Carly Cortright, My Spokane Customer Service Director, 509.625.6263
Friday, April 27, 2018 at 3 p.m.
Customer service is important to the City of Spokane – we want to provide the best service possible to citizens and make it easier to communicate issues so that we may address them. Following the 2017 launch of My Spokane 311 (our centralized customer service program), we have been working hard to make further improvements to live up to our mission: to provide knowledgeable, friendly, and quality service with one call, one click, or one visit.
Our 311 call center has added staff this year as well as a callback feature, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, we now offer online chat to both our My Spokane Customer Service agents as well as our Development Services Center permit techs. Simply located on our website, you can reach an agent Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, and receive answers to your questions and bypass the phone line. If a chat agent is not available after hours, you can still email us and expect a response within one business day. Our online chat option launched last month and has quickly become a popular option.
Additionally, we have made improvements to your my.spokanecity.org account page. Previously, you could log on and report a pothole or request changes to your garbage service, but there was no account history to review those requests or see their status. Now when a citizen logs in, they will be greeted by their My311 Account History, including any bike registrations linked to their account. This account history will show both online requests, but also any requests submitted via phone or in person to My Spokane 311. This provides a new level of transparency for citizens to be able to track where their request is in the process.
The Development Services Center and Code Enforcement also has improved online functionality to share! My Spokane processes Code and Parking Enforcement complaints over the phone, and is very pleased to announce the creation of the new online portal, which allows customers to make these complaints online. So instead of making a phone call or filling out a paper form that needs to be mailed or hand delivered, customers can now log onto their account through the new portal and submit their complaint. Additionally, once the complaint is successfully submitted, customers can continue to check back to see the status of the case (instead of being left in the dark or needing to call 311 for an update).
Finally, in conjunction with our one click efforts, the City of Spokane has partnered with GovQA to improve the Office of the City Clerk’s ability to intake and process public records requests. The new online portal is live, which allows citizens to create an account to submit, track, and receive their requests for public records. This new portal has built in efficiencies on the back end to improve tracking and correspondence internally as well. The result is improved citizen interaction as well as improved handling time.
The My Spokane Customer Service Counter, Development Services Center, and City Clerk’s Office still welcome our walk-in customers as well. But our new online options have truly made customer service one call, one click, or one visit for our citizens!
