When a resident completes a Zencity survey, they are asked for their zip code. That piece of information enables us to activate our geolocation process. One of the most valuable aspects of Zencity surveys, geolocation allows us to not only ensure that you are hearing from residents within your jurisdiction, it also allows you to view how satisfaction and attitudes differ across your community.

How does Zencity’s geolocation process work?

First, we verify that the zip code polygon indeed falls within your community. If it doesn’t, we exclude that submission from your satisfaction score calculation. However, you will see answers to any open-ended questions (if relevant) in that submission within your feed, giving you the power to assess the relevance of any comments based on context.

When we are able to verify that a zip code does fall within your community, we automatically assign the submission to the most specific available region, from among the areas you defined with Zencity (e.g. neighborhood districts, counties, zip codes, etc.).

Because zip code polygons often correspond to more than one region, we use the population intersection percentage in the different regions to determine how to assign a location to a submission.

What happens if a submission can’t be geolocated?

If an invalid or no zip code is provided, we will be unable to geolocate that submission and it won’t be considered when calculating your score. However, you will still see any answers to open-ended questions (if relevant) by these respondents in your feed (similar to when a zip code polygon falls outside of your community’s boundaries).

Summary of scenarios

The table below outlines the different possible scenarios that can occur when geolocating survey submissions, and how you can expect these submissions to be presented in your data as a result: