Thanks to board member Susan Seitz for writing these notes about our most recent consumer survey!
Several months ago you were asked to fill out an online survey about your experiences with the Iowa Food Coop. The board appreciates the time and thoughtfulness that went into filling out those surveys and would like to share some information about the results. The following is a small snapshot of the total results. If you would like more details about these results, we can make that happen. For now here are some overall general observations of what our members have experienced while ordering from IFC.
Our membership is pretty much divided into thirds when it comes to length of time in the coop with a little over 1/3 being members for one year or less, a little over 1/3 belonging for one to four years, and a little over 1/4 of our members belonging for more than four years.
The vast majority (86%) of the respondents seem satisfied with their over-all shopping experience. Of the 86% sixty-five percent were very satisfied. Respondents also gave high marks to their pick-up experiences, using words like friendly, competent, organized, and great volunteers.
When asked their reasons for being a member of the coop, 135 responded. The word local was used 85 times, and both high quality and healthful were mentioned 50 times. Other multiple responses were good for the environment, less carbon foot print, know where my food comes from, like to support sustainable farming, and lots of support for local farmers.
Around half of our members first learned about the coop from personal contacts, i.e., friends, family, and IFC producers. Around one quarter found IFC on line, and the rest from other ways.
The vast majority of members (79% )spend less than 25% of their food dollars shopping with the IFC. Only 2% of members spend 75% or more of their food dollars with the IFC. There were 39 responses to what would increase spending with the coop. Fifteen mentioned more pickup frequency or convenience of location/time and fourteen mentioned more variety. Lower prices and quality were mentioned by a few.
The individual comments were varied, thoughtful, thought-provoking and very helpful to us as a board. We randomly picked one comment to share and it could have been a hundred or more. One person responded to her/his experience of picking up food at the Franklin site with…
“I love it! I noticed there are some staples on the shelves there. I never asked but assume these are for sale. I need to take time to look around more and see if there are last minute items I can add to my order.”
Just another reminder… this is a small part of a lot of data we learned from you, our valued customers. We will continue to process this information and use it to improve and expand IFC while keeping the quality of products and experience as high as possible.