There are many adjectives that you can use to describe the User Questionnaire established by AAI…..under -appreciated, neglected, forgotten, and misunderstood to name a few.   How did six little questions manage to become so dreaded?

Some clients have made it a policy not to fill out this questionnaire and other clients require a dissertation on the purpose of the questionnaire before they will decide if they want to fill it out or not.    Why is that?  Is it a liability concern?  Surely not…..the whole intent of AAI was to help the user be protected from such liability.  Is it because they have something to hide?  Doubtful.

I think people (both users and providers) just don’t understand the purpose of the questions.  So here it is ….under the AAI standard, the entity that is using the Phase I (i.e. who the report is addressed to) is requested to provide any information that they have regarding the six items identified by AAI.  If the User does not have any information, then it is okay to mark “no”.    By marking “no” you are not indicating that there is no informaiton, you are just indicating that you are not aware of any information in regards to that item.  It is still the responsibility of the consultant to search for this information – the user is just another potential source of the information.

So, the  next time you are asked to complete the User Questionnaire, don’t cringe and go into hiding – do so with a smile.  And, if for some reason, your consultant forgets to ask you to complete one, you can remind them.   After all, we are all in this together.

By Summer Gell