Since 1994, the council has been assessing, through a mail survey, residents' opinions about its performance in relation to a range of activities including rubbish collection, city facilities, roads, sewerage, monitoring and enforcement, and its elected representatives.
Council city strategy and development general manager Dr Sue Bidrose said it was the last year of the council's contract with survey company Research First and it was new chief executive Paul Orders' first experience of the survey and what it provided the council.
It was possible the council would look at alternative ways of efficiently gathering the information in future, Dr Bidrose said.
Last year, alongside the traditional, mail-based survey, the council undertook a smaller telephone survey to test the reliability of the paper system.
Results showed little difference in the results from both systems. The phone survey was cheaper, she said.
Research First director Roger Larkins said the mail survey provided an efficient way to collect significant amounts of data from geographically dispersed populations.
About 4500 surveys were being sent out to residents randomly selected from the electoral roll, with the aim being to get about 1000 responses. Last year, 899 surveys were returned.
This year, for the first time, residents would get to report their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with Forsyth Barr Stadium.
That would be followed with a reminder letter in two weeks' time, which usually generated a further 30% response, he said.
Alongside the mail survey, any resident could complete the survey on the council's website and, although those results could not be included in the statistical analysis, they would still be reported back to the council, he said.
Results from the survey would be released in about six weeks, so Mr Larkin urged people who received the survey to complete and return it as soon as possible.
