311 wait times decline amid funding boost

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2023 (706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It appears a budget boost for the City of Winnipeg’s 311 service is helping reduce wait times.

However, some say more work is needed to ensure timely service continues past the initial call.

In 2023, city council added $870,883 to the 311 contact centre’s budget to improve wait times, a staff report notes.

The service struggled to handle Winnipeggers’ questions and complaints in a timely fashion in recent years, with the most delayed calls taking an hour or more to be answered. The report notes the average phone wait time fell to five minutes, 54 seconds for 2023 so far (up to the end of October), down from about 11 minutes in both 2021 and 2022.

“We’re pleased with the level of improvement we’ve seen over the year,” said Felicia Wiltshire, Winnipeg director of customer service and communications.

The extra cash allowed 311 to add six more full-time staff positions, increase its overtime budget to address sudden call surges and add more phone lines.

However, about $125,000 is expected to remain unspent at the end of 2023, since the city was unable to fill two additional call operator positions, despite attempting to do so.

The department now has 80 full-time equivalent staff.

“Recruitment for positions at 311 remains challenging. We’ve been seeing these challenges now for a few years,” said Wiltshire.

Earlier this fall, the department hired a human resources employee who can focus solely on 311, she added. That change is expected to help ramp up recruitment.

“We’re hoping in the next fiscal year we’re going to be much better positioned to hire quickly and more effectively … our hope is … by being able to increase the staffing levels, that that’s really going to help us bring down that wait time,” said Wiltshire.

In addition to the funding increase, there were fewer sudden surges in call volume to 311 due to extreme weather than in 2022, which also helped reduce wait times, she noted.

During the 2022 civic election campaign, mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham promised to boost the budget for 311 service by $1.1 million each year until then-soaring wait times dropped to a quarterly average of less than three minutes each. (The first year’s funding was pro-rated to cover part of the year, since the budget was not approved until late March.)

In an interview, the now-mayor welcomed the shorter wait times.

“I believe it shows very good progress. (The changes), in essence, cut the wait times in half … the people of Winnipeg who are calling 311 to ask for a city service are now able to speak to someone or get a response in a much shorter time frame than they were before,” said Gillingham.

The mayor said he will push to continue the campaign commitment until the original target is met — though he noted such budget decisions require council approval.

Coun. Sherri Rollins said she’s heard fewer complaints about 311 lately, which is a welcome change.

“Winnipeggers had really reached the end of their patience for a service that really wasn’t serving them, that they were spending a great deal of time in and not getting a lot out of. People could be on the phone for hours,” Rollins said.

”To see the investments and the work … to tackle that mountain and get it down to something that is sounding like it’s more reasonable, that’s amazing.”

Coun. Janice Lukes, who has long called for 311 improvements, said she’s glad to see shorter wait times, but more effort is needed to ensure clear communication with residents.

Lukes said she still receives complaints about communication after the initial report of a problem to 311. In some cases, she said residents were told their files were closed when they were actually transferred to another city department and still being addressed.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s one thing to get the wait times down. It’s another thing to be able to provide the answers or solve the problems that the customer has.”

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga