Testimonials

Survey Workshop Testimonials

(See the Survey Design Workshop & Survey Data Analysis Workshop Descriptions)

I learned a great deal that I will use immediately upon returning to work. Fred is a wonderful teacher and kept the group interested for the full three days. I highly recommend the workshop to any professionals doing surveys.

— Julie Mills, Ky. Farm Bureau Insurance

Anyone who thinks they know how to create a survey needs to take this class. You will find some surprises, and great new tips. Fred starts out with the essential framework and builds on that quickly, so people of all levels will find it extremely useful. It’s great to learn the essentials and then to immediately apply them to actual surveys — your own, and others’.

—  Carin Smith, Smith Veterinary Consulting

My team and I had the pleasure of taking both the Survey Design Workshop and the Survey Data Analysis Workshop given by Dr. Van Bennekom.  First off, we could not have asked for a better teacher. He teaches in a way that is both enjoyable and easy to understand. Because of this, we were able to instantly look at our existing surveys and make immediate improvements.  On the back-end, we now have a better understanding how to take the data generated from our surveys and put them into use.

All of us enjoyed our time in the workshops.  We have recommended the workshops to our colleagues, and we will also look to take a refresher course in the future. Thank you Dr. Van Bennekom!

 — Mike Bolland, Director of Customer Experience, Discount Tire

This workshop was incredibly valuable and a great refresher of stats. There are so many mistakes possible when gathering data and presenting it. This class made me feel much more confident in my abilities as a researcher. Fred makes the course very interesting, which is tough to do when learning research methods and statistics.

— Justin Boothby, Empower Media Marketing

This workshop not only met, but exceeded all of my expectations. The amount and quality of information that I gained will irrefutably support us in better questionnaire design and implementation. Dr. Fred’s candid teaching style really made a difference in my ability to comprehend the material. He was always open to questions and his organized methods kept us all on task to gain the most from the workshop as possible.

— Jana De Anda, TrendSource

Everything was great!  This was without a doubt the best workshop I have ever taken… I can’t wait to go back and try the new formulas I have learned. I loved learning about how to formulate questions & surveys. This workshop was incredibly valuable! Thank You.

—  Lisa Caponiti, Wash. DC attendee

It was a very useful workshop for those with little survey design experience as well as those with a lot of experience.  I had all my questions answered, which will help me next time I work on a survye.  Great workshop overall.

—  Maria Skaletsky, Boston attendee 2018

I have taken a lot of training and this was hands down the best training I have been to.

—  US Military Employee, Virtual Class 2021

Excellent!  Great instructor, very engaging & knowledgeable on topic.

— Erin Corrao, Shaw Industries

Great workshop.  I learned a lot and plan to make some changes based on what I learned.

— Nikita  Walker, Secretary of the Air Force, Public Affairs

The workshop exceeded my expectations. I shudder at what kind of survey I may have created without it!

—  Dorian, Crugnale, Oxford Semiconductor

For the beginner who develops and executes the survey, this class is really helpful. This class teaches all the design principles as well as the steps to be taken to design the survey instrument very well.

—  Ashwini Bende, Wash. DC attendee

This workshop exceeded my expectations. I was originally worried that the class would be boring, but you kept everyone engaged in the training material. I would highly recommend this class!

— Jennifer Simmon, Assurant

If you do any type of survey design, development, administration or analysis, you should absolutely take this class.  Even if you think you’re an expert, there will be something in here that will be a nugget of pure gold.

— Nancy Korsun, Ericsson

It was a pleasure attending a workshop taught by such a knowledgeable person. I would highly recommend this workshop to my fellow employees and peers who are interested in survey design.

— Stefanie Petrillo, L’Oreal

Very informative. Will help me reorganize the customer satisfaction program in my organization.

— Oktay Yildiz, Genetec

Good discussion & interaction! I really enjoyed the class & instructor. I can directly apply what I’ve learned to my day-to-day experiences.

— Jamie Nichols, Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis

Went way beyond expectations.  Engaging, will teach you how not to stumble when making surveys.

— Viswanathan Suresh

This was a great overview of how to build a survey and display the results.  I recommend it to anyone who is considering building a surveys — before they start.

— Washington DC  2019 attendee

Of my many years of training, this was the best course I’ve ever taken.  The information was very helpful and presented in a straightforward, easy to understand manner.

— Washington DC  2018 attendee

It is a fantastic course that flies by and you learn a lot of valuable and applicable concepts and techniques; can’t wait to reevaluate & improve surveys and play around with more data visualization methods… Thanks! I’ll definitely recommend this to my colleagues.

