As a camp leader, you put tons of effort into creating amazing and meaningful camp experiences every year. But how do you know that it’s all paying off? The answer is simple: summer camp surveys.
Sending out surveys is essential to your camp’s wrap-up activities, allowing you to collect honest feedback and improve for the future. Let’s explore everything you need to know to design engaging surveys and receive actionable insights about your camp. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Why Create Summer Camp Surveys
- 3 Types of Summer Camp Surveys to Send
- Tips for Creating Compelling Summer Camp Survey Questions
- What to Do with Post-Summer Camp Survey Feedback
- A Summer Camp Survey Template
Why Should You Create Summer Camp Satisfaction Surveys?
A successful summer camp consistently meets and exceeds expectations, from registration to safety to activities. However, since every camp differs in terms of its programs and audience, you need to keep a pulse on the specific expectations of your camp families and staff.
Designing post-summer camp satisfaction surveys allows you to:
- Strengthen camp relationships. Seeking feedback from campers, parents, and staff demonstrates a willingness to listen to their suggestions and concerns. Parents who feel heard by your camp are much more likely to trust sending their children to your camp over other summer opportunities. Staff who know you’re committed to supporting them in their roles will develop a sense of loyalty and familiarity with your organization.
- Improve camp planning. What activities can you incorporate next year to make your camp even more engaging? Should you invest in new software to streamline your staff and resource management? The surveys you send can help you answer these questions and determine what to prioritize in planning next year’s camp activities.
- Boost retention and re-enrollment. Surveys allow you to identify concerns or improvement areas early so you can make prompt changes to address them. As you refine your camp processes and activities to resonate with campers, parents, and staff, you’ll produce top-notch experiences that keep them returning every year.
Surveys aren’t just about identifying what your camp should improve. By learning about the strengths of your camp, you can highlight these in your marketing materials to drum up interest among new camp families and potential staff members.
3 Types of Summer Camp Surveys to Send
When you send surveys, you’re asking respondents to take time out of their day to talk about your camp. To maximize engagement, you must send targeted surveys with questions relevant to each recipient’s experience rather than a comprehensive list covering every aspect of your camp.
Start by designing these three types of summer camp surveys:
Summer Camp Survey for Campers
Your campers stay in your cabins, participate in your activities, and live out your camp’s culture and motto. When coming up with survey questions for these individuals, consider the key contributors to their overall experience, such as:
- Food and dining
- Camp staff
- Activities
- Cabins and roommates
Adjust your questions based on the age range of campers and your camp’s specific focus. For example, a performing arts camp might include questions about the repertoire choices and quality of rehearsal spaces.
Example Survey Questions for Campers
- What was your favorite meal at camp?
- What type of food do you wish there were more of?
- On a scale of 1-10, how much did you like the food at camp?
- Who was your favorite counselor at camp, and why?
- How much did you like (counselor’s name)’s activities?
- What was your favorite activity at camp?
- What was your least favorite activity at camp?
- What activity would you have liked to try, but didn’t get to?
- What activity do you wish we did more of?
- On a scale of 1-10, how well did you get along with your bunkmates?
- Did you like the cabin you stayed in? Why or why not?
Summer Camp Survey for Parents
While parents don’t attend your camp, they pay for their children to attend. Therefore, you must stay tuned into their priorities and concerns to convince them to continue sending their children to your camp every year. Include the following topics in your summer camp survey for parents:
- Registration and drop-off process
- Trust in your camp
- What they appreciated most about interacting with your camp
- Level of comfort and satisfaction with their child’s camp experience
Often, parents can provide more insights into their child’s experience with your camp, including what they liked and disliked about their time there. Plus, they can help you identify any roadblocks in your camp processes, such as issues with your registration portal or emails that went unanswered.
Example Survey Questions for Parents
- Would you recommend our camp to your friends for their children?
- On a scale of 1-10, how comfortable did you feel with your child at our camp?
- Do you believe that your child had a good time?
- What activities do you wish your child had partaken in?
- What about the camp experience do you think was most valuable for your child?
- On a scale of 1-10, how much do you trust our staff to handle an emergency with your child?
- Has your child told you anything about the camp experience that they did not enjoy?
- Will you send your child back to camp next summer?
- On a scale of 1-10, how easy was it to use our camp registration software?
- How can we make the camp experience better for you, as a parent?
Summer Camp Staff Survey
Your camp’s staff are the life force of your camp. They look after campers, run your activities, communicate with parents, and more. Helping them feel engaged and thrive in their roles, in turn, ensures your camp thrives overall. When creating a summer camp evaluation form for your dedicated team, consider asking about:
- How supported they felt during training
- How they felt about their benefits
- Their thoughts on their coworkers
- Their satisfaction with the activities they led
Consider allowing staff members to submit anonymous survey responses so they can be honest without fear of repercussions. Doing so can lead to more candid and insightful feedback that helps you better understand your camp’s workflow and culture.
