Survey processing
Survey processing for Australian organisations
Survey processing is the work that happens after the responses come back: capturing every answer, coding the open-ended ones, cleaning the file, and turning it into analysis-ready data. CCData has done it onshore in Australia since 1990, for not-for-profits, charities, research agencies and government.
What survey processing actually involves
Survey software collects responses. Survey processing is everything that has to happen before those responses can be trusted: reading them off whatever they arrived on, turning free text into consistent categories, resolving contradictions and blanks, and producing one clean file an analyst can work from.
It matters most when responses arrive on more than one channel. A single appeal might come back as reply-paid forms in the post, an online form, and replies to an SMS. Those three files do not naturally line up — different question order, different answer codes, different handwriting. Merging them correctly is the job.
CCData has processed more than 12.7 million survey responses since 1990.
The process
The five steps
The same five steps run on every project, whether the survey is a national mail appeal or a short online pulse.
- 01
Survey design
Question wording, answer scales and routing, built so the data can actually be analysed at the other end. Poorly structured questions are the most expensive thing to fix after the fact.
- 02
Distribution
Mail, email, online or SMS — or all of them at once, for the same survey.
- 03
Capture and code
Every response is captured into a structured file. Hard-copy forms are scanned and keyed in-house by our own team, using double-key entry — the form is keyed twice by two operators and the two versions compared, so typing errors surface instead of settling silently into the data.
- 04
Analytics
Cross-tabulations, segment comparisons and the specific cuts you asked for, run against the clean file.
- 05
Reporting
The findings written up, plus the underlying data in the format your team works in.
Paper, online, phone, SMS — every channel into one file
CCData accepts responses through any channel, including hard-copy forms.
That last part is unusual and worth stating plainly: paper surveys are scanned and keyed in Australia by CCData’s own staff, not sent offshore and not left to optical-recognition software to guess at. Handwritten comments, ticks outside the box, notes in the margin and amended answers all get read by a person.
For an appeal that goes out by post to an older supporter base, that is often the difference between a partial picture and a complete one.
Online, email and SMS responses are captured directly and merged into the same file, so a mixed-channel survey produces one dataset rather than three that have to be reconciled later.
Coding open-ended responses
Verbatim coding is the process of turning free-text answers into consistent, countable categories without losing what the respondent actually said.
An open question — “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?” — produces answers no two of which are worded the same. Coding reads them, builds a frame of categories that reflects what people genuinely said rather than what was expected, and applies it consistently across every response. The original wording is kept alongside the code, so you can always go back to the verbatim.
It is the part of survey processing most often skipped, and it is usually where the most useful findings are.
Supporter, donor and customer surveys
The mechanics are the same; what changes is what the data is for.
Supporter surveys
Supporter surveys ask the people who give to a not-for-profit what they think — about the cause, the communications, the frequency of asks, and whether they intend to keep giving. They are typically mixed-channel, because supporter bases skew older and a meaningful share will only respond on paper.
Donor surveys
Donor surveys are narrower: giving behaviour, motivation, and the conditions under which someone would upgrade, lapse or leave a bequest. The findings usually feed straight into the next appeal or a regular-giving program.
Customer surveys
Customer surveys measure satisfaction, experience and intent for commercial organisations — the same processing pipeline, reported against segments rather than supporter cohorts.
CCData works across all three. The not-for-profit and charity sector is where most of the work sits.
What you get back, and when
Your clean data file in the format your team uses — Excel, SPSS or CSV — together with the coded verbatims and the reporting you’ve asked for.
Delivered in the format your analysts already work in, or matched to a tabulation template you already use.
Typical turnaround from receipt of responses, depending on volume and how much open-ended coding is involved. Larger or multi-wave projects are scheduled in advance.
Where most survey projects land, driven mainly by response volume, the number of channels, and the depth of coding and analysis. We’ll give you a fixed number before anything starts.
Where your data is held
Response data is processed in Australia by CCData’s own staff, on CCData’s systems. Nothing is sent offshore.
CCData handles personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the thirteen Australian Privacy Principles. Staff work under signed confidentiality agreements. Full detail is in our privacy policy.
Frequently asked
Survey processing, answered
Can you process handwritten paper surveys?
Yes. Hard-copy forms are scanned and keyed in-house in Australia using double-key entry. Handwritten comments are coded by a person, not by optical-recognition software.
Can you merge paper and online responses into one file?
Yes — that is one of the most common reasons organisations come to us. Responses from post, online, email and SMS are captured into a single dataset with consistent codes, so a mixed-channel survey produces one file rather than several.
What is verbatim coding?
Verbatim coding turns free-text survey answers into consistent, countable categories while keeping the original wording alongside the code, so the numbers can be counted and the quotes can still be read.
How long does survey processing take?
Typically 5 to 10 business days from receipt of responses, depending on volume and the amount of open-ended coding involved.
What formats do you deliver data in?
Excel, SPSS or CSV, plus the reporting you’ve asked for.
Do you work with charities and not-for-profits?
Yes — that is the majority of our work. CCData processes supporter and donor surveys for Australian not-for-profits, charities and health organisations.
Let’s talk about your next survey
Tell us what’s coming up and we’ll tell you what it involves.