City of Dublin to Perform Citizen Satisfaction Surveys
The City of Dublin will perform two community surveys during the next few months to gauge resident perceptions about City services and budgetary prioritization and to help compare Dublin’s performance to communities nationwide.
National Citizen Survey
The first survey will be the National Citizen Survey, a standardized list of questions developed by the International City/County Management Association and the National Research Center. This survey allows jurisdictions across the country to assess citizen satisfaction with community amenities and governmental services, and to compare those responses with satisfaction rates in other communities.
This ability to compare against other communities will help the City to remain a leader in citizen satisfaction for its high quality services and service delivery. It will also benefit the City’s research into best practices to assist with the improvement, or analyze the cost effectiveness, of service delivery. Finally, this information will provide additional tools necessary for Dublin to remain a leader in citizen satisfaction for our high quality services and service delivery, and to hopefully validate the relative quality of our services on an objective, national level.
The National Citizen Survey will be mailed to 1,200 randomly selected Dublin households in mid-November. Those households will receive a pre-survey postcard and two mailings of the survey. In early February, the City will receive an executive summary and statistical analysis of the survey results, as well as a comparison with national norms.
Community Survey
The second survey is the City’s biennial Community Survey. This survey is more in-depth and Dublin-specific than the National Citizen Survey and is used by staff and City Council in budgeting, planning and customer service improvement. The responses also are used to help compare Dublin’s performance over time.
The 2010 survey will be different than previous community surveys in that every Dublin household will be invited to participate online. In the past, 2,500 randomly-selected households were asked to take the survey, which was mailed to their homes.
In 2008, the City experimented with both an online and mailed version of the survey. The responses were consistent between the two survey methods. The City believes an online survey will have the added benefits of being more affordable and more inclusive.
Every Dublin household will receive a request to take this online survey along with the 2010 Resident Guide, to be mailed in January. The survey responses will be tabulated by a marketing firm in February and March, with results presented to Council in April.
Because the City determines all the questions in the Community Survey, it allows the City to gauge resident perceptions about budgetary priorities, Council and Administration goals and initiatives, communications vehicles, special events, and community attributes. The survey also allows the City ask questions on behalf of community partners such as the Dublin Convention and Visitors Bureau, Dublin Arts Council and Washington Township.
