Goalball UK’s annual member survey, conducted over December and January, has revealed a strong level of member satisfaction despite a significant drop in completion of the survey. The survey, designed to gather feedback and inform future initiatives, saw only 74 members respond, the lowest number in the survey’s history.
“We are concerned about the low turnout,” stated Mark Winder, CEO. “We need to find out why fewer members participated this year and find ways to make it easier for them to share their feedback.”
Despite the low participation, the survey’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), a measure of customer satisfaction, remained high at 56, indicating that the vast majority of members are happy with the organisation and would recommend it to others.
Winder continued:
“Much of the qualitative feedback was incredibly positive. However, comments from members highlighted areas for improvement. A handful of respondents reported experiencing rudeness and conflicts between clubs, which they believe is deterring potential volunteers. Members also called for greater efforts to ensure fair play and prevent conflicts during tournaments. We are aware of a lot of the issues raised, we constantly listen to our people and take comments on board. We are working hard to improve the experience for everyone. The new Empowering our People Strategy is aimed at a lot of the issues raised.
We take these concerns seriously,” Winder said. “We have recently renewed our code of conduct as we saw this as a problem that was emerging and we are committed to creating a positive and inclusive environment for all our members, and we will be working to address the issues raised. Our officials are volunteers, and we must respect and protect them or face the threat of losing them. As a community we must recognise without them we cannot hold competitions. “
Goalball UK has pledged to take the survey feedback into account and working with team we will implement changes to improve the overall member experience and foster a thriving community. We plan to review the survey methodology to increase participation in future years. Based on the survey results, we have outlined several recommendations to enhance the communities experience, including:
- Investigate live streaming and commentary to allow more spectators.
- Investigate podcasting to share our sport with more people
- Review the competition structure to satisfy changing demands and requirements as we develop (September- December 2025).
- Continue to work with partners to create more localised playing opportunities
- Maintain respect within the tournaments by investigating new initiatives to promote positive behaviour
- Work with clubs to help create more competitions and goalball weekends to increase participation opportunities.
- Increase the support for volunteers to help them fulfil their roles
- Continue to recruit and train new volunteers to increase capacity
Winder added:
“We work within a finite budget. It is a fine line in terms of maintaining existing successful programmes and creating new initiatives with limited budget and human resources. However, we are committed in trying to improve things. I would love to speak with anyone who would like to support us on our journey in a voluntary capacity: mark.winder@goalballuk.com.”
