Rosetta Carrington Lue 311, Connected City, CRM, Customer Experience Management, Local Government

Here’s What No One Tells You About Many Local 311 Contact Centers

Meet Todd Jones. Todd proudly bought his family’s rowhome in a large urban community 30 years ago after he left military service. After raising four children, Todd and his wife are empty nesters and active volunteers in local community activities. Todd is concerned about maintaining the value of his home and began attending community neighborhood beautification programs meetings sponsored by the City Council offices a few years ago. Although he voices his concerns at the community meetings, he still feels frustrated City government workers are not doing their jobs to resolve recurring neighborhood service complaints, such as demolishing abandoned homes, removing wall graffiti, picking up missed trash, etc. As such, his frustration has led him to compile and store “evidence and proof” of notes from conversations with city officials about his concerns in what he called his “City Complaints Black Binder”.

As the new Deputy Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia’s 311 Contact Center, , I would often attend various neighborhood community meeting after community meeting where I would run into the same types of residents. Residents who were frustrated, who’d been long-established fixtures in their neighborhoods, and were seeking answers and change from the City.

More than a few occasions, I was presented with thick “black binders” full of personal meeting reports and general community issues by neighborhood residents. Sitting down, listening to the resident’s frustrations, and flipping through these binders, I became frustrated but also motivated because, in most cases, the residents never called the 311 contact center to report their complaint about various reasons (i.e. didn’t know about 311, didn’t trust department processes, etc.). Behind every concern in those “Black Binders” was a community member who was ready to transform their neighborhood into a better place, and City leadership needed to partner with them to make that a possibility.

At some point, government leaders overseeing 311 contact centers and their service department partners should ask themselves, “what can we do to improve the services we are currently providing?” Unhappy customers cost more to serve and sometimes the answers are not about requesting huge budgets and resources to fix the problem. Fortunately, applying innovation principles using existing resources and processes would be the key to successfully address the problem.

I always think of the Maimonides quote, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed a man for a lifetime.” In this particular scenario, the answer was to create a neighborhood platform for change and provide those who wanted to create that change with the tools to do so. This was how the 311 Neighborhood Liaison Program was designed and implemented.

The program was created to eliminate the middleman and have stand-out community leaders who brought their neighbors’ concerns straight to Philly311. In short, a 311 Neighborhood Liaison is someone who records items discussed during community meetings and contacts Philly 311 for action and answers. Today we have a community engagement in play that:`

• Recruit, identify, train, and engage neighborhood residents into the 311 Neighborhood Liaison program,

• Makes it easy for trained 311 Neighborhood Liaison to report 311 service complaints 24/7/365 using their mobile phone or laptop

• Provide status updates that a City service complaint was accepted and action is being taken by the applicable partner agency using CRM technology,

• Centralizes all concerns, and issues of the community using data, by creating an account for any neighborhood,

• Provides access to the status of issues or concerns at any time by checking the status of the issue through the Philly311 website or contacting or by contacting a local Neighborhood Liaison (neighbor to neighbor engagement),

• Use 311datasets to improve city services and personalize interactions using data analytics and artificial intelligence,

• Builds trust in the community by getting people involved in reporting issues to the 311-contact center and view transparency in government in real-time.

Looking back, I’m happy to report that I did not face any angry residents with black binders at community meetings once we launched the 311 Neighborhood Liaison Program. The program is self-sustainable in many ways that other government services are not. After training, community members are equipped with the necessary tools to create the change they desire.

I like to think that the amount of growth we saw in the program was indicative of its success.  In the first two years since launch, the program doubled from 600 participants to over 1,200.  Residents will fight for positive service delivery transformation and it is the government leaders’ responsibility to fight along with them.

Author Rosetta Carrington Lue is the CEO of RCL Customer Experience Solutions, LLC and is a Senior Advisor & Government Contact Center Experience Management Consultant, 311 Pioneer & Futurist, 2015 White House Presidential Executive Fellow and former Veteran Experience Office SES and City of Philadelphia Chief Customer Service Officer.

Rosetta Carrington Lue Connected City, Connected Customers

Welcoming & Innovative Cities Are Creating Digital Strategies to Improve Customer Interactions

The internet changed things to the point where the world cannot even imagine going back in time and possibly living without the convenience afforded by it. Everything and every aspect of our lives was influenced by the internet, shaped and molded by it. And then technology took a step further and beyond.

Usually termed as the internet 2.0, mobile devices have removed the restriction of the internet from being a remote portal on our desktops, to an everyday need within the palm of our hands, and on the tip of our fingers, literally. From online browsing and emails to online transactions and messaging, our social interaction with loved ones and complete strangers has never been more important.

So important, that the governments of various developed states are acknowledging the need for development of a more friendly and interactive experience with their present and potential citizens and business customers. For example, the government of New Zealand is no different and has made a statement of intent to improve the interaction of their government with their citizens and business customers by delivering better public services that are mostly used in a digital environment and providing the completion of transactions online easily and conveniently.

There are many other benefits to be realized other than satisfied citizens and business customers. The recently appointed CEO of the Australian federal government’s Digital Transformation Office (DTO), Paul Shetler, revealed at a “Technology in Government” conference in Canberra, that digital interactions between citizens and government agencies could save costs of up to $20 billion. The figures were cited in a research conducted by Deloitte and could help improve other governments who are cost restrained and would like to improve further digital interaction with their citizens.

