CITY TO EXPAND SERVICES
OF PUBLIC WORKS CALL CENTER
Locally-staffed call center fields
an average of 100-150 calls per day
RAPID CITY, SD—In September, the City’s Public Works Department established a call center to respond to the city’s growth and increasing number of customer calls.
Effective next Tuesday (November 14), the center will expand its services to include customer calls concerning additional divisions within the department. Beginning next week, call center staff will field citizen calls for the City’s water, water reclamation, utility billing and utility maintenance divisions.
When City customers call these divisions, the calls will be routed to the Customer Service Center where questions and concerns will be fielded and addressed by a customer service agent. The agents are City employees and are staff of the public works department.
The call center is located in the City’s water treatment plant on Mountain View Road with four City employees tasked with taking calls and addressing questions and concerns. City officials estimate center staff members are currently fielding an average of 100-150 calls per day. The number is expected to grow with the oversight of additional divisions within the department.
“Having the customer service center increases the level of service we are able to provide City residents and the general public,” said Jesse Rieb, program development manager with the City’s Public Works Division. “This call center provides the city resident with a level of transparency and efficiency, an opportunity to connect with someone to address a specific issue or question and get immediate attention.”
City officials are pleased with the early success of the call center and plan further expansion of the center in 2024 to employ an additional staff member and adding the City’s solid waste division for call center oversight.