Your survey has closed and the results are in-- what’s next? 

Sharing the outcomes of your survey with respondents is vital because:

• It shows residents that you are listening to their input 
• It motivates residents to respond to future surveys and polls 
• It’s an opportunity to connect survey outcomes with data-driven decision making
• It shows residents that you are acting on their feedback 

Sharing outcomes is built into the Polco platform for surveys conducted through the Engage module. This feature allows you to thank residents for their input and share information about next steps. While this will share a message rather than the actual survey results, you could publish the results elsewhere (e.g., on a blog), then have the Outcome email link to the location where participants can see the full details.

Once your survey or poll has closed, navigate to the Actions box (to the right of the survey or poll title). 

Next, create your outcome message. This is the message that respondents will see along with the survey results. You can write whatever you’d like! 

Here is some sample language you can use in your outcome message, with a completed example screenshot below: 

“Thank you for taking the time to complete the insert survey name here]. As a result of your input, the City will insert next steps] OR has decided to pinsert action here]. We appreciate your feedback!”

You’ll have the option to save this as a draft to send later, or send the outcomes immediately as an email to all respondents of the survey. 

You can update the outcome at any time in the Actions box. 

Respondents will receive an email with the outcome. If you turned guest responses on for the survey, the outcome message will only be sent to individuals that chose to provide their email address. 

Outcomes will also appear in residents’ feeds. Here are a couple of examples. 

It only takes a few minutes to show respondents the outcomes of a survey or poll and to connect those results to action by local government staff and officials. Close the feedback loop and increase participation rates by sharing results and next steps for all engagement efforts!