Government Clients

Understanding public opinion is a critical part of formulating public policy.

Effective governance often requires a thorough understanding of what voters, rate payers and residents think, what priorities they hold and how they respond to different messages. Public opinion can make or break any project, service or initiative – even one with a perceived advantage early on in the process. This is especially true of projects that could be subject to referendum or organized opposition.

Our portfolio includes extensive work on every imaginable policy area including issues relating to airports, taxes, rate structures, customer satisfaction, issue/project awareness, budget prioritization, development, open space preservation, energy, water and wastewater infrastructure, annexation and other issues facing local, regional and state governments and their constituencies.

Effective outreach and education efforts begin long before a public meeting is held, a direct mail brochure is mailed or social media message is posted. The strategy begins by thoroughly exploring all sides of an issue and obtaining independent research to ensure that all communications are targeted appropriately.

We never assume that a person or group knows something about an issue or feels one way or another about it. Instead, our goal is to uncover the public’s perceptions, attitudes, opposition and support of a particular project, initiative or issue.

Specifically, we will help you to:

• Assess satisfaction levels with leadership and services
• Help prioritize services and discretionary expenditures
• Understand the community’s needs, wants and opinions, specifically in terms of existing services, programs and facilities
• Profile champions and detractors of programs or issues
• Identify features and benefits that influence support and define points of opposition
• Test assumptions and develop strategic message points
• Establish a road map for communication and outreach efforts
• Benchmarking voter opinion against past results

“Probolsky Research is who local government turns to when they want to know what their constituents are thinking.”