The City of Arlington is partnering with Decision Analyst, an Arlington-based independent market research company, to conduct the Citizen Satisfaction Survey- an anonymous and confidential online survey designed to gather resident's opinions about city services. The City has conducted this survey for more than 10 years.
Residents selected at random from zip codes across the city will begin receiving postcards in the mail this week inviting them to participate. Email invitations are being sent Monday, December 17.
"Providing the survey online is significantly more efficient in cost savings and response time,' said Kim Probasco, Arlington's senior performance analyst."By switching to the online survey, we were able to save more than $7,000, which is moved to the general fund for providing core services to Arlington residents.'
Probasco says two other factors impacted the City's decision to move the survey online: a growing number of people using cell phones as a primary phone and the fact that every Arlington resident does not receive a water bill."The online survey allows us to reach more people across the city. In fact, last year's survey received the most responses over the years we've been conducting the Citizen Satisfaction Survey.'
The selection pool of random respondents consists of all occupied addresses within the City and email databases gathered from various City departments.
"This year we took all occupied addresses of residents within the Arlington city limits, broke down the list by zip code, and took a percentage of each zip code (based on the percentage of the city population) to randomly select residents to contact,' said Probasco."We also took email distribution lists and randomly selected residents for participation. This allows us to get good representation across the city.'
Those randomly selected to complete the survey will be contacted, either by post card or email, with instructions and login information. The online survey will close on January 8, 2013.
Probasco says the information obtained from the survey provides the City valuable feedback and she encourages all randomly selected residents to participate.
"If selected to participate in the survey, it is important that we receive completed surveys by the deadline. The survey information obtained tells us how well we deliver services to our residents. It is also used by the City to address potential areas in need of improvement, plan for the next fiscal year, and provide performance management data. We really appreciate the residents taking the time to provide us with this important information.'
According to Probasco, this year's survey will cover one of the new City Council Priorities for fiscal year 2013: Support Quality Education. The City Council is expected to utilize this data when reviewing and planning strategies for working with the educational partners in Arlington.
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