Standardized measures will usually not be appropriate for assessing participant satisfaction.  Measures for these indicators are usually fairly simple, and best developed at the local program site.  Most often, they will consist of brief surveys or interviews with parents or guardians, program staff, children, and sometimes other community stakeholders (such as advisory board members).  These might take the form of individual interviews, focus group discussions, or written surveys (see sections on Qualitative Interviewing and Focus Groups elsewhere on this CYFAR Evaluation website for further suggestions on planning, implementing, and analyzing qualitative instruments).  In the case of young children who cannot easily respond to surveys, observations by parents and staff may also be good indicators of whether the children enjoy their participation in program activities.

Although satisfaction surveys are simple, they should still be carefully designed.  Attention should be paid to basic issues such as sampling (how well do the people who respond represent your whole population?), content of the questions, response formats, how much it will cost in time and resources to collect the information, and how the results will be analyzed and reported.  Including questions about satisfaction with aspects of the program that are beyond your control is usually not helpful.  For example, if your funding source strictly forbids you to provide van transportation for children to an after-school program (perhaps for liability reasons), then including questions about satisfaction with transportation could be misleading and raise false expectations in your participants.  On the other hand, if there is a possibility that the policy could change and funding could be provided if you documented a need, then including such questions could help build your case.

There are a number of general resources on survey research that can serve as guidelines in designing meaningful measures at the local level.  The growing field of customer satisfaction in the business and marketing arena also provides some useful resources.  One guide that may be particularly  helpful is:  Anton, J., & Perkins, D. (1997).  Listening to the voice of the customer: 16 steps to a successful customer satisfaction measurement program.  New York: The Customer Service Group.