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Promoting Public Service Positivity in Casa Grande, AZ

Keys to Project:

Connecting residents to staff, issue tracking and resolution, easy reporting.

:

Casa Grande, AZ

Population:

57,232

Products:

Public Works Director, Kevin Louis, is on a mission to provide the best customer service possible to Casa Grande, Arizona’s 53,000 residents. And it’s working. Complaints are down, accountability is up, and data is driving discussions and decisions. Director Louis credits his department’s success to a dedicated staff, a city council with high standards of service, and the adoption of SeeClickFix.

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Charged by the City’s strategic plan with increasing positive citizen interactions by 10% each year for the next 5 years, the Public Works Department assembled a team to find a better way to manage resident requests. Choosing SeeClickFix, they went live in September 2019. A year later, Director Louis was pleasantly surprised when the City passed the 51,000-request mark and he’d hardly heard of any user problems.

To learn more about Casa Grande’s successful approach we interviewed Director Louis and a few of his staff.

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Can you describe the process for selecting a new resident request solution?

Kevin Louis — Director: “We put a together a group of representatives from the department and went through a detailed process to identify the options that were out there. We reviewed each of those and gave vendors an opportunity to present their products and then matched them up with our expectations. From there, we narrowed it down to three systems and finally selected SeeClickFix.”

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What was the problem you were trying to Solve?

Kevin Louis — Director: “We wanted to be able to connect residents directly to the staff that were going to address their concerns so issues could be resolved as quickly as possible. We needed a tool to help us achieve our goals and meet our responsibilities. SeeClickFix comes out of Public Works’ budget.”

Amanda Grant — Admin. Asst.: “I would say accountability. We wanted a system that wouldn’t fail because someone missed a phone call or didn’t see an email. We also wanted a way to track and measure response times, so we’d know if we’re meeting our service level agreements.”

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How did you manage resident requests and work orders pre-SeeClickFix?

Amanda Grant — Admin. Asst.: “There were a lot of Excel spreadsheets, emails, and phone calls. We even bought a solution before SeeClickFix and within less than a year, we were told that it was obsolete and would no longer be supported.”

Kevin Louis — Director: “The fact of the matter is that there were too many opportunities for information to get lost and for the citizen’s request to not be fulfilled. We needed a request management system.”

Chris Lawson — Streets: “We used to use a work order solution that IT built in-house which wasn’t connected to resident requests. It was great when SeeClickFix came along because we could now do both parts of our job in one software.”

Change can be hard. How did staff feel about switching to SeeClickFix?

Kevin Louis — Director: “We’ve all embraced SeeClickFix in Public Works. Because we were all part of the selection process, we’ve come to own and use it across streets, sanitation, and wastewater.”

Were you getting the data you needed before SeeClickFix?

Kevin Louis — Director: “Not really. Because we had to manipulate the data coming out of the old system, we didn’t do it as often, so we didn’t have the real-time information necessary to help us manage our resources. With SeeClickFix’s work orders it’s now much easier for us to generate ad hoc budgets and showcase our achievements.”

Chris Lawson — Streets: “What’s nice about SeeClickFix, is that it’s easy to pull a daily work report, or look back in time if we get a risk management claim and need to know what we were doing on a certain day. I also like being able to see where we’re spending our money and time. SeeClickFix’s “Resources” makes it possible to track employee, material, and equipment costs. I rely on Amanda to update our resources when we hire a new employee, get new equipment or material prices change.”

Amanda Grant — Admin. Asst.: “We also rely on SeeClickFix to provide data for our annual Leadership Academy. Every year, residents apply to participate in an 8-week civic education program. Participants are toured around the city’s facilities to learn more about how the City operates. We pull a lot of data from SeeClickFix to showcase what we do, how many issues we’ve resolved, and what the average response time is. It helps the public visualize the difference we’re making.”

Do you use SeeClickFix to manage expectations? 

Kevin Louis — Director: “SeeClickFix allows us to provide facts associated with some of the comments that city council members receive. I’ve been in open session, where council members asked what’s being done to address a certain issue. And because of SeeClickFix, I was able to say, “We’ve actually been working on this for 15 days and here are the steps we’ve taken.” We can show them all of the steps associated with a request. SeeClickFix helps our council make decisions based on facts versus opinions.”

Amanda Grant — Admin. Asst.: “The Notices feature in SeeClickFix is a great resource because when we have a delay in service or an issue that we’re dealing with, we’re able to quickly create a notice and reach 500 people registered with SeeClickFix on their mobile phones. And the notice automatically shows up on our website.”

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Most of the time things go smoothly. Does SeeClickFix make it easy to spot exceptions?

Amanda Grant — Admin. Asst.: “Absolutely. The reporting makes it easy to see if an issue has been open for an extended period. It allows us to research a request or work order and ask, “Okay, why is it still open, why hasn’t it been closed? It’s been open for 176 days.” It may be that we’re dealing with an outside entity and we’re still working it through. With SeeClickFix, issues don’t fall through the cracks.”

How do you use SeeClickFix’s online work orders?

Chris Lawson — Streets: “In the street division, I would say that 90% of our work orders are self-generated in SeeClickFix versus beginning with a resident request, because we use the system as a way to track the daily work that I assign to the guys. The other 10% would be requests that have come in from citizens.”

What do you like most about SeeClickFix?

Amanda Grant — Admin. Asst.: “One of the most attractive things about SeeClickFix is how customizable it is. Not only for workflows but also for the resident facing mobile app. We love that we can easily add and remove buttons on the home screen to link to important City resources. We’re able to personalize SeeClickFix and make it our own.”

Chris Lawson — Streets: “I would just have to say that SeeClickFix holds people accountable for requests that are coming in, until they get completed, it’s a great system. Other than that, it’s also a great tool to for keeping track of the work you do each day and it’s easier to pull reports and get the data I need.”

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How do you measure your return on investment with SeeClickFix?

Kevin Louis — Director: “Public Works is typically a municipality’s money pit. And a lot of our work goes unseen. SeeClickFix more than pays for itself because it changes how the community sees us. Residents can see where their tax dollars are going and by reporting issues, be part of the process.”

Learn more about SeeClickFix.

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