Salesforce '2015 Connected Cities Report' Explores How Major U.S. Cities Use Digital Technologies to Connect with their Residents

SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, today released its "2015 Connected Cities Report." Based on an online survey conducted by Harris Poll in May on behalf of Salesforce among 3,075 adults in 15 major U.S. cities, the report found that residents want to use digital technologies such as mobile apps, websites and social media to communicate with their local governments on service issues, public transportation, public safety, energy use and other civic concerns. However, in contrast to the demand for digital technologies, the report found residents have generally low use -- or low awareness -- of current offerings in their cities.

Local governments today face disruption from private sector technologies encroaching on government services. In addition, residents, have heightened expectations for the quality and availability of digital technologies to communicate with their local governments. With this as a backdrop, the Salesforce "2015 Connected Cities Report" ranked 15 major cities -- Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. -- according to how well they connect with residents using digital technologies across six major categories, including general city services, civic engagement, public safety, transportation, energy use and future vision.

The results suggested significant technology and awareness gaps. While a majority of residents want digital services to connect with their city governments, many are unaware of or don't use currently available services. To close the gaps, cities need to improve the user experience of their digital services to increase adoption rates and better educate residents about the digital services that are available to them.

The study was commissioned by Salesforce and conducted by Harris Poll in May 2015. To download the Salesforce "2015 Connected Cities Report" and city-by-city rankings, visit here.

"2015 Connected Cities Report" Key Findings

• San Antonio ranked #1 in the report, due to the amount of residents who use digital tools for general city services, energy, transportation, future vision, and civic engagement. Detroit ranked last, with low scores across all categories, particularly for civic engagement and future vision.
  • An active percentage of San Antonio residents use digital technologies to interact with their city government in reporting a crime (39%), reporting a fire or EMT-related emergency (37%), getting road closure information (58%) registering to vote (36%) and receiving notification of power outages (38%).
  • Detroit residents reported low usage of digital tools to connect with their city government across many areas, including paying parking/driving tickets (20%), gaining access to public transportation schedules (13%) and registering to vote (17%).
• While residents overall reported relatively low use of digital tools in connecting with their local governments, a majority reported wanting to communicate in this way.
  • More than half of residents would like their city to provide the ability to file service requests via digital technologies.
  • 57% of residents would like to have public safety information available through the use of digital technologies.
  • Nearly half (49%) of residents would like their city to provide the ability to pay bills, fees or fines through the use of digital technologies.
• Residents are willing to be active participants in the technology modernization of their cities -- providing real-time location and other personal information to their local governments to make their cities safer, improve transportation, create better communication, and increase energy efficiency.
  • 49% of residents would be willing to share data related to their real-time location to help make their cities safer.
  • 54% of residents would be willing to share traffic data from their personal vehicles to help improve public transportation.
  • 60% of residents would be willing to share their personal contact information to help improve their city's ability to communicate with them.
  • 68% of residents would be willing to share water and energy use from their home or apartment to improve city energy efficiency.

Comments on the News

• "In the age of AirBnB, Uber and Nest, residents expect to connect to their cities in new ways," said Vivek Kundra, executive vice president, Salesforce. "Residents don't want to stand in lines, hold on the phone or submit a three-part paper form to get a response from their local governments. Now with cloud, social, mobile and data science cities must deliver the same quality of services to citizens they experience in their everyday lives."
• "Building trust with each of our residents is very important to the success of our city," said Rosetta Lue, Chief Customer Service Officer, City of Philadelphia. "We have prioritized the development of digital technology to make it easy for residents to communicate directly with the City of Philadelphia, and we now have the ability to respond in a timely and effective manner."

Additional resources

• Download a full copy of the report www.salesforce.com/form/industries/connected-city-index-2015.jsp from the Salesforce Public Sector Team.
• Like Salesforce on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/salesforce.
• Follow @salesforce on Twitter.

Methodology
This online survey was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Salesforce among 3075 U.S. adults between May 4-13, 2015 across 15 of some of the largest U.S. markets by population and designated market area, including Boston (n=202), Chicago (n=205), Dallas (n=206), Denver (n=208), Detroit (n=202), Houston (n=202), Indianapolis (n=206), Los Angeles (n=205), New York (n=209), Philadelphia (n=209), Phoenix (n=206), San Antonio (n=207), San Francisco (n=202), Seattle (n=203) and Washington, D.C. (n=203). Analysis of the data, including rankings, was performed by Salesforce. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For full results of this study, including weighting variables, please contact [email protected]

Salesforce then ranked cities by assigning a 1 to 15 value for each question based on the highest percentage of residents responding "yes," and equally weighting each question in the category to determine the total ranking for that category. Category rankings were then equally weighted when determining the final rankings for each city.

About Salesforce
Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: http://www.salesforce.com.

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