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Survey of New Zealand visa and permit applicants who have used an immigration adviser

Conducted for the Immigration Advisers Authority by Premium Research

In 2009 the Immigration Advisors Authority (IAA) conducted a benchmark survey to assess immigration adviser performance from the perspective of their clients. This survey was repeated exactly 12 months later, to provide an up to date measure of the perception of adviser performance and identify any change in perceptions over time.

The overall aim of the research is:

To provide measures of the performance of immigration advisers from the perspective of their clients to help measure the effects over time of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007.

At the time of conducting the 2009 survey, New Zealand based advisers had been able to make a voluntary application for licensing for 12 months and compulsory licensing was just about to be introduced for New Zealand based advisers.

At the time of conducting the 2010 survey, licensing had been compulsory for New Zealand based advisers for 12 months and compulsory licensing for offshore advisers had just been introduced.

The 2010 survey allows an early assessment of the impact of introducing licensing on client satisfaction with adviser service. It is only an early assessment because few offshore advisers were licensed at the time of undertaking the 2010 survey.

The survey of applicants who use advisers was undertaken using an online methodology.  Visa and permit applicants who had received advice from an immigration adviser in the period 4 May 2009 to 4 May 2010, with personal email addresses on record, were invited to participate in this survey. The questionnaire was provided in English and Simplified Chinese. A total of 1,115 applicants completed a survey. This document gives a brief summary of the survey findings.

The survey included applicants who had used licensed, unlicensed and exempt advisers.  Due to the small sample of unlicensed advisers in 2010 (3% or n=34) – any results and comparisons for this group should be treated with caution.

In the 2009 survey, emphasis in the reporting was on comparing between licensed, exempt and unlicensed advisers. For the 2010 survey the most important comparison is between the 2009 sample (where just 28% of clients used a licensed adviser) and the 2010 sample (where 68% used a licensed adviser).

Overall Satisfaction

Satisfaction with the overall quality of the service provided by advisers shows a positive change, increasing from 63 percent satisfied in 2009 to 75 percent in 2010 (i.e. the total proportion of applicants giving a rating of 4 or 5 out of 5).  Fewer clients were dissatisfied with the overall service provided – 12 percent compared to 17 percent in the 2009 survey.

As in 2009, clients using unlicensed advisers continue to show a lower level of satisfaction (68%) than clients who used a licensed (76%) or exempt (74%) adviser.

Adviser Performance

Applicants were asked to rate their adviser on client service; communication; provision of information; timeliness; written agreements; and cost. 

In each case the 2010 results were statistically significantly higher than the 2009 results, with 14 of the 21 attributes increasing by 10 percent or more.  The greatest improvement was for:

As in 2009, service areas related to communication remain some of the lowest rated service areas (e.g. consistent information and advice, providing additional information, quick response to questions and clear answers to questions).

Recommend Adviser

A higher 79 percent of clients said they would recommend their adviser to friends and family (compared to 70% in 2009).  Recommendation is indicatively lower among clients using unlicensed advisers at 71 percent.

Positive Comments

A higher 73 percent (compared to 62% in 2009) of clients provided a positive comment when asked why they gave the satisfaction rating they did.  More clients in 2010 said their adviser:

Negative Comments

A total of 31 percent of clients made a negative comment (similar to 34% in 2009). The key types of negative comments made were as follows:

Service Improvement

All applicants were asked what the one thing advisers could do to improve their services was. The key improvements mentioned were as follows (and were similar to improvements suggested in 2009):

More clients in 2010 suggested advisers keep in contact (12%, up from 9%) and reduce their fees (10%, up from 6%).

Compliance

Among clients who used a licensed adviser, just under two-thirds (64%) said they received a copy of the code of conduct.  This result is much higher than the four in ten (40%) who received this in 2009.

The proportion of clients using a licensed adviser who received a written agreement was also much higher with eight in ten (81%) clients saying they received this document, compared to just under half in 2009 (47%).

Finding an Adviser

As in 2009 the primary means of finding an adviser was via friends or family.  Use of this source has increased since 2009 (up from 52% to 58%).  The second most common means remains the internet (13%, down from 19% in 2009).An executive summary of this survey is also available online.