Average Benefit Score

The indicator assesses the extent to which the respondents are satisfied with the usefulness of the services delivered to them by the supported service providers. The indicator is based on a subjective judgment of a range of quality and access-related features of the provided services.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of users of the given services:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: Can you please tell me how useful the services provided by [specify the service provider] are for you using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means that they are not useful at all and 10 means that they are extremely useful?

A1: ……

The data collector needs to cross-check whether the answer to Q1 shows that the respondent understood the 1-10 scale system. This can be done by asking:

Q2: What is the main reason why you provided this mark?

A2: specify: ………………….

If there is a difference between the provided answer and the “mark” provided in A1, the data collector needs to clarify the actual usefulness of the services and, if required, revise the answer to A1.

To assess the average Benefit Score (i.e. the indicator’s value), sum up all the marks and divide them by the number of responses. For example, 3060 / 360 = Benefit Score 8.5, indicating high usefulness of the provided services.   

Disaggregate the data by gender, wealth, and other relevant criteria.

1) Ensure that the data collectors have the same understanding of what each of the 1-10 marks mean (practice with lots of different examples) and are able to explain it to the respondents in the same way.

2) Instead of relying on the rather abstract numbers 1 to 10, consider replacing these 10 numbers with 10 beans (or other physical units), asking the respondent to show how useful the services were by giving it the appropriate number of beans – where 1 bean means extreme dissatisfaction and 10 beans mean very high satisfaction. This method is likely to be more appropriate, especially for illiterate people or when the score is supposed to be given by a group of several people.

3) Be aware that some respondents might provide high marks due to being polite or fearing negative consequences if they provide negative feedback. Therefore, explain to all respondents why it is important to provide an honest opinion and assure them of their response's confidentiality.