— Washington DC  2018 attendee

Very extensive and informative. Fred provides a lot of information in an understandable fashion.  Recommend the class for novice to proficient level of understanding in survey development & stats.

— Boston 2018 attendee

Overall, the instruction about questionnaire and statistics was very well done. I appreciated the common sense approach to the statistics section.

— Lauren Pavlik, US Navy Program Executive Office – Enterprise Information System

Take the Workhop — I learned a lot !!

— 2018 workshop attendee

Excellent. Lots of golden nuggets.

— 2013 workshop attendee

This workshop actually exceeded my expectations… Very informative and detailed. It provided helpful ideas to better our data system. It basically changed the way I look at data.

— Yvonne Mika, American Samoa Government

I was surprised by the volume of things to consider to create a good survey. This was solid learning with real take away skills. Nice work!

— Neil Newcomb, Great Lakes Center for Youth Development

I would definitely recommend to others. Liked the pace, content, and format.

— Emily Curley, Citi

Both content and delivery exceeded my expectations, which were high. The small group size contributed to the effectiveness of the workshop. Much of what I learned is directly and immediately applicable. Now I can’t wait to read Fred’s book!

— Mel Anderson, Wyoming Dept. of Transportation

This was a great class. Can’t wait to go back and apply what I learned to current surveys.

— Mary Kauflie, Santa Clara workshop, 2008

[The workshop] met my expectations about content and exceeded my expectations about interest. I found it interesting and did not expect to do so.

— Mary Atkins, DDTP

Fred, I really enjoyed your class. I have a good survey mockup prepared and will be presenting it to a focus group of 12 in the next couple of weeks. I was on vacation the week after the customer service conference and spent that time reading your book. I have to say that you did a great job putting all of that information into two short days. Your book is a great reference and support for the class.

[After completing her survey…] I could not have done the survey without your wonderful class and book. I walked into your class without a clue and left with the tools to successfully administer a survey.

— Pamela Kellerstrass, Motor Cargo (Pam’s project was the subject of an article we wrote about the potential reincarnation of postal mail surveys.)

I went thru the survey [which was critiqued during the workshop], which is amazing! I think the survey workshop already paid for itself — the subtle (and not so subtle) changes in wording and flow are great.

—  John Ragsdale, VP of Research, SSPA commenting on the value received by an attendee from SSPA

Very worthwhile.

— Tom Vitt, Horry Telephone Cooperative

Great classroom atmosphere. Great concrete examples given by Fred. Participant input validated by Fred.

— David Thomson, Rotary International

This was an excellent workshop!  Fred imparted his vast knowledge on the subject & I feel much more confident in my ability to create a survey program.

— Susan Schmieder, NYSTRS

I feel very confident that I can write a survey. The project management [section] was most beneficial. This is the area where we seem to be lacking in my company. We are definitely missing the research objectives stage.

— Christine Walters, Covance

The best workshop I’ve attended Everything covered relates to what I do. I will implement several of the techniques from the workshop into my job.

— Mack Cockrell, Maxwell Air Force Base

I learned that I was ignorant of the process and [became] educated on the details.

— Tom Hines, Dionex

This was a great workshop and the content was very relevant to what I do. Would definitely recommend to colleagues.

— Rachel Kim, Santa Clara workshop

This was excellent. A great amount of valuable, practical content in a brief period of time. The workshop will help my practice.

— James Jones, First Wellesley Consulting

Overall, workshop is extremely helpful & well organized!!

— Terri Phillips, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society

This workshop was great. It held my interest, was easily understood, and the atmosphere instilled a level of comfort to discuss openly with others. The group exercises early in the workshop helped us to feel more at ease. It was well worth my time.

— Janie Bauman, MGIC

Overall, I was very impressed with this workshop. I feel much more comfortable writing and analyzing surveys. Your data analysis portion was extremely useful.I wish I would’ve had this training prior to writing any surveys.

— Santa Clara workshop attendee, 2008

Very appropriate & useful. I will be able to take the skills back to my organization and apply them immediately. Thank you for a great experience… This was the best course I have ever taken in terms of practicality and comprehension.  Very thorough!

— Jeff Anthony, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

The workshop has been so useful since I returned to work to implement some of the things I learned. I’ve recommended the workshop to several other people here.

— Kelly McBain, Boston 2006 attendee

Very comprehensive

— Kathy Lowry, Insperity

This workshop should revolutionize our ability to get actionable data from our surveys.

