CUSTOMER STORY
Aptive gathers critical insights to improve Veteran services
Learn how Aptive collects Veteran feedback for its government partners, powering better decisions.
HEADQUARTERS
Alexandria, VI
COMPANY SIZE
500+
INDUSTRY
Business consulting and services
USE CASE
Voice of the customer
Community engagement
OVERVIEW
As a consulting firm for the federal government, Aptive has a big mission: improve federal agency performance and address the issues that impact citizen experience. Its clients include the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Transportation, Defense, Library of Commerce, National Science Foundation and more. Aptive relies on SurveyMonkey to help collect data that’s critical to understanding government needs and designing effective solutions.
THE CHALLENGE
Ensure Veteran perspectives are heard
Aptive has used SurveyMonkey across its organization, including to track employee engagement, for years. So when it launched its Veterans Experience Council (VXC), an Aptive network of more than 400 Veterans, Active Duty Military, National Guard Members, and Reservists, it knew SurveyMonkey could help it collect rich quantitative and qualitative feedback.
The Aptive VXC serves as a “Veteran barometer,” providing Aptive with diverse perspectives on topical issues like mental health, the accessibility of Veterans benefits, and Veterans’ VA experiences. That feedback is used to clarify Veteran needs and orient the government towards solutions, so the data needs to be clear, reliable, and collected under Section 508 compliance. For Aptive researchers, SurveyMonkey was more than up for the job.
“SurveyMonkey enables us to efficiently gather valuable feedback. It’s a vital part of our continuous process improvement toolkit. We can understand stakeholder needs and preferences, which informs business and marketing strategies for corporate, client, and community engagements.”
Dr. Wendy Opsahl
Marketing Director
THE ANSWER
Revealing and accessible research
Much of Aptive’s research focuses on how to improve access to Veteran services and quality of life—and SurveyMonkey is helping modernize feedback processes. “For a long time, VA used paper surveys that Veterans would have to mail back in,” said Senior Research Associate Dr. Nikky Greer. “With the easy SurveyMonkey link, the process is a lot quicker and Veterans have a level of comfort and trust in the anonymity of their feedback.”
With SurveyMonkey, Aptive can dig into the nuances of VXC members’ experiences, which is especially important as the overall Veteran population evolves. “The pool of younger Veterans is increasingly more diverse, and that means VA and other government agencies have to adjust to serve that population,” explained Dr. Greer. “To do that, we need the right information.”
Aptive researchers appreciate how SurveyMonkey simplifies and accelerates data analysis. “SurveyMonkey provides very useful data organization and visualization that enable us to quickly analyze responses, identify trends, and extract meaningful insights without a lot of extra effort—which is especially good for fast-paced research,” said Dr. Tara Fannon, research director. “Its built-in survey logic features, such as skip logic and branching, help us create more dynamic, sophisticated surveys that improve response quality.”
“As a qualitative researcher, using SurveyMonkey has streamlined and simplified various aspects of our project work. Its intuitive interface makes designing surveys quick and straightforward. The platform’s customization options ensure that we can tailor surveys to fit research objectives and audience needs more effectively.”
Dr. Tara Fannon
Research Director
Aptive
THE RESULTS
Improved services, strategies, and experiences
The research Aptive conducts with SurveyMonkey strikes a balance between breaking new ground and validating existing VA strategies. One Aptive study was the first of its kind to ask Veterans what they think about the use of AI for Veteran mental health services and suicide prevention. Another looked into Veterans’ understanding of The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act. Based on the results, Aptive was able to make helpful recommendations to its government clients.
“It’s not just about Veterans rating their experience, but also the ‘why’ behind it,” said Dr. Greer. “We want to be able to offer suggestions to remediate things VA may be overlooking, and SurveyMonkey is helping us do that.” Sometimes research reveals that Veterans’ common pain points align with VA’s current improvement projects or roadmap—and Aptive is able to let Veterans know that their concerns are being addressed.
The Veteran feedback Aptive collects is making an impact for both its organization and the federal government. “We put results out for public consumption, which positions us as leaders on important issues,” said Dr. Fannon. “And our government clients are able to make more informed decisions based on the comprehensive information we give them.”
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