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US Citizen Satisfaction

Local governments across the country are looking to better understand their citizens' satisfaction levels, attitudes, needs, and priorities. In these challenging economic times, understanding how citizens think and feel is more important than ever for local governments in the development of communications strategies, new programs and services, and budgeting plans, as well as serve as a benchmark for tracking how attitudes are changing over time.

To accommodate this need, Ipsos is pleased to offer your local government the opportunity to participate in our Citizen Satisfaction syndicated research study. This shared-cost vehicle is designed to explore key issues facing local municipalities, including:

• Issue agenda;
• Perceptions towards quality of life in their community;
• Satisfaction with municipal services;
• Perceived value for municipal taxes and preferred funding options; and,
• Communication and information needs, including website visitation.

In addition to these core issues, this year's survey will also include three optional modules that target key areas of concern: Citizen Priorities & Expectations, Measuring Staff & Council Performance, and Infrastructure.

The Citizen Priorities & Expectations module explores citizens' perceptions of key priorities over the next year, interest in local vs. broad priorities, and awareness and alignment of citizen expectations to Council/Administration's priorities.

The Measuring Staff & Council Performance module examines citizens' ratings of Council and municipal staff.

The Infrastructure module explores citizen perceptions of their municipalities responsibilities as they relate to infrastructure assets, as well as which assets they feel are a priority.

How Does Your Community Compare to Others?

In addition to looking at the overall opinions and views of your citizens, we believe that one of the best ways to understand how well your local government is performing is to compare your results to those of other municipalities.

Ipsos' depth and breadth of experience in municipal research has enabled us to develop a series of municipal norms for key questions, including top-of-mind issues, quality of life, website visitation, satisfaction with services, and value for taxes. As part of the final deliverables for participating in this study, Ipsos will compare your results to those of other local governments, thereby providing valuable context, added insight, greater depth of analysis, and benchmarks against which to evaluate your performance.

How Does the Survey Work?

We will conduct a telephone survey of 300 citizens aged 16 years or older in each local government that decides to participate in the research. This will provide a good overall assessment of the opinions of your citizens on the questions outlined above and provide Administration and Council with information as to the direction that citizens would like you to take.

The margin of error on a survey of this size is ±5.7% (19 times out of 20) and the survey is large enough to allow the results to be analyzed according to key demographic variables.

To keep the costs low, the same core questions (outlined above) will be asked in all local governments. However, you may add custom questions or increase the number of interviews for an additional charge.Your individual results will not be shared with other local governments.

All Subscribers Receive...

• Detailed tables with cross tabulations of the major demographics such as age, gender, length of residency, and families with children under 18.
• PowerPoint slides of your results and an in-person presentation of the findings to an audience of your choice (travel will be billed extra).
• Access to Ipsos' municipal norms.

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