Measuring the Success of Pilot Programs - Gaining Clear Community Support
The Challenge
The City of Surrey wanted to understand the impact speed limits and street safety could have on residents in certain areas. The plan to collect this feedback involved conducting a targeted campaign in 8 neighbourhoods, including two control groups. This campaign included three surveys from Spring 2021 to Spring 2022. The first survey was used to get baseline resident feedback regarding current attitudes toward speeds and street safety in their neighbourhood. Following the survey results, the city made necessary changes to signage, speed limits etc. in 6 neighbourhoods (excluding the two control groups). In the Fall of 2021, the same survey was repeated to see if overall attitudes had changed. The final survey is planned for Spring 2022.
The campaign itself was straightforward but the challenge arose in implementation and tracking. The question was, how can the City secure and track resident participation in each neighbourhood for all three surveys? Social media and panels were not an option in this case, and so the plan was to send residents a postcard containing a link to the survey. The difficulty with this strategy was that it would reach limited respondents. It would also be challenging to get the same people to complete the next two surveys.
The Solution
We created a sign-up form, added an individual and grand-prize draw for each completed survey, and introduced a QR Code signage campaign. The lawn signage was displayed in each neighbourhood as a means to build the database of residents who lived and frequented those neighbourhoods. We developed a means to track and then emailed invites primarily to those who signed up in the first round. We tracked exactly where people came from and encouraged sign-ups at every opportunity, allowing us to match responses throughout multiple surveys.