Leveraging Technology to Measure Government Productivity and Accountability

Lisa N. Allen 3-1-1 Call Center Manager

Lisa R. LittleIT Manager – Dept. of Public Works

City of Baltimore

The History of 311

• The Baltimore Police Department received a grant from the Department of Justice to initiate a pilot 311 program (Office of Community Oriented policing Services (COPS) to access the impact a non emergency unit would have in 911 hold / wait times

• On October 2, 1996, Baltimore kicked off the operation of the nation’s first Police Non-Emergency 3-1-1 unit.

• The Police Non-Emergency Unit immediately handled 1/3 of the 911 calls

City of Baltimore

The History of 311

In 2001, Baltimore’s administration promoted a new government platform, promoting accountability, transparency and responsiveness.

March 2002 after due diligence and preparation, a consolidated unit to receive citizen’s request was implemented and the concept of the call center was developed for City Services and other informational questions.

July 2005 – The Mayors Office of Information Technology assumed responsibility for Police Non Emergency Calls

City of Baltimore

Leadership Transition

Although leadership has changed, given the value and success of 311, the program has transitioned along with leadership due to customer reaction as well as the benefits

and accessibility the call center brings to the city

City of Baltimore

Mayoral Objectives

The Mayors Objectives:

Make Baltimore’s Government More Innovative, Efficient and Customer Friendly

Make Baltimore a Safer City

Create stable, vibrant, Livable Neighborhoods

Make Baltimore a Cleaner, Greener and more Sustainable City

Strengthen Baltimore’s Economy and Promote Cultural Opportunities for All Residents

Build Strong, Healthy and Educated Families

City of Baltimore

• If the Mayor really wants to know, we can find out. But we’ll have to pull all our people off their jobs. And it will take weeks.

• We’ll get to that as soon as we can, but it will take a few months because our budget was cut last year.

• That’s the way we’ve always done it… We’re already doing that… We tried that and it didn’t work.

• We hope the City Council forgets about this before next year’s budget hearing.

Old Government TenetsCity of Baltimore

New Government Tenets

New adjectives to describe the new

government process• Responsive• Accountable• Cost Effective• Deploy resources where needed as determined by

reliable information

How do we change the from the old way

City of Baltimore

• Accurate and timely intelligence shared by all.

• Rapid deployment of resources.

• Effective tactics and strategies.

• Relentless follow-up and assessment.

Tenants Promoting Accountability

City of Baltimore

Creating Partnerships Baltimore’s internationally acclaimed real-time performance measurement and management accountability toolset

CRM technology which facilitates centralized constituent call and web intake as well as high-level work order management

Consolidated “3-1-1 Call Center,” constituents’ one call to City Hall

Leadership through project management and process re-engineering, facilitator of CitiStat and operator of 3-1-1 Call Center

City of Baltimore

311 One Call Center

Create a consolidated intake center where information will be gathered professionally

and consistently Utilize the information gathered to promote

accountability within the agencies and transparency within city government.

The information gathered is used as a dashboard to measure productivity and

responsiveness

City of Baltimore

One Call to City Hall

The Customer Service Agent creates a Service Request

City of Baltimore

.

CitiTrack

Timely and accurate data originates from the CitiTrack CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system which is the city-wide call intake and high level work order tool for all agencies in the City.

CitiTrack is accessible by telephone (3-1-1) as well as the Web.

City of Baltimore

CitiTrack

CitiTrack Service requests are also created by any city employee who interacts with the public. All operational agencies have access to CitiTrack for work order management. Although the initial customer intake process is handled by 311, >1000 City employees use the system regularly.

City of Baltimore

CitiTrack CRM

• Provides a citywide service request intake and resolution system• Flexibility to vary information captured and managed by type of

service request• Flexibility to vary the methods and activities involved in resolution of

different types of service requests• System prepares work orders and resolution activity messages as

required• System-wide query capability to check service request resolution

progress and status• Comprehensive management reporting capabilities• Includes a citywide department directory and phone book• Ability to access a citywide knowledge-base for generic City

information

City of Baltimore

CitiTrack CRM

• 400 service request types• 1000 users – Public Works, Transporation, Health,

Housing, Rec & Parks, CitiStat• Mayor’s Office of Information Technology uses

CSR as their Help Desk tool• Department of General Services uses the system to

manage building maintenance service requests – all internal requests from other City agencies

City of Baltimore

Service Request Types

City of Baltimore

Resolution Process

• Emergency & urgent work – water, storm, sewer, traffic signs & signals, animal control issues are dispatched

• Depending upon operational area, time of day, etc. may be dispatched to superintendent on duty, supervisors, crews, investigators

