The following is an excerpt from a chapter in the manual "How to Measure Your Communication Programs" by Angela D. Sinickas copyright 2005 Angela D. Sinickas. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-9661757-1-9
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	Measuring Feedback Systems
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	Most of the effort spent on measuring communication effectiveness is focused on how well messages travel from management outward to employees and customers. But it is just as important to identify what ongoing feedback mechanisms a company has in place and how well they are working. Feedback systems fall into two general categories: official programs and unsolicited feedback. The official programs include such things as opinion surveys, suggestion systems, telephone hotlines, meetings between employees and CEOs, and exit interviews. The unofficial feedback includes telephone calls, letters and drop-in visits from either employees or customers. When analyzing the feedback mechanisms your company has in place, you can measure both: • The recurring content of what your audiences are saying through these mechanisms. • The actions management is taking on what it hears, which is the only way your audiences will feel they've been listened to. If your employees or customers don't feel that anyone running the company cares about what is really happening to them, they aren't likely to care much about the information you're trying to get them to pay attention to. This chapter provides tools for measuring the effectiveness of the content and the process of upward communication tools that provide feedback to management. Many of the measurement approaches in this chapter are tracking mechanisms to help you understand the patterns underlying the day-to-day feedback to help guide management decision-making on ways to fix the problems that are causing negative feedback. In this chapter, you will learn how to conduct measurements for the following types of formal and informal feedback mechanisms: • Suggestion systems. • Formal question or complaint systems. • Exit interviews. • Informal customer letters, calls and complaints. • Sources of new customers or employees. • Employee human resources questions. .(End of Excerpt)