Cape Town - The City of Cape Town said it is pleased to announce its continued excellence in logging an impressive volume of service requests from its residents.
From July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, a total of 1 377 748 service requests were logged for a wide variety of services and faults.
This amounts to nearly 115 000 service requests per month, logged by a dedicated team that works around the clock to ensure these are allocated to the relevant City departments to resolve or address.
The City’s call centre has a dedicated team of about 192 contact centre agents, with 55 agents handling queries related to accounts and general calls for information.
They work eight-hour shifts between 7am and 9pm.
Up to 15 agents are focused on managing queries related to accounts and general via email, and they process between 800 and 1 000 emails every day.
The City’s 24/7 operations are supported by another 72 agents working rotational shifts.
They deal with service requests, including multiple platforms for water and electricity. These agents handle calls, WhatsApp messages, emails, and SMSes.
They process on average about 2 000 WhatsApp messages, 450 SMSes, and 700 emails every single day.
Mayco member for corporate services Theresa Uys said: “It is important for us to highlight the significant work that the City’s customer service staff are doing on a day-to-day basis. Looking at the volumes, I have to say it is near-miraculous.
“The teams are well trained, dedicated, and efficient, and do all they can to get the service requests channelled to the relevant City departments so that residents can be assisted, and challenges resolved.
“I want to commend the team for their excellence, and at the same time, encourage the Customer Relations Centre to keep on exploring ways of improving our service offering. Our residents surely appreciate the unit’s dedication and commitment.”
The top 20 service requests from residents for this period are as follows:
- Electricity related, such as power outages and defective street lights: 41%
- Water and Sanitation related, among which blocked sewers and water disruptions: 39%
- Solid Waste, including illegal dumping: 11%
- Roads and Stormwater, including blocked stormwater infrastructure and potholes: 3%
- Housing related: 3%
- Revenue: 2%.
Average turnaround times:
- Multimedia in the 24/7 environment: the City strives to respond within two hours.
- Calls: the City’s goal is to answer 80% of calls within three minutes and the balance within five minutes.
- Multimedia in Accounts and General: Generally, responses are provided within seven working days.
When a complaint is logged, a service request is created, generating a reference number. Customers receive notifications via SMS or email about the request and reference number.
Subsequent notifications update the customer on the status of their request, including progress and completion.
If a request is closed without resolution or adequate explanation, customers can dispute the request via the City's website or app.
Residents are advised to note that logging the same request multiple times does not alter its order in the queue, but rather adds to the number of queries on the system.
Cape Argus