How City Management influences satisfaction and quality of life

Our previous newsletter introduced the Civic Analytical Framework.

Most community surveys focus on city services (e.g., roads, police, fire, library, solid waste, etc.), which, although necessary, are the least important determinants of residents’ quality of life.

This framework defines the key dimensions of a high quality of life, and a good community survey should include all of these dimensions.

Click here to download this framework, which includes more details on each element.  

Importance of City Management

Our previous newsletter shared that the “Core Benefits” are the most important dimensions leading to a high quality of life. However, notice how important city management is. This is worth a bit more discussion.

There are three separate elements within City Management. If the city is seen as strong in these, that alone will lead to a belief that the city offers a high quality of life.

Expertise measures the extent to which residents believe those managing the city are experts in their jobs. In many ways, this is the “cost of entry.” That is, it is expected and will be assumed unless city management does something to suggest they are not experts.

Caring—Does the city management care about the residents’ opinions and desires? Do city management’s views sync with those of the residents, or is it somehow different? Residents may become frustrated with city management if they believe decisions are being made contrary to their will. Tactics that help this dimension create avenues for residents to express their opinions include online forums, traditional town halls, comments on the city’s Facebook page, and community surveys.  

Click here for a useful ICMA article on this topic titled “Best Practices for Proactive Governance In Your City or County.”

However, none of this will work, and in fact, it can work against city management if they provide these communication avenues but make decisions different from the views expressed by the community.

Advocacy – This is putting caring and expertise into action. It is one thing to care; it means more if city management does something about what the community cares about. If the community is concerned about economic development, is city management actively exploring avenues, policies, or incentives to assist in economic development?

An important step is to let residents know their voices were heard by communicating their decisions that directly resulted from listening.

If city management focuses on these dimensions, it will serve its community well and increase residents’ satisfaction with their community.

Download Civic Framework

What’s driving your residents’ satisfaction (or frustration) with your community?

Hint –it’s not just about how well your city delivers its services.

When it comes to resident satisfaction, most people immediately think of how well a city delivers its services. But the truth is, your community’s quality of life goes far beyond that.

In fact, beyond essential services, elements such as affordable housing, a welcoming community culture, and easy access to local amenities like shopping and dining play an important role in determining residents’ satisfaction. These aspects influence how people feel about where they live and contribute greatly to their perception of quality of life. Unfortunately, many community satisfaction surveys focus on only these deliverables.

Let’s take a closer look at how these factors come together to create a stronger, more fulfilling community experience.

The Civic Framework: A Holistic Approach to Quality of Life

The Civic Framework is a comprehensive model that illustrates the key dimensions leading to a high quality of life in a community. A well-designed community survey should consider all of these elements, ensuring a holistic view of what drives resident satisfaction.

Core Benefits

At the heart of the Civic Framework are the “Core Benefits,” which represent what residents truly want from their community. These are the factors that residents value most—things that, if delivered well, will make them feel truly connected to their city. When these core needs are met, residents tend to feel a deep sense of satisfaction and pride in their community.

While we’ll dive deeper into the details of the Civic Framework in a downloadable resource (which you can access by clicking here), let’s highlight the most important contributors to a high quality of life.

What Truly Matters to Residents: Key Insights

Our latest benchmarking survey results reveal the key elements that influence resident satisfaction. These insights are derived from “modeled importance scores,” which are more reliable than direct survey responses. Respondents may tell us what they think we want to hear, but these modeled scores reveal the factors that matter most to them.

Key takeaways from our findings:

Core Benefits Are the Most Important to a Higher Quality of Life:

These are the factors that matter most for boosting overall satisfaction. Things like a sense of belonging, community safety, and economic opportunities are just as critical as basic services, if not more so. If your city can focus on improving these core aspects, residents will feel a stronger emotional connection to their community.

City Services Are Essential, But Not the Whole Story:

While core city services (like utilities, public safety, and transportation) are undeniably important, they don’t have the same weight in boosting overall satisfaction as some of the softer, less tangible factors. Residents expect these services to be efficient, but they won’t move the needle in terms of long-term satisfaction unless complemented by a strong sense of community and a high quality of life.

The Role of City Management: A Key Factor in Resident Satisfaction

Another important factor influencing satisfaction is the community’s trust in its city management. The perception of how well the city is being managed can deeply impact on residents’ sense of security and optimism about the future.

