by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The slogan and philosophy used every day at 630-CITY, the City’s customer service call center, is “where you go when you need to know.”
Operators are available 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. The service is also active 24/7 on the City website, (www.coj.net), and via e-mail at [email protected].
Customer Service Manager Monica Cichowlas and a team of about 20 customer service representatives handled more than 360,000 calls last year.
Questions range from how to have potholes and traffic signals repaired to reports of stray animals, and much more in between. Each call concludes with information about City events, programs and services that weren’t the topic of the incoming inquiry.
Cichowlas worked in Merrill Lynch’s call center in 2000 when former Mayor John Delaney decided the City needed a single source for citizens to contact with complaints and questions.
A delegation from the mayor’s office toured the Merrill Lynch facility and Cichowlas was asked to join a task force charged with designing the City’s system. It was ready to launch online in July 2000, and she left the private sector to manage 630-CITY three months later.
“More than 60 percent of the calls can be resolved here at the call center,” said Cichowlas.
“We’re here to make it possible for the employees in the other City departments to do their jobs instead of handling citizens’ questions and requests. Citizens expect things to work. Our job is to help them when they don’t,” she said.
With so many calls coming in each day, a few end up in the “out-of-the-ordinary” category. Customer Service Representative Brandi Jennings collects those contacts.
“One customer called to ask what was the number for 911. Another called to report her cat was trying to kill her by tripping her. Another customer called and said their computer was stolen and wanted us to look up something for them on Google,” said Jennings.
“We also get calls from people who want us to send the fire department to get their cat out of a tree,” she said.
Cichowlas said in addition to the usual requests that are resolved, many of the more unusual requests also have happy endings.
“We helped a lady who had dropped her car keys in a storm drain. We called a City crew to remove the grate and retrieve the keys. Another customer accidentally put her purse in the trash and we were able to contact the Solid Waste Department and rescue it before it went to the landfill,” she said.
“It’s like the lottery. Every time the phone rings, we don’t know what it will be,” she said.
The performance of the call center is constantly evaluated and Cichowlas said for the past three years, “we have averaged a 4.5 out of 5 rating.”
“Our goal is to be the most customer service-oriented department in City government,” she said.
There’s another question that’s fairly common because cell phones and smartphones don’t have the letters on the numbers on the keypad: What’s the number for 630-CITY?
“It’s 630-2489,” said Cichowlas.
356-2466