The 2006 Quality of Life Survey (QLS) asked residents several questions that tried to get at what they thought of City services and City staff. Here’s what we learned:
This is a graph of the responses that residents gave to this question: “Please tell me whether you would rate the quality of the service as excellent, good, only fair, or poor?” You can click on the graphic to see it in a larger size. If I had to sum it up, I’d say that residents are generally pleased with the quality of City services. 90% rank our Police services as excellent or good. 93% rank our park maintenance services as excellent or good. 89% think our snow removal services are excellent or good. Our lowest ranked service was our Senior programs and services with only 35% ranking it excellent or good. The City service with the highest negative ranking was Street Lighting with 15% of the respondents saying it was only fair or poor. Snow plowing got a 10% negative rating. Take a look at the graph. By and large, residents appreciate the quality of the services they are receiving from city government in Eden Prairie.
So what do resident think of Eden Prairie city staff generally? We wanted to know the answer to that question too, so we asked them. Residents were asked this question: “From what you’ve seen or heard, how would you rate the job performance of the Eden Prairie city staff – excellent, good, only fair or poor?” You can click on the graph and read the responses for yourself, but 71% said that our performance was in the excellent or good category, while only 7% rated us as only fair or poor. That’s a 7:1 ratio of excellent/good to fair/poor ratings. The consultants from Decision Resources, the company who conducted the study, told us that ration was exceptional. They told us a ratio of 5:1 is very good.
My final graph for today is an interesting one. We asked residents if they’ve had contact with city government during the last year, and if they have, how did they rate that contact. 37% of those responding to the survey said they had had contact with city government during the past year. The survey consultant told us that is a high rate of contact for a 3rd ring Twin Cities suburb. That 37% was then asked to rate the quality of service they received from city government. The ratings we got were outstanding. The consultant told us they look at the 80% positive mark as a benchmark that an organization is providing good customer service. We did not have a rating lower than 94%. In fact, 100% of those responding said the courtesy of the staff was positive (the excellent or good rating). The consultant told us our customer service ratings were the highest they seen of any city they’ve survey in the metro area. We can be proud of that, but we must also recognize that the bar is high and they we must continue to meet it. There’s no where to go but down when you’re #1.
Tomorrow: Do residents feel safe in Eden Prairie?
