City Officials Reflect on Call Center's First Year of Success

CITY OFFICIALS REFLECT ON CALL CENTER’S FIRST YEAR OF SUCCESS

RAPID CITY, SD—Since the Public Works Department opened its customer service call center in mid-September 2023, the staff team has taken a total of 39,470 calls and created 1,910 service orders for the various divisions within the department.

            “By all accounts, our Call Center has been a huge success,” said City Public Works Administration Operations Manager Shannon Truax. “The call service center was created to provide an increased level of service, efficiency and transparency to City residents and the general public. The results have been remarkable and beyond expectations.”

            The City’s Customer Service Center opened in September 2023 and was expanded in November to include additional public works divisions. The call center staff fields citizen calls for the City’s water, water reclamation, solid waste, streets, utility billing and utility maintenance divisions.  Call center staff also works on projects for other departments as needed.

            When City customers call these divisions, the calls are routed to service center staff where questions and concerns are 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.  Within weeks of the call center opening, staff members were fielding an average of 100 calls per day. That number has grown significantly to more than 200 calls per day.

            “When we started the customer service center, we hoped it would increase the level of service we could provide to residents and the public,” Truax said. “It’s an opportunity to connect with someone and address a specific issue or questions and get immediate attention.”

            The ongoing objective for call center staff is to provide callers with a positive first interaction when contacting City offices and getting them needed assistance.