Contacting clients can be a frustrating process. Phone numbers are occasionally wrong or go unanswered. The reported rates’ between prospective contacts and completed ‘conversion calls vary significantly between agencies although most are not measuring this relationship. – The assumption is that if you want to complete 400 contacts, you may need a bank of 1,000-1,200 phone numbers. Sample Size The size of your outcomes sample as a percentage of your total call volume is not particularly relevant in terms of usefulness or accuracy. If 400 contacts need to be made to produce a valid sample, it does not (in and of itself) matter whether that represents 10% or 0.01% of the calls for a particular I&R service. The bad news is that an agency with a smaller call volume has to contact a higher percentage of their clients. If 60% of an I&R’s inquiries are about basic needs, then about 60% of their QA contacts should also reflect basic needs situations. Having a reasonably large and random sample (e.g. around 400) should ensure this happens naturally. The recommendations section contains more details about sample sizes. Determining ‘Randomness’ A key challenge in gathering the contacts for an outcomes survey, is to avoid the natural tendency for I&R Specialists to clients who are friendly and polite, express ‘self-select’ themselves well, seem happy with the interaction, and who present straightforward situations that are easily solved. A random sample should be just that random - and collected with the same consistent – method within the same agency. The simplest option is to ask every 3rd (or 5th or 10th) client until the appropriate contact bank is established (e.g. if you want to contact 400 callers, then you may need 1,000 contacts). Once you have the correct number, you could stop collecting outcomes contacts until you are ready for your next report. However, the I&R Specialist must always retain the right to exercise their own judgment if the nature of the client and their situation makes an outcomes contact inappropriate (for example, it would be unnecessarily intrusive or upsetting). Outcomes for Target Groups As part of an outreach campaign or funding requirement, an I&R may conduct a targeted outcomes analysis to everyone (or a sample) within a particular (e.g. everyone with a member of the military in their family, all survivors of domestic violence, anyone requiring food support living in a particular area, any individual who smokes, etc.).
Contacting clients can be a frustrating process. Phone numbers are occasionally wrong or go unanswered. The reported ‘conversion rates’ between prospective contacts and completed calls vary significantly between agencies – although most are not measuring this relationship. The assumption is that if you want to complete 400 contacts, you may need a bank of 1,000-1,200 phone numbers. Sample Size The size of your outcomes sample as a percentage of your total call volume is not particularly relevant in terms of usefulness or accuracy. If 400 contacts need to be made to produce a valid sample, it does not (in and of itself) matter whether that represents 10% or 0.01% of the calls for a particular I&R service. The bad news is that an agency with a smaller call volume has to contact a higher percentage of their clients. If 60% of an I&R’s inquiries are about basic needs, then about 60% of their QA contacts should also reflect basic needs situations. Having a reasonably large and random sample (e.g. around 400) should ensure this happens naturally. The recommendations section contains more details about sample sizes. Determining ‘Randomness’ A key challenge in gathering the contacts for an outcomes survey, is to avoid the natural tendency for I&R Specialists to ‘self-select’ clients who are friendly and polite, express themselves well, seem happy with the interaction, and who present straightforward situations that are easily solved. A random sample should be just that – random - and collected with the same consistent method within the same agency. The simplest option is to ask every 3rd (or 5th or 10th) client until the appropriate contact bank is established (e.g. if you want to contact 400 callers, then you may need 1,000 contacts). Once you have the correct number, you could stop collecting outcomes contacts until you are ready for your next report. However, the I&R Specialist must always retain the right to exercise their own judgment if the nature of the client and their situation makes an outcomes contact inappropriate (for example, it would be unnecessarily intrusive or upsetting). Outcomes for Target Groups As part of an outreach campaign or funding requirement, an I&R may conduct a targeted outcomes analysis to everyone (or a sample) within a particular (e.g. everyone with a member of the military in their family, all survivors of domestic violence, anyone requiring food support living in a particular area, any individual who smokes, etc.).
AIRS_I&ROutcomeGuide_March2014.docx