HomeMy WebLinkAboutCustomerServiceStat_2020Q4_publishSBStat 2020
Customer Service
Q4 2020 | December 10, 2020SBStat
SBStat 2020
Today’s Agenda
I. Highlights from this past quarter
II. Deep-Dive Analysis
-Repeat Callers-Service Level Agreements Revamp
III. Taking action
-Economic Relief from Utility Bills
IV. Celebrating our values
SBStat 2020
Customer Service Stat Portfolio Summary
Status of SBStat projects in the queue for 2020
Project Brief Description Status
Customer Service Dashboard A public dashboard that visualizes data on calls and service
requests made by City residents to the 311 Service Center
Bloomberg Innovation Support -Economic Relief from Utility Bills
South Bend was selected to participate in a national city
cohort where cities are tackling timely challenges, utilizing best practices from other cities, Bloomberg, and its partners.
Online Service Request Portal In addition to calling the 311 Service Center, residents can now request services through the online service portal
Service Level Agreements Revamp A Service Level Agreement is a contract between a service provider (311) and its customers (departments) establishing the expected amount of time it will take to deliver a service
311 Repeat Caller Analysis Finding which topics (KBAs) get the most repeat callers, with
the goal of reducing the number of repeat callers
Legend Project on schedule Project delayed Project cancelled Project under consideration
SBStat 2020
Highlights from this past quarter
-Customer Service Dashboard
-Bloomberg Innovation Support -Economic Relief from Utility Bills
-Digital Services Portfolio
-Online Service Request Portal
-Website User Group
Customer Service Dashboard
Dashboard Tool
The purpose of the tool is to be another representation of the City’s commitment to transparency and a resource for residents and elected leaders on 311 data.
Notes on the tool
•Based on prototype and KPIs discussed in Q2 Stat
•The data comes from the City’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
•Automatically updated on a daily basis
•The user can search by time period or department
SBStat 2020
SBStat 2020
Customer Service Dashboard
SBStat 2020
Bloomberg Innovation Support
Economic Relief from Utility Bills
Supporting residents who are struggling to pay their utility bills
SBStat 2020
Bloomberg Innovation Training
Overview and purpose
What is the Bloomberg Innovation Program?
South Bend was selected to participate in a national city cohort where city teams are tackling timely challenges, utilizing best practices from other cities, Bloomberg and its partners.
What problem is South Bend trying to solve?
The Problem that the Mayor's Office has identified is "How can South Bend approach utility forgiveness, repayment, and relief in wake of COVID economic hardship to meet the needs of our most vulnerable residents?"
SBStat 2020
Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Team
Kara Boyles, Kim Thompson, Jordan Gathers, & the Business
Analytics Team Interviews,
Observation Sessions
Insights
submitted to
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Opportunities:
•Process improvement
•Strategic
communications
•Digital banking
SBStat 2020
Bloomberg Innovation Support
Next Steps
1.Reframing the problem
2.Midpoint Presentation for Mayors and Senior Leaders
3.Prototyping and testing
SBStat 2020
Digital Services Portfolio
An overview on projects related to the City’s website and 311 Service Portal
SBStat 2020
Website Working Group
•Goals
•Improve transparency around updates to the website and ongoing projects
•Empower web editors and KBA writers to take a larger role in managing their content through trainings
•Structure
•Monthly emails to members with general updates and tips/training opportunities
•Quarterly meetings that feature trainings or best practices presentations
SBStat 2020
Online Service Requests
•Went live October 27, 2020 with 32 service requests
•The vast majority of these service requests are for Code Enforcement or Streets/Traffic & Lighting
•Dashboard link
•Takeaways
•Streets/Traffic & Lighting have been getting the most portal requests
•We haven’t done much marketing/outreach outside of the press release, which most likely contributes to low usage
Online Service Requests
Future Plans
•Our goal is to have a “pizza tracker” for requests where it makes sense
•May require some process changes at the department-level
•Required process changes will be conducted during ongoing software implementations
•Anticipated software implementations to begin in 2021 and beyond
•Cityworks AMS: Streets Processes (currently in planning)
•Cityworks AMS: Forestry Processes (currently in planning)
•Cityworks AMS: Traffic and Lighting (not yet scoped)
•Cityworks AMS: Utilities (not yet scoped)
•Code Enforcement or Community Development ERP (not yet scoped)
SBStat 2020
Using data to drive performance
Diving deep into a few key initiatives being undertaken to improve city performance
•Repeat Callers Analysis
•Service Level Agreements Revamp
•Economic Relief for Residents from Utility Bills
SBStat 2020
Repeat Callers
•Background / Context
•Methodology
•Insights & Takeaways
SBStat 2020
Repeat Callers
•Finding which topics (KBAs) get the most repeat callers
•Goal: Reduce the number of repeat callers
•We want to reduce extra work for residents requesting services, as well as the amount of rework for City employees
SBStat 2020
Notes on the analysis
•Dashboard
•Repeat Caller Definition:
•Same account calling twice or more in the same month about the same KBA
•Time period:
•Pulled October 2020 and June 2019 to spot check
•The dashboard is using the number of callers, not the number of calls, as the base.
