311
Mission statement
311 is the gateway to the City of Minneapolis information & services, providing accountability and transparency by:
Simplifying access to city information and services
Allowing departments to deliver services more effectively
Tracking requests for service delivery from inception to completion
Providing process solutions for citizen access
Our people
Programs and divisions
Purpose and context
Minneapolis 311 is the single point of contact and the gateway to the City of Minneapolis and its many services. 311 can assist residents or visitors who may not know how to navigate the bureaucracy, have limited time to research City practices, or limited access to visit departments in person. Rather than tying up the 911 lines, residents or visitors can call 311 to make police reports or inquire about other non-emergency services; thus, making city services accessible to residents who may be unwilling to call law enforcement directly.
311 is a simple, three-digit telephone number that residents, businesses and visitors can call to reach the City to inquire about services, report problems, check the status of service requests, or get information. For customers out of the city limits they can call 612-673-3000; hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 311 is closed on City recognized holidays.
The residents of Minneapolis benefit because everyone has equal access to call, email, or text 311 to report issues with City services or City regulated services such as graffiti, snow removal, stray animals, parking problems, or rental property issues. They can also receive information or guidance such as how to apply for a permit or where to park during a snow emergency. Once a request is submitted residents can call 311 to check the status. For example, all renters have equal access to report housing infractions and can contact 311 when they have brought health or safety concerns to the attention of their landlord and their concerns are not being addressed. All renters have the right to a safe and livable home, and they can contact 311 to report heating, plumbing, broken appliances, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that are defective or missing. By doing so, 311 can ensure their rights are being upheld and will make it possible for City inspectors to get involved.
There is no charge for calling 311 within the city limits of Minneapolis (some cell phone plans may charge for their minutes, and pay phones have a charge). There are over 220 language options to choose from, all free of charge. When calling, customers simply press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for Somali or 4 for Hmong; or wait for an agent to answer and tell them what language is preferred to be connected with an interpreter. This ensures that all residents have access to City services.
Services provided
311 Customer Service agents answer phone calls, voicemails, and emails from customers and enter service requests, answer questions, or refer them to appropriate resources to meet their needs.
311 Analysts use data from interactions to help departments understand business needs based on case types and volumes and to identify opportunities for process improvements.
Depending on the type of service requests entered residents can expect housing infractions to be inspected and processed, graffiti to be removed, potholes to be filled, ordinances to be upheld, yards to be cleaned, abandoned vehicles to be towed, snow to be removed, etc.
Race equity impacts
311 utilizes a language interpreting service that offers translation for over 227 languages which allows 311 to serve all our customers.
Providing trauma counseling will prepare our employees to best understand and respond the diverse needs of the public they serve. Counseling related to racial trauma will be helpful for our employees to best serve the BIPOC community.
Marketing services to the public will allow us to provide information to the public in multiple languages with information on connecting to our language lines or accessing interpreters through our service. Investing in a 311 continued education campaign will allow 311 to be purposeful and intentional in how we reach out to the community. Providing information to communities that have not been civically engaged will reduce these disparities.
2022 Mayor's Recommended change items
311 - Core Service Rebuilding
Program: 311
Fund: General Fund
FTE: 1.0
Proposal detail and background
The Mayor recommends returning $130,000 in ongoing General Funds to 311 in 2022. These funds would go toward filling the Operations Manager position that has been vacant since 2020.
Funding this position will impact the City’s Workforce operational goal as it will allow capacity to focus on increasing the hiring and retention of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the City’s workforce.
The lack of an Operations Manager has resulted in the focus of Leadership being shifted to administrative responsibilities, including but not limited to job postings, setting up interviews, interviewing potential candidates, staffing plans, COOP plans, managing 3 supervisors, investigating and terminating employees, and navigating the day to day challenges brought on by a pandemic and civil unrest. This resulted in a lack of focus on long range planning and needed improvements to the contact center to meet the needs of the community.
Description of the change
311 will fill the Operations Manager which will allow 311 to focus on day to day operations and needed long range planning and enhancements simultaneously.
The support of the Operations Manager in running the day to day operations of the contact center will allow the director the ability to focus on strategic planning, technology enhancements, and formulate other long range plans that will keep the contact center operating at the high level needed to support the community and enterprise.
There will be no additional equipment needed, beyond what is needed for all employees.
Equity impacts and results
Hiring an operations manager will allow 311 the capacity to be more focused on identifying and addressing disparities in service and seeking out opportunities to increase engagement. Hiring an operations manager will increase the 311’s capacity to continue the enhancement of our program. This could include handling additional types of interactions for City services, expanding our capacity to interact with the public to additional channels, and meeting the evolving contact center technology needs.
311 - Interactive Voice Response System
Program: 311
Fund: General Fund
FTE: 0.0
Proposal detail and background
311 proposes ongoing General Funds of $250,000 to support a new Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System which will allow callers to get quick answers, enter simple requests, and be directed to an agent who will best help them with their specific needs.
An IVR would impact the City goal of prioritizing reliable and equitable access to high- quality public services.
In the past year, 311 has learned that callers with city business struggled to make requests because call volumes and long hold times made it difficult to get through to an agent. In addition, our reduced hours of operation created a bottleneck for voice interactions received after hours as these voicemails would need to be reviewed and often the customer needed to be called back to meet their needs. Though there are other channels that allow customers to access services from 311 at any time with no wait, this same level of access is not available for customers reaching out over the phone. An IVR would have allowed some voice interactions to be handled without needing to wait for an agent to be available.
Description of the change
A robust IVR will allow for greater efficiency. Customers will be able to self-serve by entering simple service requests or getting answers to frequently asked questions using voice or dial pad. This will result in a larger number of customers accessing information and services without needing to wait for an agent to be available, better utilizing the currently budgeted FTEs.
Skills based routing functionality in an IVR will allow calls to be transferred to an agent who is an expert in a given topic and allow agents in training to begin assisting with a larger volume of voice interactions as soon as they are trained in on each new skill.
Finally, it will allow for post call surveys to be offered and conducted automatically which affords a much-needed data point in measuring the overall quality of our voice interactions.
Savings will be reflected in reduced hold times to speak to an agent, reduction in abandon rates, and FTE time spent on voicemail review and callbacks to customers.
An IVR solution will be a new initiative. 311 does not have a current contract for IVR; rather it uses the existing phone system. The effective implementation date will be Q1 of 2022, so long as financial and IT resources are granted. 311 will need to put out an RFP for prospective vendors.
Equity impacts and results
Currently, our long hold times and limited hours of operation create a service barrier for customers who reach out via voice interaction for a variety of reasons, including persons with certain disabilities or persons without access to other channels.
Offering this additional means for customers to reach out allows more opportunity for them to interact with the city on their terms at a time of day that works best for them.
The adoption of this item will allow the budgeted staffing level at 311 to better meet the needs of customers reaching out via voice interaction. This will result in fewer barriers for customer obtaining services from 311 and the City as a whole.
This program will result in a decrease in abandon rate and hold times as well as a larger number of voice interactions handled each day. It will allow use of post call surveys for agents and city services to measure the success of interactions. It will also enable department specific reporting on the quantity of calls, how those calls were handled, abandonment rates, hold times, call duration, and customer satisfaction.