Airdrie's locally-based businesses are being asked to let the City of Airdrie know just how satisfied they are doing business in the city and how the city can help to make the experience better.    

The city is conducting its Business Satisfaction Survey for the fourth time, according to Tara Levick with Airdrie Economic Development. 

"2011, 2013, 2015 and now in 2018.  We use the results to benchmark how we're doing, how the economy's doing.  We also ask businesses to evaluate city services and that helps us program anything that they might need going forward."

The survey is being conducted by Bannister Research Limited.  Levick said businesses should have received an email from the group on Monday, February 5, with a unique link to let them fill out the survey.  Levick said the survey covers a wide range of topics.

"We ask everything from if they're expecting to grow in the next year right down to are they selling their services online.  For home-based businesses, we ask them if they're ever looking to grow out of their home.  Those types of questions.  This year we ask some specific Airdrie questions in regard to the weight scales and the 40th Avenue overpass.  We'll be pushing those results out to the other departments that are directly affected by those answers."

According to Levick, the Business Satisfaction Survey allows Economic Development to understand how the local economy is doing, how businesses feel about the local business community, what some of the key issues and challenges to operating a business in the city are and the overall outlook and confidence of the local and provincial economy.  

Levick explained that the city is offering incentives to businesses that complete the survey early and others to those who complete the survey at all.

"We have two prizes to get people to fill out the survey.  The early bird prize if you respond by February 16th you'll be entered to win a complimentary 2019 City of Airdrie Business License.  Anybody who answers online from now until March 2nd will be entered to win a business profile in the Work/Life section of the Fall 2018 edition of airdrielife magazine.  We're really trying to up the game and get people to respond so we know how we're doing."

The results of the survey will be compiled and presented to Airdrie City Council, city administration and the business community sometime this spring.

Levick said in the years the survey has been done, many issues or concerns have been identified and solutions come up with.  The availability of skilled labour has been addressed by a workforce development initiative and working more closely with Rocky View Employment Services.  Concerns about access to post-secondary education led to working with Bow Valley College in Airdrie and to Airdrie transit offering new routes to Calgary C-Train stations to access Calgary post-secondary locations.  

 

Questions, comments or story ideas? Email us at news@discoverairdrie.com