Example Survey Questions for Staff
- On a scale of 1-10, how much did you like working at camp?
- What was your favorite part of working at camp?
- What was your least favorite part of working here?
- Who on the team did you work the best with?
- Who on the team were you unable to work well with?
- What was your favorite activity to run/coach/teach?
- What was your least favorite activity?
- What did you feel unprepared for when the summer started?
- How would you improve the counselor training process?
- Do you feel as though you had enough time off?
Creating Compelling Summer Camp Survey Questions: 4 Tips
While you can collect in-person survey responses or send surveys in the mail, the most effective way to create and distribute surveys is online. After all, 82% of parents indicate that they prefer to access and sign forms or waivers online. This method allows recipients to fill out the survey in the comfort of their own home, at whatever time is convenient for them.
Use these tips to craft your online surveys and start engaging with your audience:
- Determine the tools at your disposal. Does your summer camp management software make designing and distributing surveys to campers, parents, and staff easy? Or do you have to resort to free resources, such as Google Forms? If you don’t already have an existing system to send out surveys, consider purchasing robust software that makes it easy for you.
- Include a variety of summer camp survey questions. Incorporate multiple choice, rating, and open-answer questions to solicit the most helpful feedback from your recipients. While quantitative answers are easier to analyze in reports, qualitative answers often provide additional valuable details on your camp experience.
- Provide an incentive for filling out the survey. Promote participation and demonstrate your appreciation for survey respondents by offering an incentive, such as a free camp t-shirt or a discount for next year’s camp sessions.
- Analyze your survey results. By distributing surveys and collecting answers through your camp management platform, you can unlock a complete view of your camp experience and identify common trends among responses.
With all-in-one camp software like CIRCUITREE, you can automate the survey process to send the right surveys to the right recipients at the right times.
What to Do with Post-Summer Camp Survey Feedback
The whole point of your summer camp evaluations is to determine what your camp is doing right, and discover where you can improve for next summer. When you receive survey answers, analyze the data for trends and consider taking the following steps:
- Reach out to staff who submitted the best reviews and work on recruiting them for next summer.
Meet with staffers who didn’t provide positive feedback to determine where to go next. - Prioritize improvements to cabins, meal plans, or camp activities based on camper responses.
- Reach out to families who submitted concerns to determine how you can improve or correct what went wrong.
- Add more sessions of the most popular activities or create a dedicated program featuring an activity that many campers enjoyed.
There’s no wrong way to move forward! The key to evaluations is to make it clear to campers, their parents, and staff that you care about them and their experiences. When you work together as a community to improve your camp, everyone benefits.
Summer Camp Survey Questions: A Template
Need a little jump-start for your summer camp survey? Use this basic template as a launch pad:
How can we contact you?
First Name:
Last Name:
Email:
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your experience with our camp?
How likely are you to participate in our camp next year?
|
Ο Very Unlikely |
Ο Unlikely |
Ο Likely |
Ο Very Likely |
How likely are you to recommend our camp to friends and family?
|
Ο Very Unlikely |
Ο Unlikely |
Ο Likely |
Ο Very Likely |
How would you rate your experience with the following?
|
Camp Location |
Ο Excellent |
Ο Good |
Ο Average |
Ο Bad |
|
Camp Staff |
Ο Excellent |
Ο Good |
Ο Average |
Ο Bad |
|
Camp Activities |
Ο Excellent |
Ο Good |
Ο Average |
Ο Bad |
Could you please tell us about your favorite part of your camp experience?
What improvements, if any, would you like to see in our camp?
Enhancing Your Summer Camp with CIRCUITREE
A lot goes into managing a successful summer camp. Summer camp surveys allow you to make more strategic decisions to delight campers, their families, and staff without straining your time or resources.
With summer camp management software like CIRCUITREE, you can create surveys with ease and unlock crucial information to make data-driven improvements across your camp operations. Using the tools at your fingertips and listening to your camp community, you can set your camp up for lasting success.
If you’re interested in learning about more tips and tools to improve how you run your camp, check out these additional resources:
- Camp Management Software: A Guide + Top Solutions. Explore our top recommendations for intuitive camp management software that streamlines your operations and powers your continued growth.
- How to Increase Summer Camp Enrollment: A Complete Guide. Discover how you can improve your camp enrollment with these proven strategies.
- Summer Camp Registration Forms: 5 Top Tips + Free Template. Your registration process sets the tone for your overall camp experience. Make it a good one using these top tips.
