Vancouver hotline cuts through the bureaucratic maze

The City of Vancouver has launcheda quick-dial information servicein an attempt to help people cut throughthe red tapeand get the answers they need.

Dialling 311, according to the City of Vancouver's website,will "provide citizens with ready access to most City information and non-emergency services by phone." The line will operateseven days a week, 24-hours a day and language translation services will be available.

The "soft launch" of the system took place in February, with 12 agents answering calls. That number wasboosted to between 30 and 35 agents in June, and is expected to expand to 40 agents by June 2010.

The 311 service was approved by city council in November 2006.

According toBarbara Pearce, a business consultant with thecity, Vancouver City Hall received more than a million phone calls from the public in 2008, andmore than 100,000 of them were lost in the bureaucratic maze.

Pearce also said city employees spend too much of their time answering calls, rather than working on city business.

"The concept of 311 is to take approximately 80 per centof the city business calls off the plates of the employees so they can concentrate on doing what they do best delivering services," Pearce said.

Until the service is fully operational in approximately a year,many ofthe calls will be transferred to the appropriate departments, but eventually the 311 operators will be able to deal with most issues directly.

Data collection will also be a benefit for the city, according to 311 Contact Centre manager Darcy Wilson.

How it works

Usinga major snowfall as an example, Wilson said thatcomplaints or requests for snow removal would be directed to a311 operator instead of the engineering department.The complaint will be recorded, a case number given, and a computer program will trackthe areas of the city where the complaints originate.

"We'd be able to provide lots of data to the engineering department so they'd be able to go back and understand what the concerns were by citizens and they might be able to make adjustments based on what we are supplying them," Wilson said.

Vancouver is the first city in the Lower Mainland to implement the 311 system, which is already in use in manyNorth America cities.