Archives: Distance Enquiry Services Survey

The survey seeks feedback specifically from archive customers who use letters, emails or other electronic methods to make enquiries.

Distance access 

The services offered by UK archives are widely respected. As a result they are often remotely accessed by customers from across the UK and the rest of the world. To help archives better understand their distance users’ needs, CIPFA provides a detailed and accurate survey.  

As a result of a consultation exercise with our clients, we have further improved the service by moving the survey to an online platform and changing the methodology to reduce the burden on archive staff. 

The survey looks at the services provided from the customer’s point of view, so that archive services can adapt and improve. On a national level, the survey presents an opportunity to benchmark against other archives and understand your distance customer profiles. 

It demonstrates to your customers, partners and funders that you are committed to meeting service needs as part of a continuous improvement process. 

It is also a great way of understanding who is making use of archive services and obtaining the demographic profiles of your customers. 

Capture the customer journey

By understanding:

  • their views on distance enquiry services
  • the purpose of their enquiry
  • why they chose to contact the archive remotely
  • comments about how the service could be improved
  • demographic information, including where users are from. 

Our service

We provide you with a questionnaire that is updated to reflect the changing needs of the sector and an online service to collect and return customer feedback. We analyse your returns and provide you with a comprehensive, comparative report. 

Benefits 

Benefit from identifying: 

  • how to improve online services and communication
  • whether distance users’ demands are being met
  • why users choose not to visit the archive
  • the location of distance users
  • how your customers’ responses compare to those of other archives. 

Contact us 

For more information, please contact the Research team via E: research@cipfa.org or download the brochure.


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