•For example, if someone calls five times about the same topic, they are still counted as one repeat caller.
SBStat 2020
Insights & Takeaways
•Teams
•Solid Waste has the highest number of repeat callers, but their percentage of repeat callers is average compared to other teams.
•Facilities & Grounds and DCI have the highest percentage of repeat callers, but they have a very low total number of calls
SBStat 2020
Insights & Takeaways
•KBAs
•Request an Extra Pick-Up (Solid Waste) has the highest number of repeat callers. However, since there are articles to report a missed pick-up, it’s likely that at least some of these residents just needed multiple extra pick-ups.
•Calls with low numbers of total numbers have the highest percentage of repeat callers
•Downspout Disconnect Program (Oct 20), Playground Maintenance (Oct 20), and Street Flooding (June 19) had 1 repeat caller out of 3 total callers
•Out of KBAs that had 10 or more repeat callers, the top five articles had a 17-22% repeat caller rate in June 2019. In Oct 2020, the top articles had between 10 -14% repeat callers.
SBStat 2020
Insights & Takeaways
•How does this compare to other Cities?
•Tempe, Arizona
•Target of 75% First Call Resolution target, reached 87.53% of calls resolved in the first point of contact in Q2 2020
•Montgomery County, MD
•72.61% first call resolution as of June 2018
•Philadelphia, PA
•Target of 70% first call resolution, reached 80% in Q3 2011 and 69% in Q3 2012
•Toronto, Canada
•72% first call resolution in 2012, used Chicago (65%) and Miami (93%) as benchmarks
SBStat 2020
Reducing Repeat Callers
Some discussion questions
•Would it be helpful if there was a “repeat caller” target percentage or number for staff to monitor?
•Are there KBAs we should focus on outside of an established threshold?
•E.g. popular programs, seasonal services
•Do we want to include repeat callers in regular reports to departments from 311?
•Potential deeper dive –number of callers on KBAs that indicate a complaint or repeat caller
•E.g. Report Missed Trash/Yard Waste
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements Revamp
•Background / Context
•Current State
•Available Data and Analysis
SBStat 2020
Departmental Agreements Overview
Departmental Agreements consist of written contracts and SLAs
•A Service Level Agreement is a contract between a service provider (311) and its customers (departments) establishing the expected amount of time it will take 311 or the department to deliver a service
Background
•Existing contracts
•Most contracts were written before the implementation of the current knowledge management system and knowledge articles
•Updated contracts
•The Departmental Agreement with Code Enforcement was updated in 2017
SBStat 2020
Written Contract
SBStat 2020
Code Enforcement Contract
•Updated in 2017 to reflect the new knowledge management system and is based on ITIL principles
•Outlines responsibilities of 311, the department, and Business Analytics
•Knowledge Management maintenance
•Handling calls –information given and transfers/escalations
•Business process improvement
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements
Current State
•Existing SLA times were proposed by departments and agreed upon by 311
•Times are in total elapsed hours (24 hours means one business day, not 3 8hr business days)
•There are 89 service types with established SLAs
•There are 48 service types that have both established SLAs and Service Form Definitions in CRM
•Streets (18)
•Sewers (5)
•Traffic & Lighting (10)
•Engineering (1)
•VPA (1)
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements –Current State
•Measuring adherence to SLAs can be done by comparing to CRM data
•Average Service Request Completion Times from CRM
•Using Service Requests submitted since 1/1/20
•2 of the 48 measurable requests do not have data for 2020
•Requests with status “Completed” or “Cancelled”
•Using “Created On” date as start and “Modified On” date as end
•“Modified by” is not someone in 311
•Approx. 14,000 requests
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements
•Takeaways
•For most service types, teams are either almost always or almost never meeting the SLA times
•Most or all of the service request from specific teams fell into either one or the other category
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements
•Moving forward, we could review dispatch processes with departments to ensure requests are being closed out when the service is complete.
•If processes need to change to accommodate this, this would be accomplished along side the online service request updates and software implementations.
