Since the beginning of the Alumni Attitude Study, PEG has used a four part index to measure satisfaction.
The index consists of the following questions:
- How would you rate your decision to attend the XYZ University?
- How often do you promote the XYZ University to others?
- Which of the following best describes your experiences as an alumnus/a?
- Which of the following describes your overall current opinion of the XYZ University?
In designing the questions, we felt that it was important the questions create a broad look at the relationship between an alumnus/a and the university. Also, the answers to the questions should change over time based on how the individual perceives his or her relationship with their alma mater. For instance, an alumnus/a’s decision to attend their alma mater will change over time based on their current feelings about the institution.
These four questions cover the full gambit of the relationship from an alumnus/a’s decision to attend to the university to their experience as an alumnus and current opinion of the institution. We balance this with the measure of their willingness to promote the university to others. Willingness to promote to others may not be as strong a statement as willingness to attend an event or give to the university, but does require an alumnus/a to say they are willing to take a first, and important step toward engagement.
While each of these questions separately show loyalty to the university, when taken together they provide a more complete picture. Further, when we look at the relationship these questions have to a question about the alumnus/a’s intent to financially support the university, the satisfaction index built from all four of these questions has a much higher correlation than does any of the individual questions in our core questionnaire.
In measuring the strength of the index, we have seen that it consistently has an eight percent higher correlation to alumni intention to give than an average of the individual questions. We are now developing a percentile ranking score for this index and providing that to our clients on an individual respondent basis.