Accenture, a global brand, conducted a citizen survey back in 2013, that showed a high correlation between the overall satisfaction experienced with public services and use of digital channels. The design needs to be focused on mobile technology as more than half of the world’s population is connected through their mobile devices.

Many companies have shifted their focus on such initiatives, but by and large the majority has yet to do so. Developing countries that have bigger populations that are connected through their mobile devices, have governments that have yet to realize the potential in developing digital channels for presenting their services.

Rosetta Carrington Lue is the City of Philadelphia first Chief Customer Officer. She is a dynamic leader in the fields of Customer Experience Management, Strategy and Technology, Social Media and Community Engagement in both public and private sectors.

Rosetta Carrington Lue Connected City, Connected Customers, Government Customer Service, Local Government

Creating a Smart and Connected City

Once only a fascinating speculation of science fiction, smart cities are not only becoming a reality but are now vitally imminent as well. As our population grows with more and more people moving into the cities, a tremendous load is placed upon the city centers, calling for a dire need to expand our resources and services. The local government especially faces this challenge in terms of dispensing its services effectively and ensuring smart governance decisions. However modern day technology with its information exchange has been especially helpful for municipal bodies, providing the answer in the form of smart communities.

A smart and connected community shares an efficient virtual platform with the local government, giving instant access to services in real time. Primarily, a connected community helps you in using your city’s infrastructure more efficiently by having access to real time information related to traffic, road routes etc, engages you in communication with the local government to provide quick access to services as well as increases the efficiency of local governance by improvement through customer feedback. This way, the government is better able to respond to the challenges of a bigger community through the emergence of a constant feedback which helps grow the city’s intelligence.

Information may be dispensed to the users through efficient apps which connect the residents with the local government. Residents can lodge requests and complaints with the local government and have access to information related to security, climate, education, waste management, healthcare etc. For many people, such a platform would in fact be an eye-opener in terms of the vast array of services provided by the government which they were not even aware of!

And it is not only the residents who benefit from a smart community, but the government employees as well; experts are connected in this centralized environment which helps maximize their knowledge base and reach. Moreover, the centralization and accessibility of resources equips both the government and residents to deal better with emergencies as well. A smart community is an effective solution for making our cities more livable, it is a key to the citizens’ satisfaction.

Rosetta Carrington Lue is the City of Philadelphia first Chief Customer Officer. She is a dynamic leader in the fields of Customer Experience Management, Strategy and Technology, Social Media and Community Engagement in both public and private sectors.

Rosetta Carrington Lue 311, Community Engagement Programs

Philly311 Youth Engagement Program – Government Making a Difference

I’m happy to report that we have officially hosted two very successful sessions of our Youth Engagement Program (YEP). On Thursday, July 16, 2015, we launched our first session. The session was dedicated to what Philly311 is and how young people can use it as tool to better their communities. Daniel Ramos, our Community Engagement Coordinator, focused on teaching the students about Philly311’s mobile app. After Daniel’s lesson students were able to take our mobile app into the field and report issues.

Prior to the session we passed around a survey asking students if they were familiar with Philly311 and what they knew about City government. It was important for us to gauge their understanding. What we could learn about what they know is just as important as the information we are teaching. Asking for their input, and what they wanted to learn, will be an asset when we consider future youth programming.

As you can imagine, the responses to our survey questions were all over the board, but for the most part mentioned education, trash collection, and snow removal as City services. Some of the students had no idea what local government did, and wrote on our survey that they would like to know what city government is. The most common response, when we asked what the children would like to learn from this program, was how they can make a difference in their community.

That’s a powerful question: How can I make a difference in my community? The mobile app is one of the many ways anyone can directly influence their surroundings. Using the mobile app, they were able to their report pertinent information about their neighborhood. After our first session, the students submitted a total of 25 service requests. The issue reported the most was graffiti, followed by illegal dumping. It goes to show how educating youth about municipal services can inspire younger citizens.

Yesterday, at the second YEP session, the Police Explorers Cadet Program presented their program to the YEP students. Twelve Cadets and three officers came to Harding Middle School and talked about how the Explores program works to get young people ready for the academy. Through hard work, including 300 hours of community service and 700 hours of training, the Police Explorers program helps prepare young people who want to go into any kind of law enforcement or paramilitary career. The Police Officers talked to the YEP students about how an officers job is more than just catching a bad guy, and includes helping people, educating them about the law, and preventing crime from happening.

The Cadets each spoke about why they joined this program and what they have received from it. During one particularly moving moment, all of the YEP children stood up and talked with the cadets. It was great to see them all interacting. There is a great need across the country to build stronger, trusting relationships between the community and the police. This presentation was incredibly valuable for the youth. We hope that series and our partners continue to bring value to our students.

Want to know more about who we are partnering with? Follow us on Facebook for photos and updates from the program each week. Please visit, like, and share the Philly311 Youth Engagement page with your networks. We want to get the word out about the great work we are doing with the Education Works Summer Program.
I hope that you will stay tuned and keep up with this program as it progresses. This program will continue to grow and we are observing where we have room to improve in the future. But, so far, I am very pleased with its progress.

Rosetta Carrington Lue is the City of Philadelphia first Chief Customer Officer. She is a dynamic leader in the fields of Customer Experience Management, Strategy and Technology, Social Media and Community Engagement in both public and private sectors.