Winnipeg's 311 service leaves callers waiting too long: report
The city established its 311 contact centre in 2009 with the goal of answering 80 per cent of the calls within 30 seconds but that has never been met, according to a report from the city's auditor.
Winnipeggers are waiting longer than ever when calling the City of Winnipeg's 311 information line for help.
The city established its 311 contact centre in 2009 with the goal of answering 80 per cent of the calls within 30 seconds but that has never been met, according to a report from the city's auditor.
The current level of service is approximately 60 per cent of calls being answered within 30 seconds, but overall, call wait times are on an increasing trend from an average of 80 seconds in 2009 to just under 100 seconds for the first 7 months of 2013 (the time period reviewed in the audit).
The report, however, did have several good things to say about the service, including:
- 311 is available 24/7, which is superior to previous call centre hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.
- All callers to 311 can ask for bilingual service, which was not the case in the call centres of all the other city departments.
- The 311 contact centre has been able to reduce the cost per call minute to $0.68 in 2012 from an estimated $1.13 to $1.30 prior to 311. But it has not achieved the original goal of $0.40 to $0.60 originally forecast.
- The 311 service has improved the accountability of city management through the provision of a wide array of performance reports. They also have allowed citizens to track the progress of their service requests increasing the accountability.
- In general, citizens are satisfied with the 311 service as a recent survey from 2014 indicated 87 per cent are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the current service.