Municipal Monitor - January/February 2008 - (Page 14)

nature. Hire someone if you need to – there’s more than enough work to go around. Total Municipality Breakdown to Date 1500 1400 Lesson 3: Customer service is key The written word and attractive graphics work to raise awareness about the program. But they can’t answer every question. Eventually, calls will come in. So, who’s going to take these calls? For Newmarket, the answer was simple: the Customer Service Centre. For the other municipalities, the answer wasn’t so clear. Newmarket is among the few municipalities in York Region with a well equipped customer service department – the remaining five players would be expected to handle the calls on their own. It became clear early on that a heavy stream of calls could be expected from residents wanting to know more about the program and inquiring about green bin basics. Based on a peer review and estimates, approximately 5,000 calls 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Aurora Comments Information 72 1106 E. Gwill 32 783 Georgina 12 25 King 28 397 Newmarket 93 1178 WhitchurchStouville 46 454 were expected from residents of the six municipalities. As a result, Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Whitchurch-Stouffville and King Township approached Newmarket’s Customer Service Centre and requested that the Centre receive and respond to resident inquiries on the green bin program. Newmarket agreed and set up a green bin hotline, which operated on a cost-recovery basis from June 1 to November 1, 2007. Municipal distribution of incoming calls at Newmarket’s Customer Service Centre as of October 2007 I recently sat down with Jamie Boyle of Newmarket’s Customer Service Centre to learn about his experience managing calls from multiple municipalities for the green bin program. I also interviewed Jim Koutroubis, the Director of Public Works and Environmental Services for the Town, to discuss implementation challenges. Here are a few insights from their perspective: • Consistent messaging is critical. First and foremost, it’s imperative to have a strong communication network between customer service, communications and public works. It’s critical that we are all on the same page with our messaging so that residents don’t get conflicting answers. You are dealing with a subject that affects every resident. People will have a lot of questions and you need to be prepared to answer them with a consistent message. • Deliver bins weeks before collection starts. We had a lot of municipal 344074_Giffels.indd 1 14 • MONITOR 9/26/07 8:49:07 PM January/February 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Municipal Monitor - January/February 2008

Municipal Monitor - January/February 2008 Contents President’s Message: Recognizing Achievement Viewpoint: Increasing Voter Turnout Building Bridges The Municipal Buddy System Harnessing the Wind Water Under the Bridge Municipal Memos Index to Advertisers

Municipal Monitor - January/February 2008

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