By Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez
September 24, 2007

The City of Hartford has enjoyed a great deal of forward progress as a result of forward thinking.

Entering our second year of operation with our 3-1-1 one-call non-emergency system, the numbers tell the story. It’s good news. Our call center has answered more than 70,000 calls and only generated 8,000 cases or requests for service that needed to be forwarded to various City departments. Working in tandem with our new HARTstat performance management program, 3-1-1 has helped us achieve one of our primary goals to reshape City government so that it better serves Hartford constituents.

Prior to implementation of our 3-1-1 initiative, it was clear that our city had an opportunity to improve upon its level of responsiveness to constituents as well as its internal workflow systems and processes. The City of Hartford turned to EMA, Inc. for help in the development of a Technology Master Plan.

Initial assessments produced enlightening findings. Focusing on several City departments to better understand how to raise the City’s level of responsiveness, it was determined that a 3-1-1 one-call system would best serve our overall needs, providing our community with a centralized point of contact for service requests and information. The City’s back office operations also would need to be streamlined to support the new systems being implemented. EMA provided the resources and expertise to augment the get the program underway.

At first glance, a 3-1-1 undertaking may seem simplistic — as basic as the installation of a new phone system. Not so. A 3-1-1 implementation must consider the operational complexities of each department involved in the process. Our 3-1-1 program needed to integrate seamlessly all of the behind-the'scenes functions and processes to address constituents’ needs in a timely and responsive manner — whether it was a report of a pothole that needed repair, a request for empty lot cleanup, or an inquiry for property tax information.

Our 3-1-1 system has led to significant improvements in efficiency. Our call center answers about 400 calls a day — a number that rises close to 800 during tax season — and handles incoming calls for the busiest City departments, including the City’s general number, Tax, Vital Records, Licenses and Inspections, Town Clerk, Public Works, Health and Human Services, and Environmental Health. Most calls can be handled immediately by our Constituent Service Representatives (CSRs), and only 10 percent need to be forwarded to the appropriate department for immediate assistance. Calls requiring additional attention are entered as “cases” and referred to the proper department for further action.

New system reporting tools provide us with responsiveness data to monitor our case load. CSRs track open cases and follow up with specific departments should responsiveness lag. Call center staff also attempts to contact every constituent who initiates a service request to ensure cases were resolved to their satisfaction.

The 3-1-1 system has increased our staff efficiencies. With CSRs handling incoming calls as the first point of contact, departmental staff members can devote their time to other job-related tasks.

Additionally, immediate access to case load information has improved our response times. We’re better and faster. Immediate access also allows us to watch for the development of trends – both positive and those that may suggest the need for improvement.

Our 3-1-1 success also has inspired other City departments to review how they do business and work on optimizing their work processes to maximize effectiveness and efficiency.

HARTstat: accountability in numbers

Continuing our performance management initiative, we needed a comprehensive tool to help us monitor and promote performance across departments. Building on the work started by EMA helped us develop HARTstat — a performance management program designed to identify key issues and objectives and to measure our City’s progress and results.

HARTstat provides a regular forum to help departments assess service delivery, monitor progress in completing objectives, identify problems early, determine opportunities for improvement and overcome obstacles with implements of change.

Each City department that receives case loads from the 3-1-1 call center has established service level standards for their most common service requests. These standards include performance metrics called Service Level Agreements (SLAs). With the help of HARTstat, we can now track service request performance against our SLAs. Our standards hold us accountable to our statistics. Our goal is nothing less than 100 percent compliance.

The beauty of SLAs is that they connect customer service and performance management. Our City’s residents know what to expect in terms of service and City workers know what’s expected of them in return.

During monthly meetings with department heads and senior staff, we review our progress and key performance indicators. HARTstat has been a significant performance management tool that has helped departments assess their service delivery, monitor progress in completing their objectives, identify problems early, and determine opportunities for improvement.

Each department’s key performance indicators are tracked against the SLAs. Each indicator is tracked to see if it is deemed “On Target,” “Close But Not There,” or a “Problem That Needs a Plan.” Weekly reports are generated against each department’s targets.

It’s performance improvement at its best and a practical, prudent way to build on a 3-1-1 customer service system that is delivering for the City of Hartford and its residents.

For more information on EMA Inc.’s 3-1-1 solutions, contact Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland at 301-460-5251/ kweyland@usmayors.org or Jeffrey Bean at 202-446-8140 / jbean@usmayors.org