E-mail to city gets results

New online service answers questions, addresses problems

By Rick Brewer

Record Staff Writer

TRACY -- Ruddy Sanez noticed that the street light in front of his home in the 400 block of West 10th Street did not work. Instead of driving to City Hall or calling the public works department to register a complaint, Sanez did the next best thing.

He logged onto the Internet and e-mailed the city. At 5 p.m. Oct 7, he filled out a questionnaire on the city's Web site. By 11:55 a.m. the next day, the street light was repaired.

"That was incredibly fast. This Web site is very useful," Sanez said. "I'm glad the city of Tracy is becoming a model city."

Tracy residents have fielded more than 100 similar requests since Oct. 1 to city employees under a new online customer- service program. Citizens can register their questions, comments or concerns through the city's Web site. Requests are routed to the appropriate city employee and are to be dealt with in a timely manner.

"It's a highly efficient way to communicate with city government," interim City Manager Zane Johnston said. "This basically allows us to be open 24 hours a day."

Interested citizens can go to www.ci.tracy.ca.us and click on the "Contact Us" link. A screen will pop up that shepherds the user through a series of questions and drop-down menus. After identifying the problem or question and providing an e-mail address, residents can click the send button at the bottom of the page and the customer-service request will be sent to the correct city staff
person.

The vast majority of requests, said economic development analyst Linda Maurer, are split between public works and parks and community services. Sanez's request was sent to the city's engineering department.

"Basically, this is the best way we've yet found for the city to take requests in, disseminate them to the appropriate person and make sure that follow-through occurs," Maurer said. .

Tracy was the first municipality to purchase a $15,000 yearly contract from Government Outreach, a Pleasanton firm that developed and maintains the software. Co-owner Kendall Smith said his partner, Steve Brozosky, is a Pleasanton City Council member with a background in customer-relationship management software. In his council post, Brozosky began to field several questions about city services and decided similar software could be tailored to fit municipal governments.

"In the past, Tracy had no way of sharing information across departments or no good way of tracking complaints. If you're a citizen, you might hear something back or you might not. Now, you will,'' Smith said. "All cities need a system that allows them to do more customer service with less money. This is a cost-effective solution, and the ultimate goal is to make citizens happier with their local government."

Maurer said online customer- service requests in September, when the city began the Web-based program, made up 19 percent of all requests handled by city agencies. Through Thursday, that figure had jumped to 33 percent.

"We're really pleased," Johnston said.

So is Sanez. He has now e-mailed the city for help with another neighborhood problem and said the city has given him a timetable as to when it will be addressed.

"That's another great thing about e-mail -- accountability," Sanez said. "If this is the normal experience from the Web site, then Tracy's got one over most other cities."

* To reach reporter Rick Brewer, phone (209) 833-1141 or e-mail rbrewer@recordnet.com