— Steven Norman, Western National Insurance

The workshop was wicked awesome! [I teach a little New England slang.] I would highly recommend it to my co-workers and those in other areas. What an eye opener!

— Workshop attendee, Denver 2007

After three short — but intensive — days, I am confident I can oversee a survey management program at my agency. I also have the tools I need to create effective surveys to evaluate a wide variety of services & process.

— Nancy Hill

Good interactions. Questions take time but make it more meaningful. Sometimes the ideas brought up about another company’s issues really got me thinking.

— Diane Boumenot, American Mathematical Society

Exceeded my expectations. Stats overview was superb. Great delivery. Great content. Thank you!

— Paul Gregory

The workshop was exactly was I was looking for.

— Lora Price, Charlotte 2007 attendee

Highly beneficial!! Very impressed and cannot wait to apply these skills in our company.

— Shawn Santos, Service & Support Professionals Associations

This really helps me to understand what we are doing right and where we need to improve.

— D. Brian King, National Grid

You are very easy to understand, which made it easy to absorb a large amount of information in three days. I have had stats a couple of times and you made it more simple to understand. In general, I will have more confidence with surveys now!

— Jay Williams, Tektronix

[The Workshop] was geared toward my experience level. I have a wealth of knowledge to share from attending the workshop and reading the book.

— Vivian Lewis, Department of Army, Business Transformation

The workshop was excellent. There was so much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Fred kept the information very interesting and could “read” the group very well.

— Patti Stephens, Ky. Farm Bureau Insurance

I have waited more than 2 years for my company to allow me to attend. The workshop has helped me see the value of my work and how the data can really open our organization amazing information.

— Jennifer Buxton, Paycor

Great workshop. Great materials. Fred very willing to answer questions and share ideas. Highly interactive class; good synergy amongst participants.

— Arlissa Grooms-Washington, Washington DC 2009 attendee

Great Job!  This really helped!! Very valuable! Thanks!

— Natalie Brumley, Countrywide Financial

I was very happy with the class. Many areas of the class will aid me in multiple areas of my position… Your openness and down-to-earth presentation was refreshing.

— Rebecca Cheek, Southwest Air

The workbook is an outstanding tool to take back as a reference! It’s the entire workshop in an easy-to-use document. This can be a very dry and boring topic, but Fred makes it fun and interesting!

— Lynda Drehmer, Provident Bank, Baltimore

Absolutely excellent. I waited a long time for you to have a seminar locally and was not disappointed!

— Tess DePalma, Nemours, Orlando

I thought it was great. I was a little lost on some of the high level data analysis, but that may be but that may be because of my own knowledge. Great “How To’s” with Excel.

— Laura Bloomquist, Career Builder, Chicago

The workshop is great. It was a lot of information for the time allotment. I believe another 1/2 day would allow for more examples and a deeper understanding. [Note: this comment was from an attendee of the previous 2 day format.]

— Irene Sidwell, State Farm Insurance

Your workshop has helped me immensely in the survey process here at SunTrust. Everybody and their brother wants to do a survey, and we have been able to incorporate many of your caveats/lessons learned into our governance process.

— Johanna Brudvig, SunTrust Bank

Great stuff. Very helpful.

— Don van den Akker, Awana Clubs

Great 2 days. I am looking forward to applying the knowledge taught me.

— Elizabeth Jones, Quill

We have studied and implemented your methods with great success. We are learning things about our customer base that have measurably increased overall Customer Satisfaction and our customers willingness to refer us to other businesses. See you at the next workshop.

— Bob Henderson, Sr. Director, Customer Service, Cbeyond Communications, Atlanta

The workshop validated what I had already begun to do and provided additional information that will significantly improve upon previous work as well as expand my company’s survey endeavors.

— Tracy Watzek, Unitrin Direct

The workshop far exceeded my expectations of what I thought I would learn.

— Jeffrey Thomas, KY Farm Bureau Mutual Ins. Co.

The workshop was very effective in giving me additional tools.

— Kathie Putrow, Arizona Dept of Juvenile Corrections

The workshop exceeded my expectations!  This been the most engaging & useful workshop that I have ever attended — and I go to a lot of training.

— Boston 2018 attendee

Practical critical info I never knew existed!  Made me aware of potential issues, how to spot them, and how to proactively deal with them.

— Boston 2018 attendee

I have to tell you what a tremendous help your class has been to me both at work at and at school. I have been able to use all of the information on a regular basis. Thank you so much!

— Bridget from a major pharmaceutical company, Boston 2005

You made a potentially boring topic interesting — keep the personal/casual tone of the seminar.