• Operational areas retrieve routine SRs

City of Baltimore

Resolution Process

• Water & Sewer – generic SRs are created, for example water leak exterior/sewer miscellaneous investigation

• “Scout” arrives at the scene to investigate to determine actual problem

• Problem is reported back to dispatch center • Dispatcher creates new SR for actual problem, i.e. water

main break, water joint leak, water service repair• Crew assigned to perform the work• Status information reported back to dispatch center

City of Baltimore

Resolution Process

• Great emphasis is placed on recording resolution information in order to provide the most current status information

• Operational areas complete the final update information and close SRs

• SRs are reviewed regularly to determine history of work performed

City of Baltimore

Summary Report

City of Baltimore

Summary Report

• CSR Summary report is used by managers and supervisors to review all work, backlog, overdue SRs, resolution times

• Each area is responsible for the configuration and management of SR types, workflow, resolution recording and reporting

• Backlogs are questioned and managers required to explain reasons and strategies to reduce or eliminate the backlog

City of Baltimore

City of Baltimore

The CitiStat Process

City of Baltimore

The CitiStat Process

Participating agencies submit customized data templates on a bi-weekly basis to report on key performance indicators.

City of Baltimore

Each week a comprehensive executive briefing is prepared for each agency that highlights areas of concern.

The CitiStat Process

City of Baltimore

Extended Complaint Trend

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

8/19-9/1

9/2-9/15

9/16-9/29

9/30-10/1

3

10/14-10

/27

10/28-11

/10

11/11

-11/24

11/25

-12/8

12/9-1

2/22

12/23-1/

5

1/6-1/19

1/20-2/2

1/27-2/9

2/10-2/23

2/24-3/9

3/10-3/23

3/24-4/6

4/7-4/20

04/21-05

/04

05/05-05

/18

05/19-06

/01

06/02-06

/15

06/16-06

/29

06/30-7/

13

7/14-7/27

Tot

al C

ompl

aint

s

Data is carefully analyzed, performance trends are closely monitored, and strategies to achieve improved performance are developed.

The CitiStat Process

City of Baltimore

Digital maps are used to plot complaints,vacant homes, lead paint violations, food inspections, and potholes, allowing managers to track employee performance and public service delivery.

The CitiStat Process

CitiStat

• Managers are required to report on critical service initiatives and questioned about agency performance

• Opportunities to improve coordination and cooperation are identified

• Strategies to achieve improvement are formulated• Monthly budget review take place to analyze

vacancy rates, overtime and revenue streams

City of Baltimore

City of Baltimore

• The CSR system and CitiStat process enable data analysis, process review and the identification of resource issues

• Areas are challenged to maintain minimum backlogs, complete work with defined duration times, challenged to reduce duration and in some cases, to be realistic to manage expectations by increasing duration times due to seasonal changes and limited resources

• The CSR system and CitiStat process are mechanisms for departmental integration and communication

• Citizen requests have gained management level responsibility• Service delivery has been improved

Prior to 311and CSR System

• 10,000 - 13,000 calls to the City daily• Inconsistent customer service standards• Callers repeatedly transferred between agencies• Multiple calls for single problem due to slow service response• City employees calling to request information and generate service

requests• Citizens/commerce partners calling to request information or services

that can be conducted via Internet or found elsewhere• No integrated information system• No integrated, coordinated multi-agency service response• No real-time work order management system• Ad hoc executive/management oversight

City of Baltimore

311 Advantages

Benefits of - consolidated data - professional agents – access 365 days

• Citizens are treated like Customers

• Improved service delivery

• Adaptability to existing and re-engineered processes

• Consolidation of City telephone numbers – cost savings

• Improved mgt. visibility into agency performance

• Establish productivity database/performance standards

• Improved Customer access to local government

City of Baltimore

External Customer Experience

• Improve access to local government

• Improve service delivery

• Predict service delivery intervals with confidence and accuracy

• DO MORE WITH LESS

3-1-1 One Call Center

Before After

City of Baltimore

Is The Work Complete

The call center conducts Customer Satisfaction Surveys to poll the customers

and ensure the work was done

City of Baltimore

Call Center

•Average 3,500 calls per day

•Average answer time < 5 seconds

•147 sec average talk time per call – c svs

•180 sec average talk time per call - neu

•< 2 % abandon rate

Customer Satisfaction Survey

•Random post close-out survey

•311 Call Center rates “very satisfied” for customer interaction

•City services rate “satisfied” for quality and timeliness

Customer Satisfaction

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Quality Timeliness

Satisfactory

City of Baltimore

City of Baltimore

Lisa N Allen

LisaN.Allen@BaltimoreCity.gov

Lisa R Little

LisaR.Little@BaltimoreCity.gov