Rob: Hey, let's talk about the Report for Service app that we can get on our phones. I got the Millennials here at the radio station to help me set it up. I got it on my phone and frankly, it works pretty well. I can book swims at certain times and skip the lineups for people who are waiting to pay. I find that very convenient, and you know if you’re a member or if you bought a punch card, you can punch that in and you can just walk into the pool and skip the line-up and away you go, very convenient.
I’ve also used the Report for Service app to address pothole and to address issues in my neighborhood. I won’t give it 100 per cent, I won’t give an A+, but it has been working and I shared with you before we got on the air here.
There was one-time last summer, I almost ran into a big nasty pothole on River Street East, right in front of Halsted Denture Clinic. So, I thought, I’m going to be a good citizen and take a picture of this and send it to this Report for Service app and see what happens.
It was like two, maybe a little over two hours later I got a message back that said “Resolved”. They had filled that pothole just like that. Now I’m not saying that you’re going to get a service withing two hours every time, but it’s working and it’s something that well, it’s evolved, and City Hall is still working with this Report for Service app as well and finding ways to make it better.
Maryse: Absolutely, it's such an efficient way of reporting an issue because, as you just mentioned, residents can take a picture, and we all know what pictures is worth 1000 words and it's in the system automatically. It can be prioritized and sent to the department that needs to resolve this issue. So, for sure for us the Report an Issue is the most important tool that we have to communicate with the residents for any problems that they have, or to book any of the of the Parks and Recs activities that you mentioned.
I have to say it, it is on the app, but it's also on the website. So, if you don't have a smartphone, if you don't have the app on your phone, you can still do it on the website. For some people that do still phone the city that perhaps don't have the technology, oftentimes our own employees will then enter the information into our system.
As a city manager, I love the system because I can easily track it. If you were to tell me that the pothole wasn't filled, I would probably ask you what's the issue number, and then I can easily go in and then see the history. Who's supposed to fix it, and why it hasn't been fixed yet. So that's a really a valuable tool for me.
Rob: Sure, a valuable tool for citizens and the people at City Hall you mentioned. We can still call City Hall, we can still phone, we can still talk to people. But using that that City app it's just so much more convenient, and it just works better and quicker, right?
Maryse: For tracking for efficiency, as I mentioned absolutely, it is. For me, even for data gathering and ensuring that we do complete all the requests for service.
Rob: (It’s) also a Valuable tool to get information on the city, including City News, right?
Maryse: Then you can subscribe to the notifications. So, in the event that there's an issue, probably once or twice a week, there's something that we push to the residents through the app for valuable information ongoing if there was to be an emergency, it would be another way to communicate with residents as well,
Rob: For example, the last time we had a big snowfall, the city issued a notification about snow hauling operations, and that there's no parking allowed on Main Street during that time. That's great information for people to see.
Maryse: Correct. Just on the weekend, it's very accessible and then you get up-to-date information.
Rob: Very good. 17,500 app downloads by the way, since the app was released just over four years ago, it doesn't seem like that long ago, but since then the city has closed 39,000 issues. That's progress right there, eh?
Maryse: That is progress, and it's probably a few potholes in there and a few other issues, but absolutely.