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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.A. Update on front desk reception/phone tree 4 REISEN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CITY COUNCIL City Council Work Session: July 17, 2012 AGENDA ITEM: Update on front desk reception /phone AGENDA C ION: tree ov - S PREPARED BY: Dwight Johnson, City Administrator AGEN A NO. ATTACHMENTS: APPROVED BY: DOI RECOMMENDED ACTION: Review this report and direct staff on any changes in procedure desired. BACKGROUND Receptionist Cheryle Coughlin retired earlier this year. At the June 13` workshop session, staff presented several alternatives for handling the outside calls and visitors to City Hall. Staff initially proposed that the full -time receptionist position be replaced with a half -time employee. Several council members supported an option to not hire any staff at this time, although it was understood that some extra help may be needed during elections and other temporary periods of high call loads. It was agreed that our experiment in using a phone tree to handle incoming calls would be continued and that staff would report back at this meeting. DISCUSSION From June 4th to June 29th, 1,195 outside calls were received. It should be noted that about 130 of these calls were related to the big storm last month. Of these calls, 598 or half the callers self - routed themselves to one of the departments through the use of the phone tree. The remaining calls were "0" calls seeking general assistance. So, the phone tree system is handling about half of our total front desk volume. It should be noted that the "0" option is at the top of the phone tree list which may encourage some people to automatically hit "0" before listening to the options. As a part of the rollout of the phone tree, we initially kept the "0" option at the front of the option list. This was intended to remove a source of frustration for callers by letting them know immediately that they have an exit option from the phone tree. The City of River Falls is an example of a community that does this. We may alter the phone tree options as necessary. We have had only one documented complaint to the Council or Administration from a resident since June 4` The caller stated he was in a loop for six minutes waiting to talk with someone. We have revised our phone system so that calls go to voice mail after two minutes, whereas the system previously did allow the call to hang for six minutes. We will continue to work through any other issues with our phone system as we have done in the past. The management issues include what to do with the approximately 30 "0" calls per day with no front desk staff person and also how to manage the loss of clerical support time that the receptionist position has provided. The "0" calls will be answered by Finance Department staff and Community Development staff will handle the walk -in customers at the front desk (estimated at about 10 per day). Based on council discussion at the last work session, we would not plan to hire a part -time support staff in Administration as we originally recommended for the remainder of 2012. We would, however, propose to retain enough funding in the 2013 budget for now to allow for the possibility of hiring a part -time person in 2013 if the facts show that it's necessary.