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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004 07 12 Regular 503 COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM 503 Consent Informational Public Rearing Regular X July 12. 2004 Regular Meeting rVC({;) Mgr. 1 Dept. Authorization REQUEST: Information Services wishes to furnish the commission with four options relative to the handling of incoming City telephone calls and requests that the Commission choose an option and fund the option they choose. PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is to update the commission on the available options relative to the handling of incoming City telephone calls and to obtain direction from the Commission on how they wish incoming calls to be handled in the future and obtain funding relative to option chosen. CONSIDERATIONS: . Our old phone system Prior to 1997, the City had several separate phone systems that were not connected to each other. Each location had their own system, with City Hall having a receptionist answering all City Hall calls. . Complaints o The major complaint received about the old phone systems was the inability to dial departments or individuals directly. You had to go through the receptionist or leave messages with the receptionist. S: \Information _ Services\Adrnin _ Docs\Agenda Items\FY 2004\2004 July\071204 _ COMM _Regular _503_ Telephone_System _ Voice _ MaiI.doc CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS CITY COMMISSION July 12,2004 REGULAR 503 PAGE 2 OF 4 o Another complaint was that the entire City was not on one phone system. There was no continuity between the systems. . New Phone Systems Installed o In 1997 a new phone system was installed for the new Public Safety Building. o In 1998 City Hall received a new phone system and the two systems were tied together to form one system. · Features of new phone system o Allows residents to dial individuals directly instead of having to go through a receptionist o Allows individuals to leave voice mail messages directly in an employees' voice mail box, if desired. o Allows the caller to press 0 at any time during the call, to reach the City operator who is located at the Police Department. Therefore, if a caller has reached a person's voice mail and does not wish to leave a message, but would rather speak to someone, the caller can press 0 and speak to the City operator. This feature is made known to callers calling the main City Hall number 407-327-1800 at the beginning of the greeting. Also, please note that there are times when it is necessary for the operator to call around to find an individual when requested by the caller. They do attempt to reach the employee that the caller is attempting to reach. * The only department that is set up slightly different is the Fire Department. Their operator is a departmental secretary for Station 24 only. There are a few callboxes that are also set up differently. . Why do calls go to voice mail? There are many reasons why a call may not be answered and goes to voice mail. The employee may be: . A way from their desk . On vacation or out sick · On another call. If an employee is on a call and another call comes in, the phone will beep once to notify the employee that he/she has another call coming in. The employee has 3 options at this point: · Place the first call on hold and answer the incoming call · Discontinue the first call and answer the incoming call · Continue their current conversation and let the incoming call go to voice mail · How many incomings calls does the City receive? The City has an average of approximately 25,000+ incoming calls per month. At that rate, it is impossible to consider that a single receptionist would be able to handle that volume of incoming calls. Furthermore, a receptionist taking an incoming call would merely transfer that caller to the employee's extension. Having a receptionist does not guarantee that the caller will be able to speak to the person that the he/she is trying to reach. The receptionist will not be able to get up and search for the person the S:\Information _ Services\Adrnin _ Docs\Agenda Items\FY 2004\2004 July\07l204_ COMM_Regular _503 _Telephone_System _ Voice_MaiI.doc CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS CITY COMMISSION July 12,2004 REGULAR 503 PAGE30F4 caller is trying to reach. So the real issue here is once the caller gets to someone's extension and reaches voice mail, where can the caller go from there? · Recent complaint from Mayor and Commission 1. Complaint: Callers are sometimes frustrated because they are unable to speak to a live person if the person they are calling does not answer. 2. Resolution: As already stated, the system is currently set up so that the caller can press 0 to speak to the City Operator at any time during their call. If that feature is, for some reason, not working in a particular area of the phone system, it should be reported to Information Services so that the problem can be fixed. . What are our options? 1. Keep what we have. The problem that was reported regarding Public Works has been resolved. 2. Reprogram the entire telephone system so that if the caller reaches someone's voice mail and they do not wish to leave a message but would rather speak to someone, they can press 0 and it will go to a departmental secretary or other departmental point of contact instead of the City-wide operator. Call boxes and menus would also need to be reprogrammed. This does not guarantee that the departmental secretary or contact will answer because they may be on another call, away from their desk, or on vacation. Programming costs are $87 per hour and there are extensions, callboxes, and menus that would have to be checked, and then programmed. OBTS has given us an estimate of 16 hours @ $87 = $1,392. The City Operator would still be utilized in certain menus and situations. 3. Reprogram the entire telephone system so that every caller that presses 0 within the pho!le system will go directly to the City Operator and not to a departmental operator or contact. This is pretty much what we currently have with a few exceptions where the caller presses 0 and goes to a departmental contact. This would be a blanket re-program and would not take as long. Cost for this would be approximately $87. 4. A Receptionist could be hired to take all City calls (remember this is approximately 25,000 or more per month). This would more than likely result in some calls not being answered because ofthe volume of calls received. Would the receptionist be expected to call around to locate individuals? Would the receptionist be able to handle that volume of calls? What other duties, if any, would the receptionist be expected to perform? Where would the receptionist be located? The pay range for a receptionist position is $19,207 - $29,243. FUNDING: Programming cost: Option 1 - $0 Option 2 - $1,392 Option 3 - $87 Option 4 - $19,207 - $29,243 assuming one person could handle the job S:\Inforrnation _ Services\Admin _ Docs\Agenda Items\FY 2004\2004 July\07 1204_ COMM _Regular _503 _Telephone_System _ Voice _ Mail.doc RECOMMENDATIONS: ATTACHMENTS: COMMISSION ACTION: Information Services recommends Option 1 None S:\Inforrnation _ Services\Adrnin _ Docs\Agenda Items\FY 2004\2004 July\07 I 204_ COMM _Regular _503 _Telephone_System _ Voice _ Mail.doc CITY OF WfNTER SPRINGS CITY COMMISSION July 12, 2004 REGULAR 503 PAGE40F4