• What’s better about CommunityView™ than other surveys?

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We looked at several surveys for cities before coming up with our solution. And they were all good in their own way. But the designs were, frankly, fatiguing for citizens who take the survey. Sometimes the designs were myopic about certain issues or not broad enough at other times, with the results not being that useful to monitor over time. All of our questions are designed to be intuitive, easy, fast for residents to take, and yet provide a maximum amount of information for a city—that's the core difference. We’ve also designed it with a dashboard in mind to monitor trends over time. Plus, our costs are reasonable because of the streamlined and thoughtful way we’ve designed CommunityView™.

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• Our city uses Survey Monkey to conduct our own resident survey for less than using a research company. Why should we pay more to use MDI?

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We reviewed DIY surveys and found that they try hard. Some are fairly well-written. But it’s also clear that staffs don’t have experience in designing them with other things in mind. Then there’s the lengthy analysis and hours spent on the backend that could have been avoided with a more thoughtfully designed survey. Survey Monkey is fine, but for those who want turnkey and more intelligently designed and analyzed feedback, there’s CommunityView™. And we'd love to show just how we can take resident feedback to a much better place.

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• We have issues unique to our city; how can we customize CommunityView™?

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We've given great thought to customization. We've “templatized” many questions and answer choices (for instance, we’ve designed about 20 to 30 answer choices that deal with “safety and security” and you can choose the 10 answer choices that are most applicable to you), but you also have the ability to include unique questions or answer choices that haven't been asked before. By design, the survey is shorter – meaning, it's complete as is (7 to 8 minutes long) but also designed for mobile and other devices so that we have room for additional questions, if desired.

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• How long does a CommunityView™ project take before we see results?

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Turnaround time is 3 to 5 weeks. That's the time it would take to get the survey designed and approved (after collaboration), programmed, out in the field, and analyzed and reported on. Sometimes it might take longer up front, or we might need to keep the survey open longer, but it’s a fairly short 3 to 5 weeks to get results after approval.

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• What do we need to prepare for in order to get started?

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We simply create a schedule and you would need to set aside a little time early on. We’ll sit down with the city manager (or whomever we will work with), flesh out the fundamental questions, create a draft, and then collaborate back and forth until we’re satisfied with the questionnaire. We then program the survey, provide a link or QR code, let you test it before going “live,” and you distribute the link/QR code to residents however you’d like. We take care of the rest.

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• I’m not a researcher. How is the data presented so I can see and understand results?

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We have a couple of ways that we can present data, but our preference is the online dashboard. It’s more efficient and anyone who's authorized from your city can go into the data and see it presented in a beautiful, structured form with charts and trends that you can download into PowerPoint. You can also download the data into Excel, or we can prepare a written report in PowerPoint too.

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• How often should we survey our residents?

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Ideally, cities can get a read each year—the core of the survey would be ideal for a repeatable survey. That way you can compare progress and course correct, but you can also add new content to explore. For instance, perhaps your city is floating the idea of a new city center. You can easily test a set of features that residents like most and so forth, which will help guide your next steps.

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• We’ve conducted citizen surveys for many years and it’s getting harder for people to want to take surveys? Does CommunityView™ address decreasing response rates?

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The first consideration is to make sure the survey’s not too long and reasonably enjoyable. If it isn’t, you should expect that participation will drop in subsequent years. It can be a nightmare. We have designed CommunityView™ to be shorter and to work well on mobile phones and other devices. We wanted it to be intuitive and easy to take. The core survey is 7 to 8 minutes long, and we like that—and your residents will appreciate that too. We can add more questions, of course, but we always need to weigh that against harming response rates and irritating residents.

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For more information:

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For more information about CommunityView™, to request a demo, please contact Bruce Crandall at +1 (817) 845-4404 or brucec@mdi-global.com.