Mayor Gavin Newsom: Better Customer Service

Thousands of citizens, businesses and visitors alike, need to access city services on a daily basis - services supported by your tax dollars. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for people to figure out which city department to call for a particular problem or request. The City and County of San Francisco offers a wide variety of services and programs available to make your life easier - shouldn't this information be easy to access?

That's why we're working on opening a 3-1-1 Customer Service Call Center for all city non-emergency services.

What is 3-1-1? A toll-free number that anyone within the city limits of San Francisco can call to get information and assistance with any city service. It will be accessible 24 hours per day, year round, making city government more responsive than ever before.

Think of 3-1-1 as "one call to city hall." Interested in street cleaning schedules? Dial 3-1-1. Want information about events at your local recreation center? Dial 3-1-1. Need to get your dog a license and don't know where to start? Dial 3-1-1. 

Live operators will be ready to help you.  A simple, easy-to-remember number is all you need to reach city government.

Throughout my time in business and government, I have championed the importance of excellent customer service. We all pay taxes to support essential government services, like public safety and street maintenance.  We should have an expectation of customer service  much like we expect when we purchase services in our daily life. When we pay for a meal in a restaurant, don't we assume someone is going to prepare it and serve it to us in a timely manner?  The same expectation should apply to government services, that's why 3-1-1 will be the first step in bringing better service to San Francisco city government.

In addition to providing information about city services, 3-1-1 will use the best in technology to make a complex city bureaucracy easily accessible to all people. For example, if you request to have a pothole fixed, how do you know when it will be done?  Once 3-1-1 is operational, you will be able monitor the progress of your request on-line or by calling 3-1-1 again, to determine how well the city is meeting your needs. 

Data and information from the 3-1-1 call center will provide all of us with a unique opportunity to truly understand the ability of city government do its job. How fast are departments responding to requests? Do we have enough resources to meet the need?  We have never been able to accurately measure this on a day-to-day basis before. Tracking requests for the service needs of citizens is a powerful way to make sure we are running the City well. Information from 3-1-1 will also be a very important part of our SFStat performance management program, which will allow me to see what departments are meeting customer service goals. 

We have seen 3-1-1 transform other cities, like Chicago, New York, Baltimore and Houston. Citizens are more satisfied with government services and the cities have been able to improve processes and become more efficient. The number has also become an important public safety tool, working along side other agencies like 9-1-1 to provide critical information during times of crisis. More importantly, our 9-1-1 operators estimate that almost half of their calls are non-emergency in nature. The 3-1-1 number will divert those non-emergency calls from our 9-1-1 system so they can focus on true emergencies.  

We are starting to build the 3-1-1 call center now and we should launch the service next summer. The city is facing another difficult budget cycle, but it is more important than ever to invest in projects that will have such significant long term benefits, especially in customer service and accountability. We're committed to bringing this transformation to San Francisco city government. San Francisco citizens, businesses and visitors deserve the very best in customer service. Please contact members of the SF Board of Supervisors to voice your support for this project. For more information about the 3-1-1 project, visit www.sfgov.org/sf311 or e-mail sf311@sfgov.org. 

Gavin Newsom is the mayor of San Francisco.