Panorama

What Vancouver’s 311 service needs to be

Sometime during the month of March 2009 Vancouver will start using the 311 non-emergency municipal telephone number to access city services, programs and information.

For a general overview of what 311 is and what other cities have been using it for please read 311 Access Vancouver - an Introduction

You can also read about the history and Evolution of the 311 Non-emergency Number

My first question when I started hearing about 3-1-1 was, do we need it? Not really, but like the cellphone, microwave oven, internet and the escalator, I think it will make life abit easier. I think the 311 municipal non-emergency call centre system is a great tool that will result in all kinds of benefits to Vancouver residents and visitors IF it is done properly.

The city of San Francisco is one the latest city’s to start using 311 on March 29 2007, less than 2 years after approving the budget for it.

Watch a short video clip of the mayor of San Francisco preach about the benefits of 3-1-1 The speech starts one minute into the clip and lasts about 90 seconds. Right after the mayor’s sermon there is loud applause and, I am sure, many people, converting to the 311 faith. Then there is a inspirational 2 minute music video explaining how and what 311 is and what it can do.

Listen to the city of Detroit’s 311 Jingle

So long as the principal of 3-1-1 that was approved by city council on November 30 2006 is followed I think Vancouver’s system will be as innovative as Calgary’s or New York’s or Chicago’s and hopefully more so.

The 3-1-1 principal is that Vancouver’s City Departments and Boards make available to citizens all possible processes through 311 unless the transfer would result in diminished service to citizens.

and

That the 311 data gathered on the types of calls and how quickly the city responds will be used by department managers to:

– better align resources with people’s needs

– examine data trends for opportunities to improve processes

– assess performance goals against actual data

From Mayor Sam Sullivan’s September 29 2006 311 one-stop 24-7 service news release.

In other words, make Vancouver work better!

After reading the City of Vancouver’s Request For Proposals for the supply and installation of the 311 contact systems I see there a few major problems with the initial plan:

The most glaring problem is that the city plans to have the 3-1-1 number answered by the awful Interactive Voice Response (IVR) machine. Right now when a person calls the main switchboard number at city hall at 604-873-7011 a real person answers the phone, listens to the caller’s request and tries to put him through to the right department. With interactive voice response the caller will have to try and explain to a machine what she wants and will only get put through to who knows where if the machine understands what she wants, assuming the machine understands at all. A person who calls 3-1-1 to find out what time the Vancouver Aquatic Centre is open must be connected to a real person right away. Once she makes her request the operator can tell her the hours of the pool or atleast put her through to a direct recording of the information (not a voice machine or touch tone telephone tree). For the year ending June 2007 the city of New York’s 3-1-1 operators answered 14,314,678 calls with an average wait time per caller of 5 seconds before he or she was connected to a REAL PERSON.

The Interactive Voice Response machine has to go.

The city estimates between 50 and 60 3-1-1 call centre operators will be required initially (the number is expected to increase as more people start using 311 in general and from people turning more to 311 instead of calling 911 for non-emergency situations). The plan right now is to train several different groups of operators for different types of calls. This is no good. The whole point of calling 3-1-1 is to get the information you are requesting right now, by the person who is answering the phone, and not having to get transferred to another operator. For requests that come into the city that need to be dealt with by an employee within a specific department the 3-1-1 operator would then transfer the call to the correct department, staying on the line with the caller until someone comes on the line to make sure the call is transferred correctly.

Every 311 Agent should be trained with the same skills and knowledge about city services.

Vancouver’s plan for the 3-1-1 service does not appear to include reporting of 3-1-1 call data to the citizens of Vancouver. Many cities who are using 311 have enacted laws that obligate the city to publish 3-1-1 call and response information for the public. This enables us to see and gauge for ourselves how responsive Vancouver is to our concerns and problems. This is a major change for how a city operates - reporting to the public how effective it is in addressing everyday problems - but it must be done for the system to be completely useful.

Vancouver must create a by-law that requires the 3-1-1 data to be made available to the public on a regular, monthly or better basis.

Initially all 3-1-1 is supposed do is answer general queries for information and transfer calls to city departments when required. Between 2009 and 2012 the city will enhance the 3-1-1 service by enabling agents to process complaints, work requests, booking/registration requests and billing/payment requests (in other words make the system really useful). The 3-1-1 system has been in use since 1996 and its taking less and less time to implement and cities that are using it launch a complete 3-1-1 service at the start of their service. Vancouver will have almost one year to test the system between June 2008 and March 2009 and we already have a person at city hall who is capable of transferring a caller to a specific department. Windsor’s entire 3-1-1 system was in place when they launched January 2005, after deciding to initiate the project early 2004 - less than 2 years from start to finish.

There are a few leading companies that provide the 3-1-1 infrastructure, and I would guess a few of those companies have submitted proposals to the city. The technology, both hardware and software, exists to impement the system quickly and fully.

Vancouver needs to implement an entire 3-1-1 process by the time it debuts Spring 2009

From the research I have done it seems that cell phone dialing to 3-1-1 has been a problem with some cities. Vancouver’s plan does not mention cell phones at all.

Vancouver’s 3-1-1 system must be capable of taking calls from cellphones.

3-1-1 will be a great tool for Vancouver. The system will relieve emergency 911 operators of thousands of calls they get yearly simply because a person doesn’t know who else to call.

The three digit non-emergency number will benefit hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors by providing one place to call to get information about city events, to report a stolen car, to pay for city services, to find out what the hours are for the community library or community centre, to register for a city sponsored program, to report a downed tree, to get information about the next park board meeting, to find out about when you can water your lawn or where the nearest dog park is. Need to know upcoming concert information for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra? Call 3-1-1, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The use of 3-1-1 is only limited by our need for effective and efficient city services and our desire for access to city information and programs.

Leading up to and during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver’s 3-1-1 service should be handling calls about ticket sales and event information.

Vancouver’s 3-1-1 service must make available to citizens and visitors all possible city services, information and programs. When it does that, Vancouver’s 311 and the people who work behind the phones, will be your own City Concierge.