Resident-Oriented Government is Needed in Fort Wayne

We have many ways for residents to report problems, but too often residents feel they must turn to their elected officials to get an answer to their question or have their problem addressed.

Driving change in mentality starts at the top, and every leader in my administration will understand that providing excellent customer service to residents is vital to their jobs. The main “front door” to Fort Wayne residents is the 311 phone number. Didier will be reviewing their case resolution strategies to be sure that citizens are getting answers to their questions or being connected with the proper entity to address their concern.

It is not clear strong customer service is a priority for this administration. Didier has had to help people get connected with the right department because they called the wrong department to solve a problem in their neighborhood. Instead of helping the resident to get an answer, the city employee simply told them that they aren’t able to help.

Kansas City has used customer experience concepts to implement solutions that use algorithms to predict where potholes are most likely to form before they even occur, which allows their public works department to better allocate resources and reduce the number of potholes a citizen is likely to encounter.

As we work through reforming the budget process, resident service will be a high priority as we seek to find ways to modernize, consolidate or even eliminate services that may no longer be necessary. Identifying challenges that residents face or that prevent city employees from providing the best service possible will get the highest attention and will receive priority funding.

Regular reporting of customer service concerns received by 311 will be broken down by department and reviewed to identify what can be done to better address residents’ concerns.

The Board of Public Works will develop relevant satisfaction surveys that will be distributed to departments working with contractors as well as to citizens who may be impacted by work completed by a contractor. Results from those surveys will be reviewed with the contractor throughout the process of the project as well as at the conclusion of the project.

The Board will also be tasked with making their process transparent and incorporating any determinations from the contractor reviews to shape eligibility for future projects.

Tom Didier wants to be sure the only thing that city councilmen hear regarding 311 after he is elected mayor is about the great job the 311 staff is doing answering their constituents’ questions.