Richmond upgrades 311 services
Connecting state and local government leaders
The cloud-based incident reporting platform centralizes service requests and resolution tracking across several departments.
Until recently, Richmond, Va., relied on its 311 call center, the SeeClickFix app, emails or in-person visits to city agencies to manage made non-emergency service requests.
The city has operated a 311 call center for many years, but it wanted a full-scale online and mobile app solution that would allow residents to easily file and track service requests and give the city a better way to manage them, Krystal Onaitis, Richmond’s customer relationship management program manager, told GCN.
On June 15 the city launched the RVA 311 website that allows residents to directly report broken streetlights, potholes, graffiti, damaged infrastructure or other problems. RVA 311 tags location information and automatically routes the service request to the appropriate department and field technicians for resolution. The submission and updates are tracked in in real-time, with updates available to city staff and requesters. A mobile app will be available in early July.
Six Richmond government agencies will hook into RVA 311, centralizing requests and resolution tracking for core functions such as public utilities, public works, police, finance, social services, and planning and development to start.
Besides the service reporting function the new RVA 311 site includes an extensive FAQ section on a variety of topics from parking to taxes to sewer drains. To create the FAQ, Onaitis said her department worked with agency subject matter experts to "determine what operational maintenance requests are most common.”
On July 1, the city is launching a new department dedicated to managing the RVA 311 platform called the Department of Citizen Service and Response.
RVA 311 was built from a commercial solution using the AvePoint Citizen Services platform in a Microsoft Azure public cloud. The new platform connects to the city's existing 311 workflow and expands the program's capabilities and scalability.
“Based on the information collected from RVA 311, Richmond employees will be able to more proactive when it comes to responding to requests and gain the ability to monitor which requests come more frequently,” AvePoint Chief Marketing Officer Dux Raymond-Sy said. “We are complimenting the services that Richmond already provides with new analytical capabilities.”