311 Call Center
If you are in Los Angeles and see a pothole, graffiti, illegal dumping, etc, who you gonna call? The ITA 311 Call Center plays an important role in the City of Los Angeles by providing helpful information and processing service requests for the constituents, as well as handling new services for various departments. 311 assists handling emergencies, such as recent fires and storms. The 311 Call Center team has been very busy working on improvements to its services. The most significant and visible recent change is the average wait time to speak with a 311 rep was cut in half for 2018 compared to 2017. For 2019, 311 is on track to reduce wait time to achieve even tougher goals set by the Mayor’s office (average wait time less than 2 minutes).
The hard working 311 team is always ready to take on new City services and to share general information with the public in support of City Departments. 311 have recently been getting familiar with immigration resources available as well as preparing for the rollout of DOT's "dockless" mobility devices hitting LA streets (permits and regulations, etc) - BIRD and LIME scooters, etc.
One example has been recent collaboration with Los Angeles Animal Services to support LAAS callers and help reduce calls to the animal shelters. 311 worked with LAAS subject matter experts to add MyLA311 knowledge base articles in detailing animal services and FAQs and received training on how to handle those calls. Enhancement was made to the MyLA311 system to add LAAS Service Request types giving 311 and the public the ability to submit requests via the MyLA311 web site and mobile app. 311 is now receiving three times more Animal Services calls than before and processing stray and confined animal service requests; the MYLA311 SR types have also made self-service options available to residents. 311 was able to take on this work without any negative impact to other work or average wait times.
This past year 311 has also been keeping up with the technology world - upgrading all work stations to laptops; desk phones to cell phones; and other 311 technology to cloud-based systems in case they need to relocate during emergency situations.