City's 311 Call Center Turns 1, Has Fielded 134,883 Calls

The city's 311 non-emergency call center turned one year old on March 1 (get it, last year was 3-1-11) and the city has supplied some interesting facts about it's first year.

A total of 134,883 calls were received, which resulted in 20,801 service requests, according to information provided by City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.

Not surprisingly, the biggest peak in calls came during and just after storms, with the highest weekday volume coming on the stormy July 11 when 1,328 people phoned in.

The top three requests were for special pick-up, with 1,755 requests, building permit inspection, with 1,714 requests, and broken parking meter, with 891 requests.

Patch was delighted that Bobkiewicz included some of the call takers most memorable conversations. Here's the list:

• I had a caller asking about the annual Labor Day Rodeo in Evanston.  She was calling about the Rodeo in Evanston, WY.  It was fun to think about where a rodeo would be held here!

• A Northwestern Student called to reserve a space for a moving truck.  He didn’t know the address of the house; he just knew where it was. 

• A caller reported a brown cloud moving from the Northwest toward Evanston.  He could see it from his hotel window and was concerned that it might be dangerous.  A helpful Service Desk Officer / Supervisor (not to name names) went to the roof to check it out and decided it was fog.

• One of my most unusual calls was actually an apology. The caller apologized for his rude behavior the previous week and stated that he had in fact woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

• One type of call that I still find amusing is when the caller mistaken 311 for 411 automated information. I go through my usual greeting only to hear a one or two word response.

        “Heckys”

        “Evanston 311 can I help you?”

        “Heckys”

        “Evanston 311 can I help you?”

        “I said Hecky’s BBQ on Greenbay”

        “Yes sir what can I do for you?”

        “Transfer me to Hecky’s”

        “I can provide you with that number”

• A caller asked why her trash bin wasn’t emptied. After going through the usual questions I began inputting a service request for her missed trash pickup. The caller then stated, well I didn’t have any trash in the bin but I just wondered why they didn’t move it!