Public service use and perceived performance: An empirical note on the nature of the relationship

Citizen surveys often measure service use as well as perceived performance, typically in the form of quality or satisfaction ratings. But little attention has been paid to the relationship between public service use and satisfaction. How do the service ratings or satisfaction judgements of frequent users differ from those of infrequent users? Is the direction of the use-satisfaction relationship positive or negative? Or perhaps non-linear? And does the direction or form of the relationship differ across services?Using data from New York, we examine the relationship between use and perceived performance for five services: buses, subways, parks, public libraries, and roads. Interestingly, this relationship often appears curvilinear, with satisfaction initially rising with use, to a point after which it begins to diminish. We offer some substantive interpretations of this pattern, as well as some practical implications for the analysis and understanding of citizen surveys for policy and management purposes.