City Services Satisfaction Survey 2013 City Services Satisfaction Survey | Page 3

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
This is the eleventh annual survey (and the second one conducted online) among City
of Arlington residents to measure satisfaction with city services. The benchmark
telephone survey was conducted in December 2000, and subsequent telephone survey
waves occurred in November or December each year, except for the 2006 wave that
was conducted in January and February of 2007 and was significantly changed from
previous waves. In 2011, the data-collection method changed from a telephone survey
to an online survey for the first time.
Reasons for switching to an Internet method included: 1) Increased Internet usage
among citizens, 2) Better access to citizens via online (compared to poor production via
telephone), 3) Convenience and ease of online interviewing for respondents to take time
in order to give thoughtful answers on key questions (as opposed to somewhat
spontaneous answers given the time limit in telephone survey), and 4) Lower cost and
faster timing.
A potential negative effect of switching methodologies is that
comparability with previous waves may be lost to some extent (especially for the first
year). As anticipated, the first online wave in 2011 showed various changes related to
the data-collection method, but this and future waves should be on similar levels with
natural year-to-year fluctuations.
The objectives of the survey are to assess citizens’ current perceptions of city services,
to identify areas where the City of Arlington is perceived as doing well and areas where
improvement may be needed, and to monitor the effectiveness of the city’s efforts to
improve services. Information gathered from this wave of interviewing will also be used
in planning and budgeting for 2013.
METHODS
All interviewing was completed over the Internet via Decision Analyst’s secure web
server. A total of 29,118 invitations (including 24,134 from Library and Parks email
distribution lists and 4,984 from mailing lists selected from a total list of occupied
residences in the city) were sent to obtain 598 Internet interviews (including 347 from
email lists and 251 from mailing lists) among residents within Arlington city limits. The
library sample and occupied residences sample were pulled randomly and
proportionately to the zip code distribution of Arlington.
Decision Analyst, Inc.
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