City Moves To ‘One-Stop’ Customer Service Model

Saint John is rolling out a new “one-stop” model it says will enhance and streamline customer service across the city.

Council voted Tuesday to enter into an agreement with Motorola Solutions Canada Inc. for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

The new system will be a key component for the city’s new integrated customer service centre dubbed Service Saint John.

“It’s hard to communicate how monumental this night is,” said Mayor Don Darling during Tuesday night’s Common Council meeting.

Service Saint John will include one dedicated phone number — 658-4455 — along with a new central front desk in City Hall and an online portal for citizens to access all services.

That could include everything from reporting a pothole or a bylaw infraction to confirming what day your garbage will be picked up.

Rachel VanWart, the project manager, said it will essentially be a 311 model without the 311 phone number.

“Customer service functions are currently decentralized with inconsistent approaches in various service areas and departments. Every department has their own approach, their own phone number, their own front desk,” said VanWart.

VanWart said the new system will reduce confusion for citizens and allow city staff to better track and manage customer service requests.

Currently, she said, there is no centralized database to track calls and inquiries, and there is a lack of full-circle communication with citizens.

Coun. Donna Reardon applauded the new system, saying she was surprised to learn how decentralized the city’s customer service model currently is.

“Everybody has experienced good and bad customer service in no matter what they’ve done. Great customer service is worth so much and a lot of times people will go back for business because of great customer service,” said Reardon.

Mayor Darling said this is a chance for Saint John to become a leader in terms of its customer service approach.

In addition to improving customer service, the new CRM will allow the city to collect data on the calls it receives.

“It will inform the decisions that we make as a corporation so that we can become more effective, more efficient, more productive, and spend our dollars differently,” said Darling.

The city will spend $476,000 to implement the new CRM software and pay $136,000 a year for an annual licensing fee. It will also cost $6,000 to implement the new telephone system.

VanWart said the centre will be staffed by existing customer service staff from other areas, meaning there will be no additional operating costs.

The new centre is expected to be up and running on Dec. 1.