East Riding of Yorkshire Council

Empowering East Riding Council’s business intelligence team with SmartSurvey

East Riding Council's Business Intelligence Team sits at the heart of public service decision-making for one of England's largest rural authorities. Tasked with managing consultations and engagement initiatives across diverse communities, the team operates under strict demands for efficiency, transparency, and compliance. Transitioning from manual processes and fragmented tools, they turned to SmartSurvey to modernise their approach.

With the platform, the Council embraces a more streamlined, data-driven workflow, enabling them to uphold their commitment to delivering insights that shape impactful public policies.

The challenge: balancing complex demands with limited time and resources

East Riding Council's Business Intelligence Team faced challenges typical of a public sector organization managing diverse consultation and engagement needs. Their goals require precise data collection, adherence to best practices, and centralized workflows—all within the constraints of taxpayer accountability and GDPR compliance.

Here were some of the key challenges:

Delivering high-quality consultations: As the central, neutral hub for consultations, the team needed to ensure every survey followed best practices, adhered to legal standards, and avoided bias.

‍"The whole point of our team is to make sure it's a fair consultation, the questions aren't leading, and we're collecting meaningful insights," said Lillie, Consultation Officer at East Riding.

Managing tight deadlines and growing workloads: The team frequently balanced a mix of large-scale, strategic consultations and smaller, one-off engagements.

‍"We often have to turn surveys around quickly, especially when it's for something high-profile like the devolution consultation," shared Katie Norfolk, Business Intelligence Manager. "But the challenge is making sure quality doesn't slip while managing everything else on our plates."

Ensuring compliance and security: The Council's safeguarding initiatives and GDPR requirements meant secure, reliable data collection was essential.

‍"We work on safeguarding reviews where data security is non-negotiable," explained Lisa, Consultation Officer. "Previously, teams were sharing spreadsheets, which just wasn't secure enough."

Balancing multiple stakeholders and engagement types: The team supported diverse departments, each with unique consultation needs.

‍"Sometimes we're creating internal surveys for staff, and sometimes public ones, so we need to tailor each to the audience."

As the Council's centralised consultation team, maintaining neutrality and delivering data-driven insights was essential to ensuring robust decision-making for public services.

The solution: a flexible and advanced platform in SmartSurvey

SmartSurvey provided East Riding Council with a flexible, user-friendly platform that enabled them to streamline their consultation and engagement processes.

Key features and functionalities included:

Centralized survey management: Superuser access enabled collaboration among team members, ensuring that surveys could be built, modified, and finalized efficiently. The ability to set permissions for sub-users maintained quality control while empowering departments to contribute.

"We can basically work as one," said Katie, "and SmartSurvey allows us to manage the survey process efficiently."

Advanced survey design tools: Features such as carry-forward responses and dynamic piping allowed for seamless survey experiences, improving data quality and user engagement. These tools reduced the need for additional survey pages and ensured respondents had a clear, personalized journey.

"Carry-forward responses make surveys more engaging and professional," Lillie explained. "It feels more personal to respondents, improving their experience."

Real-time reporting and dashboards: The team used dashboards to visualize NPS results, track open-ended responses with sentiment analysis, and share insights directly with stakeholders. The ability to pin specific survey results to dashboards provided a consolidated view of data.

"The dashboards allow us to present data dynamically and adapt to different stakeholders' needs," Katie shared.

Customizable engagement: While SmartSurvey facilitated robust consultation workflows, it also enabled non-traditional uses, such as secure data collection for safeguarding initiatives. For example, replacing spreadsheets with secure forms ensured compliance while maintaining efficiency.

"Using SmartSurvey to replace spreadsheets made our safeguarding process far more secure and compliant"

Results: more efficiency, better insights, and transparency

The adoption of SmartSurvey had a transformative impact on East Riding Council's Business Intelligence team:

Higher quality insights: Advanced survey design features helped reduce bias and improve respondent engagement. Carry-forward responses were particularly valued for creating tailored, user-friendly surveys:

‍"It feels more personal to [the respondent] and looks much more professional."

Enhanced transparency: By combining dashboards and result-sharing tools, the team improved stakeholder communication. This capability was crucial for public consultations, such as the high-profile devolution survey, ensuring both accessibility and accountability.

"We can now display data dynamically and even include sentiment analysis, which is great for reporting to our stakeholders," said Katie.

Time savings: Automation and streamlined workflows cut down on manual effort, freeing the team to focus on strategic insights rather than operational tasks.

"SmartSurvey allows us to move faster without compromising on quality," added Katie.

What sets SmartSurvey apart: flexibility, empowerment, and compliance

What sets SmartSurvey apart is its ability to adapt to complex organizational needs while maintaining an intuitive, user-friendly interface. For East Riding Council, this meant:

Flexibility for diverse use cases: From public consultations to secure safeguarding forms, SmartSurvey's tools supported a wide range of applications, outperforming alternatives like Microsoft Forms.

User empowerment: By enabling both centralized control and localized customization, the platform balanced team-wide collaboration with department-specific autonomy.

Actionable insights: Features such as sentiment analysis and dynamic dashboards allowed the team to extract meaningful, actionable data quickly and efficiently.

Commitment to compliance: As a GDPR-compliant solution, SmartSurvey provided the necessary data security and privacy standards essential for public sector organizations.

The final word: a partnership driving public sector innovation

SmartSurvey empowered East Riding Council's Business Intelligence Team to overcome their challenges and deliver data-driven consultations and engagements with confidence. By streamlining workflows, enhancing survey capabilities, and enabling impactful reporting, SmartSurvey proved itself as a valuable partner for public sector innovation.

As Katie summarises,

‍"We act as a neutral, unbiased central hub and SmartSurvey helps us work how we need to while also being collaborative and efficient."

Ready to elevate your feedback?

Request a demo today and discover how SmartSurvey can work for you!

‍