City Services Satisfaction Survey 2012 City Services Satisfaction Survey | Page 4

conducted for 3 weeks from December 21, 2011 through January 12, 2012. As the
survey progressed, the data were transferred from the Internet server to Decision
Analyst’s internal computers, safe behind a protective “firewall.”
All respondents were aged 18 or over and live within Arlington city limits, excluding
Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego. Upon completion of data collection, to ensure a
representation of the city’s population, the data were weighted by gender, age, and
district distribution.
A copy of the questionnaire, along with further discussion of data collection and data
processing procedures, is presented in the Appendix.
USE OF DECISION ANALYST, INC. NAME
Prior written approval from Decision Analyst, Inc. is required for the use of its name in
connection with any public release of research data, the substantiation of any
advertising claims, and/or the use of research data as evidence in any legal
proceedings or litigation.
Caution On Year-To-Year Comparisons
With the change from telephone to Internet methodology for this year’s survey, it was
recognized that there might be differences in year-to-year comparisons that could not
be explained by anything other than that change.
Some of the factors that might result in differences include: different sample;
respondents looking at or reading questions rather than listening; self-
administered questions vs. interaction with an interviewer; the type of person
willing to participate in an Internet survey vs. someone willing to participate in a
phone survey; and many other possible factors, including unknown factors.
Especially for the first year, comparability with previous waves may be lost to some
extent. Unexplained differences were in fact seen in a number of year-to-year
comparisons. They have generally been presented here for informational purposes,
without attempted explanation. For all these reasons, year-to-year comparisons should
be interpreted with caution.
Decision Analyst, Inc.
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