Ahead of our annual AGM in June 2025 we sought feedback from our volunteers. We received responses from some of them which provide some interesting insights…
How we gathered the info
An online form was created using Microsoft Forms by one of our committee members in consultation with the rest of the committee.
repaircafegosport.co.uk/volunteer-feedback
Whilst we could have used a Google Form we have found this solution invites respondents to optionally login to their google account. This can confuse some respondents, negatively impacting response rate.
The form was provided allowing anonymous responses but respondents did have the option of optionally identifying themselves if they so wished (in order to allow for potential follow-up).
The form was linked to a web address on the organisations main domain for ease of use and reassurance. It was then emailed out to volunteers as part of normal event and AGM correspondence from the Chair and Event Lead.
There was care taken to collect both quantitative (numbers, ratings and ratios) and qualitative data (written comments and suggestions).
Summary of Attitudes
The majority of respondents supported the fact that the Repair Cafe has been moving between venues rather than being based at one since it’s previous home closed down.
Most felt it would be good to settle into a rotating schedule of a handful of venues and none supported finding a permanent home again.
The highlighted aspects of venues were generally supported as being of importance. There did seem to be some polarisation about the question of whether providing food for volunteers was important – clearly some volunteers are not bothered about this whilst some value it.
A Net Promoter Score of 77 (out of 100) indicates a strong level of satisfaction. When asked how likely they were to recommend volunteering to others, all scores were 8 or above (out of 10).
The 23% of respondents labelled as “passives” rather than “promoters” seemed perhaps to be those who needed more experience of volunteering at events or wished to engage with training or skillshare workshops before they would consider recommending volunteering to friends and colleagues. There were no unhappy “detractors”.
Over half of respondents (62%) were keen to engage in learning new skills via training. With some keen to engage with learning in more than one area.
The “other” choice here was not actually specified by the respondent, so we interpret this as general openness to other areas.
Comments and Suggestions
What did you like most about our events?#
31% mentioned people and 23% mentioned helping
- I enjoy the feeling of teamwork, most of us have to get the items brought in to us repaired.
- I like seeing people leaving with repaired goods as well as learning from other volunteers
- Helping to save items that would otherwise be disposed of, but more importantly to save people money.
- Helping people both volunteers and public. Meeting people.
- Being able to extend the useful life of products, saving landfill and saving money for our visitors.
- I get to meet and chat with both the guests and other volunteers. I derive great satisfaction knowing that I have made life easier for the guest.
- Friendly atmosphere, the positive spirit amongst the team, very welcoming
How could our events be improved?
Whilst 40% of respondents used the word area there was actually no correlation between uses of this common word with various meanings.
- Reception, guest handling and front of house.
- More clarity of roles, specifically guidance for volunteers
- Greater range of specialist tools.
- Expand opening hours to both morning and afternoon sessions?
- We could run more workshops
We hope to repeat this process annually but also to seek feedback after every event from a wider audience including guests and observers as well as volunteers via a separate form
repaircafegosport.co.uk/feedback