3-1-1 has the answers, sometimes

DOES 3-1-1 LIVE UP to the hype?

Mayor Nutter has touted the city's new 3-1-1 nonemergency call line as one of the key achievements of his first year in office. He hailed the program for providing one-stop access to city services and information.

"Now all Philadelphians only need one number," said Nutter on Dec. 31, when the line officially went live.

A month after the line launched, the Daily News thought it was time to test the system. Just how helpful are the operators? How quickly do they pick up the phone? Could they answer our toughest questions?

During our two-day trial - in which we made a total of 30 calls - we encountered friendly operators who worked hard to help us with our queries. But there were some long delays before calls were picked up, and sometimes operators couldn't answer our questions.

For example, only one of three operators could provide the schedule for the upcoming community budget workshops.

Call center director Rosetta Carrington Lue acknowledged that the city is still working out the kinks.

"Some of the agents were just hired in the last couple weeks in December," Lue said. "We're really honing in on the quality assurance."

Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 3-1-1 operators should be able to answer questions about your trash day or nearest library, take requests for services like filling a pothole, or forward your call to the right department if they can't resolve it.

Emergency calls for medical help or to report a crime should still be directed to 9-1-1.

Similar services in New York, Chicago and Baltimore have been praised for freeing up 9-1-1 for emergencies and creating better city customer service.

For the Daily News 3-1-1 trial, nine reporters called the system at least three times each on Feb. 4 or Feb. 5 to ask a series of informational questions that ranged from dates for recycling pickup to how to get a free AIDS test.

Each question was asked three different times to test the 3-1-1 team's consistency. And we called at different times of day to test response times.

We experienced some delays before getting through to an operator, mostly in the evening when our callers held for an average of five to 10 minutes.

Lue said that they are still working out the staffing balance for the different shifts.

"We look at our call volume and how we respond every day," Lue said.

She added that, due to attrition, 3-1-1 is currently understaffed, with only 46 operators instead of the necessary 57. Lue said that the center is trying to fill the vacancies.

When our calls got through, we found that 3-1-1 operators were polite and courteous. And on basic topics we got speedy, reliable help. All calls about recycling dates were correctly answered, as were our questions about library hours.

But some questions got mixed results. When we asked about Saturday hours at the Art Museum, one operator looked up the answer, and two just gave us a phone number for the museum.

When we asked for directions on how to take SEPTA to Fishtown, two operators told us how to do it, giving specific routes, and one gave us SEPTA's phone number. And when we called about how to get a marriage license and how much it would cost, one operator gave us the wrong price.

Sometimes we just couldn't get answers. Two out of three operators couldn't provide us with information on the upcoming public budget workshops. We were told to call back.

Lue said that many of the operators are new and still learning. But she said that calls are tracked in the computer system used by call-takers, so supervisors follow up to make sure operators have the right information.

We also learned that calling 3-1-1 isn't always a one-stop deal. When operators couldn't answer our questions, they gave us other phone numbers instead of transferring the call.

Lue said that she is pushing operators to transfer calls during business hours when they can't answer the question, rather than give out phone numbers. That way operators can make sure callers get through to someone.

"That's the way it's supposed to work," Lue said. "We're supposed to be handling the call."

But Lue also stressed that the city is still working to perfect the system - which already has greater demand than expected - with a smaller staff than she'd like.

"We're having a higher call volume than we anticipated," Lue said.

So far, 3-1-1 is off to a roaring start. In January, the service handled 99,378 calls. And 9-1-1 calls declined 1.7 percent, from 233,839 in January 2008 to 229,860 in January 2009.

"It has really grown beyond my expectations," Lue said. "We haven't stopped working."

She said that she expects to exceed the 1.5 million calls the city projected for the year.

She said that operators have taken 4,797 service requests, 2,601 of which have been resolved, and that the city was working on the rest, said Lue.

The city's initial plans for 3-1-1 had to be scaled back in the fall due to budget constraints.

Plans to buy a $4 million to $8 million custom-designed software system were shelved in favor of a cheaper off-the-rack model. The City Hall call center is in a backup 9-1-1 emergency-call center, so the $4.2 million in renovations were paid for through 9-1-1 funding. *