The question of how can we best capture people’s experience of a Restart Party (not just the repairs) is a really interesting one.
@Repair_Cafe_Glasgow, if you’re happy to share the form you use Jon, that would be amazing!
I like that idea @Panda of asking for ‘One thing learnt’ at the event as a way of understanding how people have found the experience. Do you imagine this being recorded on the flipchart/whiteboard and being inputted to the Fixometer?
One barrier I can see is working out who can ask these kinds of questions and when. The post-repair experience tends to be even less structured than the pre-repair one, with the participant usually heading straight out.
In my experience of running (technical) training events, I found it is best to collect feedback discreetly/privately and with the option of anonymity because otherwise negative feedback may be inhibited - but as you want also to make sure you get answers to the same question each time, maybe use e.g. a pre-printed sheet, perhaps with two components: a ‘rate this event’ scale with clear word for each level ‘unsatisfactory’, OK, Brilliant, etc., then a free text area for ‘what worked well, and what can you suggest we improve next time?’ - and feedbackers are pointed at them or perhaps given a sheet by the repairer when the job is finished, and can put them in a box or something where they’re not going to be looked at by everyone. Or perhaps also add a ‘did your repair succeed’ question. Don’t know, anyway whatever the detail, my point is that asking people to display their feedback publicly can reduce their keenness to give open feedback.
Or, point them at a surveymonkey survey to capture the feedback electronically, again with the option of anonymity.
I like idea of a “was your item repaired” question because I have seen several poor reviews online because the person ordered the wrong item. I can see someone being grumpy and giving poor feedback because they didn’t get the didn’t they wanted.
Just jumping in here to say that we’re creating a special category for people to discuss and work on this together, please reply to me if you’d like to join:
IME negative feedback can be the most valuable kind, because it points at where you can improve, but you have to also take it with a grain of salt because some people are difficult to please: this feedback has to be managed carefully - e.g. by allowing those involved to have their reactions to that feedback included in what management see.
Yes this is definitely interesting, but as I have currently zero experience in actual repair events I don’t see how I can directly get involved. Measuring long-term impact/behaviour changes must be much more difficult than getting an immediate response to a specific repair event. To make the immediate data collection as lightweight as possible, while you could use one of those slightly irritating devices you see at exhibitions with three big coloured buttons for and , it might be better if e.g. the host gives the repairee a physical token (plastic disc) to put in one of three collection boxes, also ensures only the repairees give that aspect of the feedback.
Being able to give some sort of small/relevant reward for continued involvement might help with getting longer-term feedback but I’m sure a statistician should be all over this to make sure the bias in self-selection is taken into consideration. I imagine it’s rather like trying to change the vector of a ship by rowing to push it sideways: for the effort put in by any one person/event, the result is miniscule/unmeasurable but combined over geographies and time there should be a slow trend.
Thanks @Ian_Barnard! If you get involved with a local group (apparently there is a Repair Cafe in Exeter), or even start one up, we’d love for you to help test some of these ideas. Your ideas map to ours!
and 
, it might be better if e.g. the host gives the repairee a physical token (plastic disc) to put in one of three collection boxes, also ensures only the repairees give that aspect of the feedback.