ROLE 3: Define or Measure Performance:
Practice 3b. Collect data: Collect performance measurement data.
Kansas City, Missouri, City Auditor [Profile]
The City Auditor’s Office has commissioned citizen surveys a number of times since the mid-1990’s, with surveys done in consecutive years from 2000 through 2005. With the assistance of professional survey and market research firms, the City Auditor’s Office has collected data from citizens in general and from owners and managers of businesses in Kansas City on satisfaction with city services, perceptions of community conditions, and priorities for future emphasis. In addition to satisfaction with services and perceptions of quality of life (e.g., safety, cleanliness, environment for raising children or doing business), each year since 2000 people have been asked about such things as their overall image of the city, value received for city taxes and fees, how well the city was planning for growth, the quality of the city’s leadership, and the effectiveness of city communication with the public. Also since 2000, survey questions and a scale used in other cities have been used to provide benchmark comparison results with other communities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and other Midwestern cities of comparable size.
Both citizen and business surveys have been done by phone, and citizen survey calls have been placed to get a specified number of households responding from each of the city’s six council districts, to help achieve a representative sample. Each year, city department directors are given the opportunity to suggest additional questions for inclusion into the annual surveys. When suggestions are received, they are considered in light of a desire to keep the survey instrument small, and a desire to avoid changing questions that would affect comparisons with benchmark cities and prior surveys. In recent years, some individual city departments have begun conducting their own customer satisfaction surveys.
A 1999 business survey identified six major types of services identified as most important to Kansas City businesses. Then, in 2001, a series of four focus groups were held with business owners and managers to provide more in depth information about issues of interest to business owners, especially focusing on the priority services identified in the 1999 survey. For example, they were asked to provide examples of positive and negative experiences with those services,, and to brainstorm a list of aspects of each service that affect their overall satisfaction with the service.
Through the 2001 citizen survey, the City Auditor issued survey results in separate Special Reports. Starting in 2001, survey results have been issued in annual City Services Performance Reports for each fiscal year.The 2004 survey was extended to include both random citizens and contacts representing neighborhood groups, the results of which were reported in Citizen Survey Results for Citizens and Neighborhood Contacts and in a separate report by geographic area. A separate report providing 2005 survey results for benchmark cities as well as the survey results by geographic area was released in March 2006. Survey results for 2006, released in an April 2007 report, were based on an equal number of mail and phone surveys.
More information on the citizen and business surveys and focus groups, including survey sample sizes, margins of error, and level of effort, and creating comparability with other cities [Example in 2004 Guide-PDF]
Reports:
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