Who: City of Douglas, Georgia
Industry: Municipality
Services: Utility and City Support
Established in 1895, the City of Douglas supports more than 11,000 citizens with a full range of services. These include a natural gas system, electrical system, water and sewer system, streets construction and maintenance, sanitation, stormwater management, code enforcement, parks and recreation, police and fire protection.
The Issue
The City of Douglas was using their fire department to answer after-hour calls for utility and various other city provided services. Due to sporadically high call volumes the fire department was not sufficiently staffed, trained or had the right technology to support the complex nature of work of utility systems and city services. The City of Douglas wanted to improve their customer service, and after-hours crew support. In addition, they also wanted to relieve the fire department from the burden of answering and dispatching service issues after-hours and allow them to focus on fire protection services.
The Solution
The City of Douglas turned to IUC to provide after-hours contact center and dispatch services. Not only did the City improve response time, provide seamless communications through IUC dispatch to crews and citizens, it also improved customer satisfaction. Additionally, service requests are prioritized “emergency or non-emergency”, allowing the crews to respond quickly to emergency situations and the staff to schedule non-emergency issues to be resolved during normal business hours saving the city from paying overtime for non-emergency services.
This project is ongoing, and the results thus far have exceeded the expected service levels and significantly improved the overall customer experience.
“Since the IUC transition, I have had nothing but positive feedback from the employees you work with and the citizens we support. I attribute this to your hard work and passion for service delivery. Thank you for doing such a superior job.”