NYC 311 System

Nicholas Tancredi

New York City’s 311 Call System

Final Exam 4 December 2014          

 

Tancredi 2 When Michael Bloomberg became mayor, he made it a priority to give New Yorkers the

ability to access a highly improved level of public service. His vision was to put together existing systems and processes to allow citizens the ability to interact with city agencies to receive information, file complaints, as well as resolve issues (Accenture, 2013, p. 3). It was Accenture, a consulting and technology company that offered the skills, resources, and experience to oversee and deliver the highly visible New York City (NYC) 311 Call System with minimal risk (Accenture, 2013, p. 3). Accenture had a strong understanding of the city’s technology infrastructure and an excellent track record of working with New York on important technology projects (Accenture, 2013, p. 3). Accenture also worked with NYC to launch 311 Online, which brings online the same information and assistance available through the call center. A customer can use 311 Online to report a problem, request services, check the status of a request, and file a city agency complaint or compliment. 311 Online has helped the city reduce costs by offering self-service through a more economic channel. 311 Online also supported cost saving as it used existing NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication (DoITT) enterprise technology (Accenture, 2013, p. 4). The NYC 311 System gives citizens in New York City a way to communicate with public safety, public works, as well as other pubic officials that something in the city had to be fixed, such as a pothole or a broken streetlight. Other complaints that citizens reported in 2010 were strong odors, damaged trees, sidewalk conditions, street conditions, blocked driveways, taxi complaints, as well as noise, which is common for the “City That Never Sleeps.” In total, 34,522 complaints were made between September 8 and September 15 of 2010 (Johnson, 2010). The 311 Call System received its largest call volume to date, with 276,827 calls in just one day on January 7th, 2011, due to a large snowstorm, and nearly four million callers in the month

 

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(Accenture, 2013, p. 7). Living in the Northeast at the time, I remember this snowstorm well. Moreover, in 2010, the NYC 311 call centers were expanded to include a 311 hotline. The expansion of the hotline provided 90% of service request available through a representative in an online format. In 2011, the 311 Call System was expanded to cover a 311 text program. The text program allowed citizens to get real-time answers immediately in text format (Cohen, Eimicke, & Heikkila, 2013). The 311 Call System is large place, with high ceilings, playful carpet tile, dual LCD monitors on every desk, the main call center room looks like a web startup, until one can fully register the steady murmur of 150 to 200 customer service professionals workings the phones. The 311 System is also crucial to the ethos of civic accountability, because now New Yorkers have the ability to report broken streetlights or graffiti, as well as after-hours construction. This service helps citizens play a role in solving the problems they see in their own neighborhoods (Johnson, 2010). Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated, “It’s not just a citizen service hotline, it is the most powerful management tool ever developed for New York. I can’t imagine running the city without it” (Accenture, 2013, p. 5). The NYC 311 system has been highly successful for the reasons given above, as well as also allowing citizens to report other issues such as, a newly renovated building looking unstable, a neighbor who has accumulated garbage in their back yard which has been attracting rats, an electronic keyboard is left in the trunk of a taxi cab, skateboarders are making noise in a nearby park, a mouse is seen in a restaurant kitchen, a dead animal is found in a park trash can, a local deli is falsely advertising cold-cut prices, a restaurant menu lacks caloric information, a neighbor plays her TV too loudly for hours, a tattoo parlor is operating without a license (Johnson, 2010).

 

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Although, there are cons to the 311 System, especially in other parts of the United States, which includes cost, and large amounts of calls that do not need to go through the 311 System. In Buffalo, NY, Chicago, IL and Louisville, KY, are all looking for ways to be more proficient at handling the large call volumes that they receive from residents in the community. In Louisville, Kentucky, the city used its 311 System to let residents know that they could shred personal documents using city paper shredders on select weekends (Newcombe, 2014). City residents are not just calling 311 operators, they are very quickly using smartphones with mobile apps to send in requests for service 24 hours a day, seven days a week (Newcombe, 2014). 311 systems are now being used for performance measurement, economic development and community engagement, says Cory Fleming, 311 program director at the International City/County Management Association. Fleming also stated, that the 311 System technology has gone beyond its original purpose, which was simply to offload nonemergency calls coming into 911 systems (Newcombe, 2014). Moreover, the 311 System faces challenges that consists of high costs, and with that, makes the system a target for budget cutters, while issues with staff training and retention makes it hard for managers to use the technology itself, which constantly changes (Newcombe, 2014). Spencer Stern, a consultant who specializes in aiding cities with 311 stated, “ The recession has caused more cities to be innovative when it comes to 311” (Newcombe, 2014). Some cites are adapting and levering low-cost channels that include mobile apps, social media and online chat. These channels are less expensive to process than requests by phone (Newcombe, 2014). These are very important factors, because it costs an average of $3.40 to answer a call, while some cities pay as much as four or five dollars, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Any call that can be pushed online are a big savings, especially for cities that handle tens of

 

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thousands of calls per month. One of the biggest shifts has been the move to mobile apps and social media. 311 has had an online presence on the Web for many years, although, the rapid growth of smartphones, as well as the social media site Twitter. These are new ways to engage citizens, and some cities are already seeing a distinct shift away from phone calls to mobile requests. In fact, the City of Minneapolis has seen that a 25 percent increase in the number of people using smartphones to connect with the city’s website, according to Don Stickney, who is the 311 Director for the City of Minneapolis. It is the popularity of the city’s mobile app that has decreased 311 phone calls (Newcombe, 2014). All in all, the 311 System has many benefits, and has allowed citizens to connect more easily with city officials when they need to report a non-emergency call. Research from various cities have also shown that social media, Twitter, and the Online 311 system are saving cities a huge amount of money, rather than paying more for phone calls, that much more. This just shows that technology not only made it easier for government, but it also does not take so much money out of the budget either. (Newcombe, 2014). The NYC 311 System have also won a large amount of awards, including the: 2003 Overall Excellence in Technology Award, the 2004 MIT Digital Government Awards “Local Government Innovator”, the 2005 NYC Citizens Budget Commission Prize for Public Service Innovation, the 2005 Computerworld Honors Program finalist, the 2008 Municipal Arts Society Award, the 2009 Center for Digital Government Best of New York Wards, Project Best Advancing Service to the Public, the 2010 Computerworld Honors finalist, and the 2012 United Nations Public Service Award (Accenture, 2013, p. 7). Finally, I leave you with something that Director of the Taub Urban Research Center at New York University said, “For the first time, we have a real handle on what troubles New

 

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Yorkers. And New Yorkers have a real place they can communicate without having an intermediately. In a city as large as New York, knowing who to turn to is the most difficult challenge there is. It’s amazing how fast it’s become part of the city’s culture” (Accenture, 2013, p. 7). This computer technology can only lead to future successes for many US cities.

                                                       

 

Tancredi 7 References

Accenture. (2013). Transforming customer services to support high performance in new york city. pp. 1-8. Received: 21 November. 2014. Cohen, S., Eimicke, W., & Heikkila, T. (2013). The effective public manager. (5th ed.). SanFranciso, CA: Jossey-Bass. Johnson, S. (2010 November 01). What a hundred million calls to 311 reveal about new york. Wired. Received 10 October. 2014. Newcombe, T. (2014 March). Is the cost of 311 systems worth the price of knowing? Governing. Received: 22 November. 2014.