These information sheets will be of use to health service staff of community health councils who wish to find out about non-survey methods of obtaining users' views. The purpose of these sheets is: to give some useful reading references for this field; to give some details of some of the current major projects; and to list some organisations which may be able to carry out research. The `patient satisfaction survey' has been, for many years, the most popular way of obtaining feedback from users of health services. Recently it has been argued that this method has a number of limitations and that non-survey methods are more appropriate in some circumstances. Non-survey methods are qualitative ways to obtain feedback (that is, they involve the collection and analysis of narrative information, for example, explanations of why people have certain opinions;