311 service a 'disaster', councillor says [Telecom]

Wait-times for operators sometimes 30 minutes By Gordon Kent, Edmonton Journal September 23, 2009 Delays of up to half an hour before callers can reach the city's 311 operators have helped make the service a "disaster" since it started last December, Coun. Kim Krushell says.

I'm told, although the story doesn't mention this, that the city moved operators from areas such as transit and utilities to man the 311 system. As a result the operators are now getting calls outside their area of expertise but they are learning the other areas.

The city is now asking the callers which service they are requesting information [about,] and routing the callers to operators who have more expertise in that area. Thus, presumably, their calls will take less time.

This also means that now, for example, the transit information line, which has been moved to the 311 number, is now available 24 hours a day rather than the 6 am to midnight [period during which] it was previously available.

Tony