Case Study: City of Rochester boosts resident engagement with Polco online survey tools

Residents Give Rochester Leaders Instant Input With Online Survey Tools

The City of Rochester, Minnesota, wanted a better way to gather resident input consistently and make civic engagement part of everyday decision-making. As a growing city with diverse needs, it needed an easy-to-use online survey approach that could help leaders hear from more residents and reduce confusion around multiple engagement tools. Polco provided the engagement platform, including online surveys, polls, and live events.

Using Polco, Rochester launched about two surveys per month and built a subscriber base of more than 3,000 residents. The city has seen strong results, including over 1,500 responses to a library-hours survey and more than 21,000 community responses in the past month. Polco also helped Rochester streamline surveys, translate them into Somali and Spanish, and broaden participation across age groups, improving the city’s ability to make data-driven decisions.

City of Rochester

Jenna Bowman

Strategic Communications and Engagement Director