Though we’ll explore this in more depth in a future Community Insights Newsletter, it’s clear that how residents perceive their local government, its responsiveness, and its transparency plays a significant role in how they feel about their city as a whole. A well-managed community fosters a greater sense of stability and trust, which are key to long-term resident satisfaction.

Beyond Service Delivery

While service delivery is a cornerstone of any community, the full picture of resident satisfaction is much broader. The combination of brand perceptions, city service delivery, city management, and core benefits all intertwine to create a thriving environment where people feel truly at home.

By broadening your community surveys to include these elements, you can gain a deeper understanding of what truly matters to your residents and where improvements should be made. When cities focus not just on delivering services but also on fostering a welcoming, dynamic environment, residents are more likely to feel engaged, satisfied, and loyal to their community.

Download Civic Framework

Use Research To Prioritize City Resources

How to use community surveys for decision-making

When you look at your community survey results, how do you identify where to prioritize your investments?

What data will you show to the City Council to support your recommendations?

Do you tackle the lowest-scoring topics first?

What if the lowest-scoring topics are not important to your community?

A fantastic solution is to identify the MOST important topics to your residents.

But how do we do that?

The old way is to ask respondents what is most important to them.

But as simple as that is, several problems exist.

As one communications expert once said . . .

“Respondents don’t think how they feel, say what they think, or do what they say.”

Respondents may tell you something is very important when, in reality, it carries less of a weight in their decision-making process.

Given that, how do we discover what is truly important?

There is a solution . . .

This solution has been used for several years in other industries, such as healthcare, utilities, and national and global private-sector corporations.

True North will create a modeled importance score based on the respondents’ answers.

So what does that mean? It’s simple!

The more a program or service score (e.g., police services, recreation opportunities, affordable housing) is correlated with being “very satisfied with the community,” the more critical that program or service is.

Once we identify what is truly important, we will create an “Action Map.” An example of an Action Map is at the end of this article.

We simply plot importance against your community’s performance scores.

This diagram provides a clear direction for where to focus your resources.

In this example, the community’s greatest strengths are Parks & Recreation, Public Safety, and Affordable Housing. However, Road Improvements and Public Transportation are important weaknesses. Addressing these should have a higher priority when planning.

The results are very straightforward. The City Commission should not have to read through pages of data tables to understand what is going on in their communities.

I hope that helps.

If you want more information on why True North is a better solution for your community, click here.

Or click here to set up a call to talk. 

Do you trust your benchmarks?

A better way to benchmark within your community surveys

Benchmarks are invaluable when conducting a community survey. They provide insights into your community’s standing compared to others.

For instance, you may not expect high satisfaction scores when tackling a thorny issue like property tax rates. However, understanding how you perform compared to similar communities can give you a clearer understanding of your situation and where you might do well or fall short on satisfaction scores.

But that’s the key – comparing your community to similar ones.

Off-the-shelf benchmarks may not be right for your community

Unfortunately, most firms offering benchmarks aggregate all their past studies over multiple years, regardless of how similar or dissimilar those communities are to yours. A few may filter by say, community size.

But consider these small towns . . .

  • a small college town,
  • a small farming town,
  • or a small coastal town

They may be the same size, but they are all very different. They will all have different issues, challenges, and satisfaction scores. Benchmarks for “the same community size” may not be relevant or comparable to your community.

Another challenge with traditional benchmarks is the recency of the data . . .

How recently was the data collected?

  • Does your community have new issues and concerns due to Covid?
  • What about due to higher interest rates?
  • How about due to a political season? Or a local bond issue?

Many satisfaction firms lump their benchmark communities together and sell it to you as a one-size-fits-all solution.

True North offers a much-improved approach.

With your input, we will identify a set of peer communities that are genuinely similar to yours or, even better, communities you aspire to or would like to emulate.

We will capture resident feedback from these communities using the exact same questionnaire at the exact same time.

Then, we will use these benchmarks to compare your community’s results.

  • That is how benchmarking should be done.
  • These are benchmarks you can trust
  • These are benchmarks that genuinely provide insights.

Since we use the exact questionnaire, the cost can be amazingly low.

This is just one more reason why you can trust True North with your community satisfaction research.

After all, we’ve been named a “Most Trusted” market research firm.

If you want more information on why True North is a better solution for your community, click here.

Or click here to set up a call to talk. 

A Better Metric Than Satisfaction

Satisfaction is an old metric—and not very useful. In short, it is a low threshold. Do we want our communities to be merely satisfied or love our communities as much as you do? We recommend an alternative that has been used around the globe in the largest, best-run organizations. It’s time to introduce this to communities.

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