them to identify the best ways to get valid, reliable results given data and budgetary constraints.
We field surveys using mail, telephone, email, and handouts - often in combination with one another. We help sponsoring organizations make the best choice for each project based on:
We work with clients to design questionnaires that meet their needs. In the design process, we consider how the results will be reported, the ease of use for respondents, the ability to compare to historical results and external benchmarks, potential response biases, and the overall look of the instrument for print and Internet surveys.
Over the years, we've conducted formal tests on the impact of various design options on response rates, ratings, and costs. We'd be happy to discuss how these design choices can impact your survey results.
CSS has extensive experience in inspecting sample frames to identify problems, such as bad contact information, sample frame members who don't meet the eligible sampling criteria, and missing subsets of eligible sample members, that could cause project delays, drive up costs, and/or render survey results less valuable.
We work with survey sponsors to design sampling plans that take into account many factors including the relevance of the survey topic to the potential respondent, the desired sample sizes of the sub-units and sample availability, the number of sample members at each household, etc.
We process sample data through United States Postal Service National Change of Address processes and telephone look-up services to ensure that we have the most up to date contact information for each sample member.
Our research staff is closely involved with the data collection phase of every project to ensure that data collection goes smoothly. We develop clear fielding plans and adhere to the schedule. We review results throughout the fielding process to identify any issues early, and we provide regular updates on response rates, fielding progress, and any potential issues as data collection progresses.
CSS routinely handles large, complex data files from multiple data sources, and we can accept and provide data in a variety of file formats using a variety of secure transmission methods. We have extensive experience submitting data to NCQA, state and federal government agencies, data repositories, and other entities in many different formats.
We've implemented numerous systems and checks to ensure data quality, integrity, and security. We carefully document and implement data cleaning rules and ensure data consistency across the various modes used for data collection.
All of our work is governed by strict security rules. For more information on our data security policies, please see here.
We design our reports to be informative, attractive, user-friendly, and action oriented. We begin the report design process early so results can be provided quickly. Through close collaboration with the organizations we work with, we design custom reports that can be used by decision makers in different functional areas of their organizations, including compliance, quality improvement, customer outreach, competitive intelligence, and senior management.
In the past, these reports have included such elements as:
No matter the size or complexity, CSS will handle your project accurately and work with you to ensure that your survey is conducted efficiently while adhering to external requirements and industry standards. We look forward to discussing how we can help meet your needs. Contact us for more details.
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