9 July 2013

Residents satisfied with Council service

Christchurch City Council’s recently-completed resident surveys show 70 per cent of residents are satisfied or very satisfied with the services provided by the Council.

The Council has conducted these surveys for more than 10 years to gauge residents’ satisfaction with its service delivery, as part of its performance evaluation process. This year’s overall score for satisfaction with the Council was the same as the previous year’s 2011/12 survey, when residents also scored the Council at 70 per cent.

Key areas where Christchurch people were satisfied with Council services were:
• 95% were satisfied with the Council’s walk-in customer service
• 96% were satisfied with the service provided by libraries
• 90% were satisfied with the Council’s year round programme of events
• 93% were satisfied with the kerbside collection service for recyclable materials
• 94% were satisfied with the kerbside collection service of waste
• 98% were satisfied with the appearance of the Botanic Gardens

Key areas where satisfaction has increased:
• Democracy and Governance - improved result around resident understanding of how Council makes decisions (up from 34% in 2012 to 40%), and improved satisfaction that Council makes decisions in the best interest of Christchurch (up from 37% in 2012 to 46%).
• Wastewater Collection - improved satisfaction that wastewater is collected in a safe, convenient and efficient manner (up from 82% in 2012 to 84%).
• Public Transport Infrastructure - improvement in user satisfaction with bus interchanges (up from 72% in 2010/11 when it was last surveyed, to 89%).
• Customer Service - improvement in satisfaction with customer service at first point of contact (up from 67% in 2012 to 83%)

Key areas where there has been a reduction in satisfaction:
• Active Travel - lower resident satisfaction with the perception that Christchurch is a cycle-friendly (down from 42% in 2012 to 38%) and walking-friendly city (down from 81% in 2012 to 75%), and with the appearance and quality of Pedestrian Malls (from 65% to 60%).
• Neighbourhood parks - resident satisfaction is lower for the range of facilities available (down from 74% in 2010/11 when it was last surveyed to 63%), and the overall appearance of neighbourhood parks (down from 70% in 2010/11 to 67%).
• Regional parks - satisfaction with the experience of regional parks is also lower (down from 92% in 2012 to 83%).
• Garden and Heritage Parks - reduction in satisfaction with appearance of Garden and Heritage Parks (not Botanic Gardens) (down from 79% in 2012 to 73%).
• Major events (such as Summertimes, KidFest, Guy Fawkes) - reduction in overall satisfaction across five Council-funded events (down from 88% in 2012 to 78%).
• Communications - residents are less satisfied with the timeliness, relevance and accuracy of communications (down from 66% in 2012 to 53%).

Full survey results can be found at: http://www.ccc.govt.nz/thecouncil/policiesreportsstrategies/reports/biannualresidentssurvey.aspx

Survey background
The Residents Survey framework includes two components. The first is a General Service Satisfaction Survey carried out this year by independent market research company, Research First, in March 2013. The survey canvassed the views of more than 700 people across the general population of Christchurch and measured residents’ perceptions of satisfaction with Council service delivery. The second component of the Residents Survey is the Council Point of Contact Service Satisfaction Surveys which are conducted mainly over the summer months and provide an on-the-spot assessment by those who have recently used specific services.

ENDS

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