Review of Forum Survey Results

During February 2014, an on-line survey was conducted which gathered information from MOA members as well as a number of guests. The goal of the survey was to get some feedback on what was right or wrong with the forum and what aspects might need improving in the future.

Nearly 1300 people viewed the survey and a little over 1030 people started the survey. In the end, a total of 886 people took the time to complete the survey.

Below are some of the key results from the survey.

Approximately 2000 emails were sent to random MOA members prior to the February 1 starting date. In addition, an announcement was placed on the MOA home page as well as in the general forum area. A small article appeared in the Owners News but that likely arrived to all members at different times due to the variables in the mailing system. We neglected to put up a post on the MOA facebook page immediately, but by at least February 2, the presence of the survey was posted on facebook.

Below is a graph showing how the responders found out about the survey. It's clear to see that people seemed to get most of their input from either the Owners News or by reading the MOA homepage.

The age of the responders is probably no surprise to any of us. The range of ages reflects similar surveys about MOA members from the past. At the end of this thread, a few interesting graphs that relate member's ages to other aspects of the forum or benefits is given.

One of the questions in the survey was about ranking the benefits of being an MOA member. The benefits were ranked as Not Important At All, Not Very Important, Neutral, Important, and Very Important. Below, the results for Important and Very Important are shown as well as their total percentage. The benefits shown below were the ones that had the strongest responses in these two ranking categories. Other benefits such as Roadside Assistance and MedJet support received mostly Neutral rankings. In hindsight, other benefits could have been listed in the survey (such as Rider Performance University or Camp Gears, etc.) but in the interest of keeping the forum short, those were omitted.

As we've discussed on the forum, the Owners News and Anonymous book are key benefits to our membership.

Responders were asked how often they visited the forum. As can be seen, a range of responses were indicated from maybe 2-3 times a month (ie, less than once a week) to once a day. Interesting there were certainly people who didn't even know about the forum or were not drawn enough to it to come back.

The survey asked responders to rank specific features of the forum. The ranking categories were Very Unsatisfied, Unsatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, or Very Satisfied. Below shows the ranking of the various features for the Neutral, Satisfied, or Very Satisfied categories. These three levels of ranking accounted for over 90% of the responses for each feature. In most cases, people were Satisfied with the feature with a lesser amount either Neutral or Very Satisfied. In the case of advertising, most people were Neutral about having this directly shown on the forum.

Responders also identified the discussion areas of the forum that were most important to them. By far, people want to discuss issues with their particular bike. Sharing experiences with trips and riding were clearly important. General discussion areas of Motorrad and Campfire were relatively important. For areas that have a focus to them, such as Photography, only a limited number of responders felt they were important.

The software used in the survey provided results showing the relationship between two separate parameters. These are called pivot charts. In this case, the age of the responders was related to importance of the monthly Owners News magazine. The take away here is that the Owners News seems to be not very important to the younger responders whereas the magazine was far more important to the higher aged responders.

Another pivot chart shows how age and forum posting privileges are related. Posting on the forum was important to all age groups, but more so to those under 30.

The survey also allowed some free-field text boxes for individuals to express their thoughts either about a specific question or anything in general. Everyone one of these responses was read and reviewed. These comments were grouped into loose categories in a way to get a wider assessment of how the forum and the MOA are doing in many different areas. If a particular area was mentioned many times by the responders, then that suggests to us that aspect is important in some way. All of this information will lead to MOA and Board to consider future directions of the forum and the MOA.

Thank you again for the time you took to review and respond to the survey. Your time is important and hearing your thoughts is very valuable to us.