•This would allow for a more accurate picture of how long it takes to complete each service type and allow us to establish more accurate SLAs.
•With measurable SLAs, we can hold departments accountable to their contracts with 311 and to residents.
SBStat 2020
Discussion Questions
•Moving forward, how should we determine SLAs if teams are using different processes to track completion times?
•Should we make adjustments into how we measure SLAs?
SBStat 2020
Economic Relief from Utility Bills
Financial update, program framework, and timeline
SBStat 2020
1%
-1%
-21%
-26%
-14%
-8%
-13%
-17%-16%
-11%
-14%
-30%
-25%
-20%
-15%
-10%
-5%
0%
5%
January-20 March-20 May-20 July-20 September-20 November-20
How much has the local economy recovered since March?
Year-over-year change in retail spending based on real-time MasterCard transactions
2019 spending index performance
2020 spending index performance
Financial update
Number of accounts with unpaid bills, broken down by level of risk
1.The number of accounts classified as high-risk (i.e. responsible for bills past due by over 90 days) is continuing to rise, the average bill for accounts 90+ days overdue went from $267.50 in July to $345.00 in November 2020
2.The total delinquent accounts (60+ days overdue) went from 3,126 in July to 5,236 in November 2020
Key takeaways
SBStat 2020
Taking action
Offering policy alternatives, data-based frameworks, and decision points to take action in improving the lives of South Bend residents
Program Framework
Significant debt forgiveness for residential accounts in 2020/early 2021 + income-based financial relief going forward
Key Details:
•2020: Provide significant economic relief for debt incurred from March 2020 –February 2021 bills that are 60 days or more overdue (no income-eligibility)
•Either full debt forgiveness or a one-time credit
•2021 and beyond: CAP reduction if income-eligible
•Only residential accounts are eligible for this program
•Punitive actions (i.e. late fees, water shutoffs) resume in 2021
•Expected Cost: $1.6 M –$2 M
Draft
SBStat 2020
December 2020
•Finalize program administrative details, address legal concerns
•Define roles and responsibilities for program implementation
•Evaluate and address billing administrative needs for program launch in March.
January 2021
•Share program details with Council as part of
request to increase utility
rates over the long-term.
•Promote program with media, local agencies, & residents (i.e. press release, outreach, etc.).
•Launch Enquesta and the Customer Assistance Program (January 19)
February 2021
•Prepare administrative billing updates to accounts eligible for economic relief
•Conduct promotion, outreach activities to increase low-income enrollment
March 2021
•Execute program launch; delinquent accounts receive economic relief, income-eligible accounts receive long-
term relief
•Continue to conduct outreach activities to
increase low-income enrollment
Program Launch Timeline
A high-level look at activities that need to take place to launch the program
Draft
SBStat 2020
Outstanding questions
1.Full debt forgiveness or cash credit?
•Cash credit helps good actors who are not enrolled in CAP
2.Funding Sources
•How will the City fund financial relief for the water portion of the utility bill, given IURC restrictions?
3.Are we comfortable restarting to apply late fees/shut offs to residents in March 2021?
•Any thoughts on whether we should have a phased approach to the shut off process?
Draft
SBStat 2020
Closing out the quarter
Revisiting the Customer Service Stat Portfolio
Project Status
Online Service Request Portal
Customer Service Dashboard
Bloomberg Innovation Support -
Economic Relief from Utility Bills
Service Level Agreements
Revamp
311 Repeat Caller Analysis
•Do we have clear next steps for the key initiatives discussed today?
•Are there any initiatives/areas of interest that should be added to the portfolio for next quarter?
Questions to close out the quarter
Legend Project on schedule Project delayed Project cancelled Project under consideration
SBStat 2020
Celebrating our values
This section highlights exemplary work happening in the City to improve performance that may otherwise go unnoticed
SBStat 2020
Celebrating Our Values
•Through the work with Bloomberg, we interviewed stakeholders in the utility debt space, including social service organizations, landlords, and residents struggling with financial hardship.
SBStat 2020
Customer Service
Q4 2020 | December 10, 2020SBStat
SBStat 2020
Service Level Agreements
Basing SLAs on Departmental Knowledge
•Pros
•Faster implementation, since departments and 311 need agree on existing numbers or update based on department experience
•Cons
•SLAs may not be accurate to how long it actually takes to complete a service request
•We can’t hold departments accountable to a contract with 311 or to residents if we can’t show if they’re meetings SLAs
Basing SLAs on CRM Data
•Pros
•More reliable data which could be used to develop KPIs and be more accountable to residents
•Cons
•Slower implementation since it would require process changes for some departments –could be implemented as part of the online service tracking