— John Blexrud, Market Soundings

Thank you for sharing your passion with us. This made a class on numbers very interesting. Thanks for a job well done.

— Workshop attendee, Orlando March 2006

How did you EVER do this in 2 days? Please don’t ever change it back [from 3 days to 2 days]. The pace was perfect and if we had raced through questionnaire design, I would have been displeased.

— Workshop attendee, Orlando March 2006

Workshop was great! It was very informative… The workbook is a great item, keeps it fresh in my mind… Group work was a great way to get input from others on how they would build a survey.

— Workshop attendee, Orlando March 2006

I am really glad I took this class. I know it will help me immediately in my job.

— Workshop attendee, Chicago October 2005

Thank you — it was overall a fantastic workshop and I really learned a lot and am excited to bring my new knowledge back.

— Workshop attendee, Chicago October 2005

It was great. I leaned an incredible amount that will help me — and all of those I have to work with.

— Workshop attendee, Atlanta May 2005

The workshop was excellent.  Some portions of the workshop content weren’t relevant to my specific situation, but it must be challenging to make all relevant to everyone.

— Workshop attendee, Atlanta May 2005

Excellent. One of the most beneficial workshops I have ever attended. The instructor provided all of us with a set of available tools and guidelines. I would highly recommend this workshop to anyone engaged in marketing and satisfaction analysis.

— Workshop attendee, Westboro, MA October 2003.

Excellent presenter, an expert in the subject. Fred really opened my eyes to the importance of proper survey design.

— Kevin Marlow, Association for Service Management, International

I’ve applied everything I learned in your workshop to every survey I and my colleagues have done in the past year. It probably had the most visible and immediate impact on how I do things than any other seminar I’ve taken.  Thanks,

— Thom Martin, OneSource Information Services, Concord, Mass

I found the workshop very valuable.  Although I had learned much of this information in school, this was a great refresher as I have forgotten much of the content over the years.

— Workshop attendee, Atlanta, May 2005

Truthfully, it exceeded my expectations. The topic is more interesting, more impactful, and richer/deeper than I anticipated. I believe this course will help me to do my job better and will ultimately help to make my department more effective. Thanks for a great course! … Exercises were fantastic. I think you could improve the course by extending an additional 1/2 to 1 day and do exercises for statistics, etc. … Loved the group critique of the instruments.

— Workshop attendee, Atlanta, May 2005

Fred Van Bennekom’s energy breathed life into surveys and statistics and showed us the precision that hides within this science. Beyond the precision, Fred made us aware of the art and detective work that is needed to put together a useful, rich survey. Before Fred, I accepted surveys as a fact of life. After Fred, I see surveys as a slice of our society.

— Suzanne Morrison, US Courts Librarian, Fargo ND

The group size was perfect. It made interaction very easy and beneficial. A larger group would have made the material more difficult to cover.

— Workshop attendee, Washington DC area, May 2004.

Fred’s Survey Design Workshop should be attended by anyone who does any type of surveying, whether it be for customers or employees. From his workshop, I have learned how to design a survey and test the questions! He even gave tips about how to design the report for the collected data. There is more to it than just drafting a set of questions and flying with it! There is much thought and planning involved and before I attended this workshop, I had no clue what course of action to take in order to complete a survey project. It’s imperative that executives who make decisions about these type of projects take this workshop. It will teach them how to make appropriate decisions regarding surveying.”

— Debbie Charrette,  Soft Computer, Tampa, FL

To set the scene: It was the last session, on the last day, of a very intense three-day workshop for the U.S. Courts Librarians, “Put your Name in Lights: Library Marketing and Outreach”, and Fred Van Bennekom was asked to do the impossible: to condense a portion of the wealth of information offered in Great Brook’s 2-day survey workshop into a meaningful overview to be delivered in very brief session. It was a “smash hit.” Fred explained and demonstrated the essentials of survey design clearly and succinctly. He engaged the entire group with his humor and communication style, holding their rapt attention throughout. Fred encouraged lively audience participation and involvement; in fact, several group members even asked if we could continue the discussion (in the bar!) after the session ended.

— Leslie M. Campbell, Law Library Program Administrator, Administrative Office of the United States Courts

Thanks for the information! Your workshop was very timely in helping me move forward with the survey design initiative we are undertaking at Children’s. Your enthusiasm for the survey design process is contagious! I’m looking forward to reviewing the material in your book, which I did pick up at the workshop! Thanks again!

