This article presents the best way for your city or town to learn from residents about their satisfaction with services and important issues, conducting municipal opinion surveys.
Assessing Satisfaction With Municipal Services and Municipal Government – and Being Responsive to Voters
Many cities and towns are run well, some aren’t. All cities and towns can be governed more effectively, regardless of how well they may already be governed. A large part of governing cities and towns effectively is to listen to residents and to be responsive to them, taking action where appropriate.
Municipal opinion surveys / community surveys enable residents and business owners/leaders to share their perceptions and suggestions about municipal government, specific public issues, and the various services provided to them with their mayor/city manager and city/town council. The results of municipal surveys can also be shared with residents and business owners/leaders.
Mayors, city managers and city/town council members often have to make important decisions with limited information and input from residents and businesses. Residents often do not have the time or inclination to attend town council meetings to express their opinions. Unfortunately, as countless mayors and city/town council members have experienced too late, the first opportunity constituents often have to voice their opinion is in the voting booth, unless municipal surveys are conducted first and the results are acted upon.
Municipal surveys are designed to gather perceptions about many important issues and to aggregate the results to get the pulse of the city/town. Surveys are usually customized to meet the information needs of municipal leaders.
Mayors and town councils are able to learn from municipal survey results and establish priorities and budgets based on feedback from residents, taxpayers and businesses. Municipal surveys provide an easy, proactive and very cost-effective way for municipal government leaders to gather feedback and suggestions from and be more responsive to all of their constituents.
Municipal Opinion Survey Metrics
Survey ratings provide a clear indication of current and ongoing levels of city and town resident satisfaction. Verbatim comments and suggestions provide critical actionable information and insight for achieving results and being responsive to constituents and voters.
Reasons for Conducting Municipal Opinion Surveys
· Municipal opinion surveys provide significant benefits for mayors, city managers, city and town councils and their constituents, the residents and business owners/leaders:
· Enable all municipal constituents to easily and cost-effectively voice their opinions and suggestions
· Mayors/city managers and city/town managers are able to be more responsive to their constituents and be more confident that they know the opinions of their constituents
· Municipal budgets and priorities can better reflect the opinions of voters
· Surveys let constituents know their opinions are valued
· Acting on municipal survey feedback increases popularity of mayors/city managers and city/town councils
· Increase value of municipal budget dollars spent
· Sample Municipal Opinion Survey Reports
The best way to understand the value of municipal opinion surveys is to look at the results from an actual survey. Survey reports including graphs presenting ratings results and comments reports are available at http://www.quantisoft.com/Surveys/VeronaResults.htm
Information about Quantisoft’s Surveys http://www.quantisoft.com/Index.htm
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