Buffalo's 311 Call Center: Program Evaluation Focusing on Department Goal of

Reaction Time and Resident SatisfactionJholane Haber, MPA Project Proposal · Dr. Laurie Buonanno - Project Adviser

The City of Buffalo’s Division of Citizen Services 311 Call and Resolution Center is a customer service improvement “one-stop shopping” center for residents to access all city services instead of being transferred from department to department. This initiative was introduced in 2007 by Mayor Brown as a solution to resolve city-related issues residents incurred and assist department heads to effectively delegate tasks.  The 311 Call and Resolution Center strives to help City agencies provide efficient service delivery by allowing them to focus on their core missions and manage workloads efficiently, while providing insight into the needs of residents and ensuring the accuracy and consistency of delivered services citywide to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Buffalo. They do so by providing citizens with fast, centralized access to city services by taking calls, registering complaints, giving information and providing residents access to non-emergency police services.  The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of the Division of Citizen Services 311 Call and Resolution Center in assisting City agencies in achieving their departmental goal and satisfying the needs of Buffalo resident in a timely manner as well as assess the rate of satisfaction residents feel pertaining to the 311 call center.

Literature Review

Purpose Statement

-Denhardt, J. V., & Denhardt, R. B. (2015). New Public Service : Serving, Not Steering (4th Edition). Florence, KY, USA: Taylor and Francis.-Kasymova, J. j. g. c. (2014). Analyzing Recent Citizen Participation Trends in Western New York: Comparing Citizen Engagement Promoted by Local Governments and Nonprofit Organizations. Canadian Journal of Nonprofit & Social Economy Research 5(2), 47-64. -Moulder, E., & O'Neill Jr, R. J. (2009). Citizen engagement and local government management. National Civic Review, 98(2), 21-30. -Nam, T., & Pardo, T. A. (2014). Understanding Municipal Service Integration: An Exploratory Study of 311 Contact Centers. Journal of Urban Technology, 21(1), 55-76.

References

Research DesignIt is likely that this study will consist of a multiphase mixed methods design. Phase 1 will consist of a matrix analysis of other 311 program evaluations. Phase 2 will consist of sharing the results of the matrix analysis with the 311 director in order to plan the next steps of the study. Phase 3 may consist of a response time analysis. Phase 4 may consist of a citizen satisfaction survey. Phase 5 may consist of interviews with department heads to learn their opinions about the 311 system, their ideas for improvement, etc.

Data CollectionPhase 1 – study program evaluations of comparable 311 systems and feed this information into a matrix analysis (mixed). Phase 2 – review matrix analysis with 311 director. Seek opinion as to the study’s next steps (qualitative). Possible next phases: Phase 3 – 311 response time and other data logged (quantitative). Phase 4 – web-administered survey to all residents who contact the 311 Call and Resolution Center.

Sample 1 – program evaluations conducted of other 311 centers in comparably-sized cities.

Sample 2 – Log data with response times and other relevant data.

Sample 3 - The population of residents who call in to the 311 call center and the population of departments who utilize the 311 center services for localizing residents’ inquires. This would be convenience sample because it would be based on residents who contact the department, agree to take the survey, and have access to email to receive the survey link.

Sampling Selection

New Public Governance/New Public Service The core values of new public administration include several factors such as serving citizens and treating them more than a client and thinking strategically while behaving democratically (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2015). Governmental influence is key in building citizens’ trust. In order for them to initiate, maintain and strengthen this trust, it is imperative that government officials remain transparent. They are able to follow through due to the 311 call centers who help form citizens’ impression of the government as well as identify residents’ needs, articulate their problems and help them understand the City’s administrative processes (Nam & Pardo, 2014).

311 Call Centers  The first 311 call center was developed in Baltimore in 1996; to date, there are currently 300 municipalities with 311 operational systems. Major call centers include New York City’s 311, which is the largest in the United States of America, and Philadelphia’s 311, the fifth largest in the country (Nam & Pardo, 2014). Even though there are a significant amount of 311 call centers in the United States, a substantial amount of research is unavailable, especially in terms of citizen satisfaction and new public administration. This proposed study will focus on those two aspects and integrate it into the 311 call center and operation.

Literature Review (continued)

311 call centers have become a “one-stop” service center for municipal residents as it consolidates all of the City’s available services. Not only do call center representatives of 311 call centers act as a liaison between residents and back offices, they ensure the efficiency and accountability of the deliverance of services. 311 customer service call centers contain a three-digit toll-free dial number that provides a quick and easy access to non-emergency city services and information. It was reserved by the United States Federal Communications Commission as a means of decreasing the amount of incoming non-emergency calls to emergency phone lines.

Citizen Engagement

The 311 call centers encourage citizen engagement as it strengthens local government transparency and accountability. According to Moulder and O’Neill (2009), citizen engagement is defined as ordinary citizens coming together to take collective action to address a public concern that citizens themselves decide are important and needs addressing. However, it is impossible for residents to make a change on their own, therefore they need the assistance of elected and appointed officials to bring strategies to fruition (Moulder & O'Neill Jr, 2009; Pozzebon & Mailhot, 2012). Citizen engagement is viewed as the core of democratic governance and has an impact on residents’ quality of life. Overall, it is based on the governance structure, population size and budgetary resources of the municipality (Kasymova, 2014).