— Vicky Guter, Children’s Hospital

The workshop and information is very timely for me since I need to have a survey sent out by mid May. The information you gave us will be very beneficial. Thanks for a great workshop. Regards,

— Rick Garland, Pioneer Natural Resources

Great Workshop. Definitely will refer to co-workers and management.

— Workshop attendee, Washington DC area, May 2004.

Great job.

— Matt Caruso, MRO Software, Bedford, MA

The class was great! Thanks. Danielle

Great use of examples from your experience; it keeps thinks interesting and makes concepts come to life.

Good workshop. Worth the cost. I appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to work with us.

The workshop exceeded my expectations… this workshop is very information and I have learned much about which areas I need to revamp in the survey procedures my company is currently using.

Fred Van Bennekom stimulated the group with effective discussion.

Fred was energetic and did a great job on a rather dry topic. He kept everyone involved and enjoyed his audience.

I appreciate Fred’s passion in the subject — even during those few times when (after lunch) things slowed — his anecdotes with feelings carried us through.

The class was very informative and interactive. The instructor did a good job at keeping the class engaged.

Conference Presentations

We’ve been offering educational webinars for years. Fred’s presentation on “Designing a Survey Instrument” is the best attended event we’ve ever had.  We received a much higher than usual number of questions from the audience, who were incredibly engaged and interested in the topic and in Fred’s knowledge.  We’ve received numerous unsolicited emails and phone calls post-event from attendees complementing the presentation and looking for more information on survey design. It’s honestly the best overall reaction we’ve ever had from an educational webinar. It is obvious from the reaction of the audience (made up of service professionals) that survey design is a key initiative for service organizations, and Fred really is the expert!

— Michelle McFadden, Product Manager, Unipress Software

Thanks Fred for your prompt response. I say, you have an excellent style and will certainly maintain devoted students. Your presentation, expertise and energy on this topic was extremely enlightening. We have been struggling recently on how to generate surveys obtaining specific direction and information. I gained useful and applicable pointers.

I trust in this small world of IT, I will have the opportunity to hear you speak again. It was a delight to meet and receive your message.

— Donna Fawcett, Director, Data Centre Operations, Canadian Depository for Services

Thanks again for giving such a wonderful, captivating and informative presentation to the HDI NJ membership.

— Tony Whalen, President, HDI New Jersey chapter

Thanks a lot for the response, Fred. I’m always happy if I can come away from a conference with at least one or two “big ideas” that I can take action on. Doing a customer satisfaction survey is one of the big ideas I took home from this year’s conference. Thanks for the inspiration and for giving me the tools to build both a survey and the business case for doing it.

— Steve Pinkston, Technical Support Supervisor. Kentrox

Excellent use of this survey to develop audience interaction. This is just a short note to thank you for taking the time out to send me the material. It is greatly appreciated. The session on Customer Surveys was actually one of the more beneficial lectures; this I realized more so at the end of the entire conference.

Thank you

— George

Potentially boring but useful information that was presented in a not-so-boring way. One of only 3 speakers so far that has actually kept my attention.

Dr. Van Bennekom is a highly motivated speaker with a great deal of integrity, presence, and knowledge. Great guy. Room was too cold. [Some things are beyond the speaker’s control!]

Very high quality presentation.

Brought to life the challenge of creating a tool [a questionnaire] that will be meaningful — instead of a burden to be borne. Enjoyable presentation of a subject I considered very dry.

Could have used another hour here! (1st session I’ve been in where I felt that.)

The best session by far that I attended. Hope he will do more in the following years.

Very informative and a very good presenter. He did one of the best jobs at handling Q&A. The session had a lot of good info in it!

Although strong 5 rating, this is not a “response rut” [Note: that’s a concept taught in the session.]

Very relaxed style – inviting. I like the way he used real examples in the class. I really enjoyed this. Great job!

A lot of info to process in a short time frame though! The “learning activity” was great – you engaged your audience by having us evaluate the survey instrument. You were the only presenter of those 1 hour sessions I attended to do this. Thanks! Absolutely terrific!

The info provided some factual backup for a discussion I recently had with my CEO. Very timely for me!

Excellent & professional.

Good interactive session.

Excellent!  Good speaker.  Good material

This guy knows his stuff!  Thank you!

Very informative & interesting!

Excellent.  Only complaint… would like to see him get more time.  Great!

Practical info at last!

Great use of this survey as an example

This was a good one! Could have been 2 hours long.

He was GREAT!

Great speaker, good content.

Excellent speaker — 1 hour not long enough.  Next year double great speakers’ time.

Very engaging. Good view points we can use.

I would like to see this subject handled with a whole “stream” — with beginning and advanced sessions.