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More Community Corner Somerville rolls out 311 service
From The Beacon, Mass Innovations, June 2006
In December Somerville became one of the smallest municipalities in the nation to introduce a new customer service phone technology that lets residents and businesses access city hall by simply dialing 311.
The 311 service, first introduced in Baltimore in 1996, holds promise for municipalities as more than just a citizen-friendly way of addressing common non-emergency problems such as potholes and illegally parked cars. Data gathered through the call-center system can also be useful in identifying trends and perhaps saving money by enabling local officials to make more informed decisions about how to allocate resources.
The cost of launching 311 has typically been in the millions, however. Somerville managed to get its system up and running for about $50,000, says the system’s director, Sean Murphy.
The key, he says, is that Somerville was able to do most of the technical work in-house, rather than relying on an outside firm. The number one expense is the customer relationship management software used by the call center, says Murphy, who worked in the field for 15 years in the private sector before being hired by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone last summer.
“We bought what was more or less a shell from a vendor and pretty much built out the internal workings ourselves,” he says.
Murphy and other city employees needed about four months to set up the system, which is used by three customer service specialists, one of whom also speaks Spanish and Portuguese. (A fourth city employee devotes about half her time to the call center.) Much of the time prior to the launch was spent creating the pull-down menus and the lists of standard questions that were developed for each of several dozen types of requests.
It was important to roll out the service gradually, Murphy says, in order to avoid being overwhelmed by calls. At first, 311 was used only for problems that could be addressed by the Department of Public Works, but later was expanded to include calls that would have been fielded by other departments such as health and traffic and parking. Somerville decided not to market the system ahead of time, starting with a “soft launch” period during which calls to the regular DPW phone number were routed to the call center, unbeknownst to the callers. By April, Murphy says, the call center was drawing more than 700 calls a week.
Somerville has steadily increased the list of phone carriers whose customers can reach the service simply by dialing 311, rather than a 10-digit number. Initially, only Verizon, the city’s dominant provider, had taken the step of making 311 stand in for the full number, but other providers of “land-line” phone service, including Comcast and Vonage, soon did so as well. In May, T1 Mobile became the first cellular carrier whose customers can use the 311 number.
A Web-based version of the service, including a list of frequently asked questions and a menu of service requests to choose from, debuted in January; more recently, the city purchased software that Murphy says will essentially convert PCs to TTY machines, making the 311 system accessible to the hearing-impaired.
With 311, “We’re eliminating what we call the ‘city hall shuffle,’” Murphy says, referring to stories of residents being transferred numerous times before getting their questions answered.
The new system also gives callers a tracking number that they can use to monitor progress on their request.
The data that can be gleaned from the requests and the time it takes to fulfill them can be analyzed and used to justify, for example, a decision to repave a particular street because of the frequency of pothole repairs there, Murphy says. Other data could help identity areas of service where the city needs to improve.
“311 brings accountability to government,” Murphy says. “That’s something that in the past I don’t think people had come to expect.”
For more information, contact Sean Murphy at (617) 666-3311.
This monthly column highlights some of the innovative approaches and strategies Massachusetts municipalities are using to deliver services and solve problems. If you know of a Mass Innovation that could be featured in this column, contact Mitch Evich at the MMA.
More Community Corner Somerville rolls out 311 service
Somerville rolls out 311 service
From The Beacon, Mass Innovations, June 2006
In December Somerville became one of the smallest municipalities in the nation to introduce a new customer service phone technology that lets residents and businesses access city hall by simply dialing 311.
The 311 service, first introduced in Baltimore in 1996, holds promise for municipalities as more than just a citizen-friendly way of addressing common non-emergency problems such as potholes and illegally parked cars. Data gathered through the call-center system can also be useful in identifying trends and perhaps saving money by enabling local officials to make more informed decisions about how to allocate resources.
The cost of launching 311 has typically been in the millions, however. Somerville managed to get its system up and running for about $50,000, says the system’s director, Sean Murphy.
The key, he says, is that Somerville was able to do most of the technical work in-house, rather than relying on an outside firm. The number one expense is the customer relationship management software used by the call center, says Murphy, who worked in the field for 15 years in the private sector before being hired by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone last summer.
“We bought what was more or less a shell from a vendor and pretty much built out the internal workings ourselves,” he says.
Murphy and other city employees needed about four months to set up the system, which is used by three customer service specialists, one of whom also speaks Spanish and Portuguese. (A fourth city employee devotes about half her time to the call center.) Much of the time prior to the launch was spent creating the pull-down menus and the lists of standard questions that were developed for each of several dozen types of requests.
It was important to roll out the service gradually, Murphy says, in order to avoid being overwhelmed by calls. At first, 311 was used only for problems that could be addressed by the Department of Public Works, but later was expanded to include calls that would have been fielded by other departments such as health and traffic and parking. Somerville decided not to market the system ahead of time, starting with a “soft launch” period during which calls to the regular DPW phone number were routed to the call center, unbeknownst to the callers. By April, Murphy says, the call center was drawing more than 700 calls a week.
Somerville has steadily increased the list of phone carriers whose customers can reach the service simply by dialing 311, rather than a 10-digit number. Initially, only Verizon, the city’s dominant provider, had taken the step of making 311 stand in for the full number, but other providers of “land-line” phone service, including Comcast and Vonage, soon did so as well. In May, T1 Mobile became the first cellular carrier whose customers can use the 311 number.
A Web-based version of the service, including a list of frequently asked questions and a menu of service requests to choose from, debuted in January; more recently, the city purchased software that Murphy says will essentially convert PCs to TTY machines, making the 311 system accessible to the hearing-impaired.
With 311, “We’re eliminating what we call the ‘city hall shuffle,’” Murphy says, referring to stories of residents being transferred numerous times before getting their questions answered.
The new system also gives callers a tracking number that they can use to monitor progress on their request.
The data that can be gleaned from the requests and the time it takes to fulfill them can be analyzed and used to justify, for example, a decision to repave a particular street because of the frequency of pothole repairs there, Murphy says. Other data could help identity areas of service where the city needs to improve.
“311 brings accountability to government,” Murphy says. “That’s something that in the past I don’t think people had come to expect.”
For more information, contact Sean Murphy at (617) 666-3311.
This monthly column highlights some of the innovative approaches and strategies Massachusetts municipalities are using to deliver services and solve problems. If you know of a Mass Innovation that could be featured in this column, contact Mitch Evich at the MMA.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
