What is the Voice of Participant survey?

Voice of Participant (VOP), also known as the Club Experience Survey, was launched by Sport NZ in 2016 as a tool for National Sport Organisations (NSOs) to gain a greater understanding of the participant experience. The research looks at behaviours, attitudes and needs as they relate to specific touchpoints across the overall experience, predominantly within a club context. This approach helps with understanding how different interactions are perceived, and what is important to get right to retain and grow membership.

Other VOP details:

• Between 2016 and April 2023, VOP was run by an independent research agency, NielsenIQ. From April 2023, Sport NZ has shifted to running the programme internally.
• VOP captures feedback from participants of all ages. For those under 14 years, in most cases, parents/guardians complete the survey on behalf of the young person.

What questions does the survey ask?

The survey covers a variety of aspects of the participant experience, including:

• Overall experience (e.g. satisfaction, likelihood to recommend the club to others, and likelihood to rejoin the club next season)
• Satisfaction with a range of aspects of the experience, including facilities, social environment, playing/training venues, friendliness, fairness, club management, etc
• Areas for improvement
• Inappropriate sideline behaviour
• Perception of gender equality

Survey results

Each participating sport/NSO receives a report that includes results to all questions, including previous years’ results (where applicable) and a comparison to the average for other sports that have taken part in VOP recently.

Periodically, Sport NZ has produced a combined sport view that presents a national picture of the sport participation experience. These reports do not specifically mention any of the sports individually.