Survey Results Are In — We Hear You

Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything.
Forty percent of all people know that.”
Homer Simpson

 

You surprised me. A remarkable number of you took the time to respond to the survey about The Resort. Having worked in market research for many years and having owned a research consulting firm, I confidently predicted we would get somewhere between 100 and 200 responses. We got 378!


Many thanks to all of you who participated, and especially to those of you who took the time to offer ideas. For a single question, asking for suggestions/comments about the facilities, over 200 of you wrote out answers. The General Manager for The Resort, Rhonda Ciacco, and the owner, Al LaCanne, have been studying those comments and have some changes in the works. Let’s do a quick review of those changes, then I’ll do a summary of all the survey results.


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RESPONSES TO SOME OF YOUR SUGGESTIONS

Of the many ideas that you offered, these are the first ones that we’ll be working on.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. We are reviewing the dress code for those who work at the front gates and are planning new attire. Watch for new standards by the fall. (We also had people who requested that all staff wear name-tags at all times. Good idea. We will be working to make sure this happens.)

SUMMER LANDSCAPING.Some of you suggested that you’d like weed control and other maintenance services over the summer. While there are individuals who currently offer such services on an informal basis, we are arranging for our park landscape vendor to also offer this service to you. We will look into options and what the cost to you would be and will let you know.

POOL SEATING.We will be getting bids for new poolside furniture along with considering new seating configurations.

POOL MUSIC. In response to requests for more days/hours to have music by the pool, these are being added. (We know there are those who don’t want the music to interfere with conversation, so it will be kept at background levels.)

There were plenty of other excellent suggestions and we will be using the off-season to get to more of them. Again, our thanks. And please keep the ideas coming – we have Problem/Solution forms in the office and are eager to hear of anything that isn’t up to standard or that could be improved.

CONCERNS/ISSUES

As for concerns that came up in the survey, one of the ones most often expressed was about security – specifically, about break-ins and thefts. The good news is that the number of such incidents is way down – there has been a dramatic drop (Rhonda estimates it at a 90% drop) since the gates were installed. However, there still have been a few issues, mostly with unlocked bicycles left outside over summer months. In past years, Mesa Police has sent Resource Officers to offer crime prevention tips, and if you’d like a review of these, please see Rhonda.

Another issue frequently raised was increased rents. These were discussed in a letter put together by Al and Rhonda, as well as in a community meeting. We’ll put the letter and accompanying chart in this issue of The Resorter for any of you who might have missed it.


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THE SURVEY RESULTS

If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans I bet you’d find
that only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every last
one of them would know the theme song from ‘Beverly Hillbillies.'”
Dave Barry

Let’s review all the questions and answers, in the order asked.

Overall satisfaction and the NPS

The standard measure of how well any product or service performs comes from asking if you’d recommend it to friends or relatives. This yields what is known in research circles as the Net Promoter Score, and it is the gold standard of performance measures. You reach the NPS (the Net Promoter Score is so popular that it goes by its initials) by taking the highest two ratings (“9” or “10”) and then subtracting out all the low scores (a “6” or below).

The benchmark NPS for the service providing the survey software, based on over 70,000 surveys, is 23. You gave The Resort a 45, right at double the average score. So, BRAVO! to the staff and owners and all the volunteers who make The Resort special.

Time in the park

Asked how long you’ve been at The Resort, the most common answer was 4-8 years, at 37%. If you’ve been at The Resort for over 15 years, you’re one of just 11%

Why The Resort?

About two-thirds of you said you chose The Resort because of friends/relatives. No wonder it’s such a friendly place.

Appearance of the park

Asked to rate the appearance of The Resort, 44% said Excellent and 52% chose Good, for a total favorable rating of 96%.

Rating the staff

When you rated the overall performance of The Resort staff, you gave them a weighted average of 8.4 out of 10. Based on what we see below, that was particularly boosted by the friendliness of the staff and the work of the maintenance team.

For the other questions about the staff, there were five possible responses, from Never to Always. Looking at what in research is known as the “top two boxes,” that is, the two best ratings, the numbers came it at…

For enforcing rules & requirements, 63%.

For being quick to respond to problems/concerns, 62%

For warm and friendly, 89%

And, finally,

asked specifically about the maintenance staff, the “top two” came in at 85%.

The newsletter

As someone who works on The Resorter newsletter, I was eager to see how you felt about our efforts.

The printed version scored 8.4 out of 10 and the online version 8.3. And nearly everyone agreed that the current schedule of once a month was just right. Asked what topics you’d like to see more of, you suggested items on changes to the park itself, and profiles of clubs and activities.

Feeling safe

A large majority (94%) of you felt either Safe or Very Safe during the daylight hours, while that majority fell (to 79%) during the nighttime.

Value

When asked to rate the value received for the cost of rent, 58% chose Good or Excellent, with 32% at Fair.

(Al LaCanne has done extensive research on rents in the areas, along with analysis of comparable values. This was presented at a meeting in mid-March but is also included in this issue of The Resorter.)

Profile of those who responded

Of those who took the survey and answered the questions about themselves, we saw that..

92% are seasonal residents

75% are American citizens versus 22% Canadians, and

Were evenly split between male and female.

So, those are the statistics. Thank you again for your help with the survey.

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Should you have any questions about specific responses, I’d be happy to talk with you. You can contact me at dale@dauten.com.