Annual Report 2018–2019

Karen Gilmore:  research associate, donor relations, Canadian Blood Services

We’ve made great improvements in how we’re collecting and analyzing donor feedback, and we’re using those insights in more meaningful ways every day.”

Data analytics and advanced technologies are helping Canadian Blood Services researcher Karen Gilmore and her colleagues better understand the preferences of donors — a critical step in securing the future of the blood system.

“In February 2019, we launched a new digital survey as part of our ongoing effort to continuously improve the donation experience,” says Karen Gilmore, a research associate with the donor relations team at Canadian Blood Services. “The survey asks people who’ve recently visited a blood donor centre to provide feedback on the process and their interactions with our staff. It’s been a huge success — we received more than 60,000 responses in the first six months. Donors appreciate having a quick, convenient way to share their perspective. And we gain a wealth of data showing what we’re doing well and where we might do better.”

In the past, feedback was collected via a quarterly email survey. The survey targeted a subset of blood donors, so the sample was relatively small and restrictive. In contrast, the new survey encompasses all donation types, including plasma and platelets, as well as successful and temporarily deferred donors. It is sent out automatically within two days of a donor centre visit, so the information gathered is more current. And the larger sample size means that Karen and her colleagues have a more robust and representative pool of data from which to gain insights, including at individual centres.

Judging by the tone

The donor feedback initiative is supported by customer experience management software that combines advanced analytics with artificial intelligence to enable detailed reporting on donor perceptions. In addition to capturing answers to close-ended questions, the system uses natural language processing to categorize open-ended comments and even gauge donors’ sentiments from their choice of words. “The software automatically reads every response, puts it in a category — wait-times, say, or the performance of the donor centre team — and actually captures the tone of the comments,” Karen explains. “It’s very powerful and, of course, much faster than analyzing surveys manually.”

Donors are asked to indicate, on a scale of zero to 10, how likely they would be to recommend Canadian Blood Services to a friend or colleague. A score of 6 or lower is considered a negative response and triggers a follow-up (with the donor’s consent). “If we can’t respond promptly to donors who raise concerns, it’s a missed opportunity,” Karen says. “Now the system flags survey responses that need attention. Someone from our National Contact Centre responds directly — or passes on comments to the most appropriate colleague within Canadian Blood Services — in order to get more details, help resolve any issues and encourage the donor to keep coming back.”

The power of insights

Another major benefit of the new system is that donor feedback can be widely shared across the organization. Supervisors of both fixed and mobile donor centres automatically receive weekly reports by email. They can also log in anytime to the feedback system to see near-real-time data and review donors’ comments, gaining insights they can share with their teams on what’s working well and areas that may need attention. More senior managers can access high-level summaries and drill down for details by location, time and date, donation type and other criteria. (The system has undergone a rigorous privacy impact assessment, and all donor information is subject to appropriate data protection measures.)

Survey data has helped identify areas that need extra focus. For example, many donors said they’d like to be updated on how long their donation visit was expected to take; addressing this has become a national priority. At the local level, leaders in the donor centres can access easy-to-read reports and develop their own solutions, managing performance on a case-by-case basis. They can also use keyword searches to do deep dives into specific topics. “The real game changer is the level of detail in the data,” says Karen, “and our ability to do more with that information than ever before.”

Like all organizations being transformed by the digital economy, Canadian Blood Services is only beginning to leverage the power of sophisticated analytics and artificial intelligence. “It’s early days and we’re just scratching the surface of the technology’s potential,” Karen says. “But we’ve made great improvements in how we’re collecting and analyzing donor feedback, and we’re using those insights in more meaningful ways every day.”