Want to know what the public wants....ask them, with UserVoice.

The primary focus of a Parks & Recreation Department is to serve the local community by providing the best programs and services possible with the given resources. How can you improve on those program offerings and give the community what they really want? Well, the answer is simple...ask them!

One easy way to get some really valuable feedback is to use the services offered by UserVoice. In a nutshell, UserVoice allows customers (in your case Community members) to post a suggestion and/or comment to a UserVoice Forum set up specifically for your department (see http://uservoice.com/how_it_works). It adds a social networking aspect to it by allowing other people to Up Vote or Down Vote the suggestion. You can then engage those users in a conversation around the particular suggestion and send the message that you're interested in what they have to say and care about their ideas.

While other mechanisms for getting feedback have their merit, they can require quite a bit of effort to initiate and in many cases have a bias right from the get go....in the case of a survey, the bias is the very questions that are asked (how did you come up with the questions? how are they phrased?). With UserVoice, the community directs the conversation and you may end up with a more genuine feel for what it is people want and are concerned about.

It looks like most of UserVoice's customers to date have been more business oriented in nature, but, there is no reason why your local Parks & Rec Department can't take advantage of this innovative and potentially valuable service to connect with your community.

Example of UserVoice Forum for SlideRocket