8th Biennial ACSPRI Social Science Methodology Conference

Both businesses and the Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS) want to use more contemporary methods to communicate and to supply data to each other. The ABS has several methods of communicating with business data providers (‘providers’), termed correspondence. We assumed there is a positive relationship between fit-for-purpose contemporary correspondence and provider satisfaction. Furthermore, we hypothesised that provider satisfaction will have a positive impact on provider behaviour, potentially reducing follow-up work and costs. This project took a Human-Centred Design approach to investigate the experiences of providers regarding ABS correspondence. We consulted ABS internal stakeholders both as internal users and as sources of provider insights for this project. The project followed a divergent/convergent-thinking Double Diamond method. A core principle of the Human-Centred Design method is to establish the user needs before starting to design solutions. Therefore, the directions of this project were determined by the information uncovered in the ‘Discovery’ phase and refined through testing with providers. The results found providers prefer a modern, integrated, digital experience. Including coloured text, infographics, and visual instructions. A strong variation emerged in needs and expectations between new-to-survey-collection providers (and those ‘inheriting’ the collection within their business from former colleagues) and continuing providers. Providers preferred having a short, plain language explanation of the collection’s compulsory nature, and for this to be clear from initial correspondence through to final reminder. In earlier phases of the project, providers strongly indicated the importance of understanding the value and relevance of the collection to their industry. However, prototype testing found it was considered a ‘nice to have’. Our results show that provider experience could be improved by correspondence integrating with providers’ business processes in a more modern way. There is an inherent tension between providers understand their obligation to submit their data and providers having a positive experience. Both may influence provider behaviour. Careful consideration on timing of correspondence, design elements with minimal and more visually focused content, and overall contact strategies is important. This includes varying contact preferences and considering the complexities inherent with the wide range of different business sizes and industries across ABS business survey collections.