The purpose of the survey on resident communication in the City of Tampere was to obtain information on what channels of communication Tampere residents use, what their perception of the communication channels is, whether new channels should be introduced and what kinds of wishes residents have for communicating about the city's services and activities. The survey was conducted in Finnish and English as an online survey, an online panel and telephone interviews. The survey was targeted at Tampere residents over the age of 15. A total of 1,511 people responded to the survey conducted by Online Research Finland Ltd.
The majority of respondents (62 per cent) consider the amount of communications to be appropriate, and 37 per cent feel that the amount is too low. More than half of those who responded to the survey in English (58 per cent) find the amount of communication too low. Many of the respondents wished that the city would communicate more often and more diversely also in English.
The most useful of the city's communication channels is clearly the tampere.fi website. 65 per cent of the respondents felt that tampere.fi is a very useful or rather useful channel for obtaining information on city services and activities. 48 per cent of the respondents considered the city's resident magazines to be very useful or rather useful communication channels. Facebook was considered the most useful of the social media channels. Respondents aged over 65 in particular emphasised the usefulness of traditional communication channels such as newspapers and radio. The youngest respondents (aged 15-24) favour social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
76 per cent of the respondents completely agreed or quite agreed that the city's communication is of a suitable style. A total of 78 per cent of the respondents assessed the communication as reliable. Respondents aged under 35 were the most satisfied with the city's communications. Of the different age groups, those aged 65 and over assessed the city's communications most critically. High-income households and households with more than one child gave more critical estimates of communications than other respondents on average.
68 per cent of the respondents felt that there were no shortcomings in the city's communications. 29 per cent felt that there were shortcomings in the communications, and those who felt the most shortcomings were those who responded in English. The respondents felt that that communication problems happen because it is difficult to find correct information, the communication does not reach all target groups, and more information should be provided early enough before making decisions. There was also a desire to improve the usability of the website.
In the open responses, the expectations concerning the city’s communications focused on timeliness and issues related to specific residential areas. The respondents also hoped that communication would be increasingly open and clear. They wanted for more communication on public transport, construction work, zoning, nature, hobbies, culture and events.
Tampere will develop customer communications based on the research data. All views and feedback received in the survey are valuable for improving resident communication.
