6,800 reports were recorded last year by the Citizens’ Service of the City of Linz. That is 13 percent more than in the previous year. The situation for the 20-strong team at the Teleservice Center as the interface to the population was once again exceptional as a result of the corona pandemic, but more slowed down compared to the first year of the virus with the tough lockdowns, as Mayor Klaus Luger put it. “Especially when measures of the federal government were announced, of which it was not immediately clear what they now mean for people in concrete terms, the phones ran hot, other tasks had to be put on the back burner,” said the city manager.
Incidentally, the telephone as a link to the city is “only” used by 25 percent of the citizens. 58 percent of all complaints and suggestions were submitted to the city government last year via the “Look at Linz” platform. 17 percent were formulated by email.
Keep response times short
Since the constant exchange with the population is extremely important for the administration, it is important that people get quick answers to their questions and suggestions. In order to keep the response times as short as possible, the processes for processing in the teleservice center will be evaluated this year, a new hotline technology will be used and the app “Look at Linz” will be relaunched. “Every citizen will continue to be able to talk to an employee and not to an avatar,” said Municipal Director Ulrike Huemer. The desired automation relates to the process behind it. One focus is to speed up the processing of inquiries.
The period of time until citizens receive replies to their reports can range from one day to a maximum of a few days. At the end of last year, 70 inquiries were still outstanding, according to the director responsible, Andreas Atzgerstorfer. His employees try very hard to deal with inquiries in a timely manner. Of course, not everything can be done.
The ranking the most common topics that Linzers noticed in 2021:
- garbage disposal 1,027 cases
- green waste 622 cases
- damage to traffic areas 374 cases
- Broken street and outdoor lighting 350 cases
- polluted traffic areas 340 cases
Source: Nachrichten
