community engagement
Philly Rising Workshop Teaches Students to Shine at the Philly311 Youth Engagement Program
Philly Rising Youth Engagement Coordinator Alex Peay has a booming voice and immediately commands the room. Our session on Thursday, October 29th was smaller than other weeks due to an AVID awards ceremony that many of our participants were attending at the same time. But, the group we had was focused and very interested in the presentation and the activity that Alex had organized.
Alex opened by explaining what Philly Rising does and how it can help communities affect change. Then he began an ice breaker – the students had to line up in order of birth date without talking. This activity demonstrated how some people naturally want to lead the effort. He talked about leadership and how some students were inclined to take on a more active role trying to direct the group while others seemed to instinctively follow instructions.
After the ice breaker, Alex moved on to his presentation. He spoke to the children about self-branding and how even at their ages (11-18) people are already fitting them into an archetype. The way teachers deem you the class clown or neighbors know you to play music loudly at night for example. He explained that branding plays a significant role in the way that others view you, and what opportunities are available to you. We talked about celebrities, like Mike Vic, who had an extremely successful career until something completely unrelated to football, dog fighting, ruined his reputation and caused him to lose all of his contracts. He gave several other examples. He told the students that it is possible to change your brand, but it is important that you are consistent if you want people to know and respect your brand.
We also talked about the importance of networking. Alex defined networking for the students and he explained that everyone who comes through this program to talk to them can become part of their network. He then gave out his business cards and shared some of the nuances of networking, such as reaching out to people regularly to check in, not just when you need something. Alex used Michael Jordan as an example: “How many of you know who Michael Jordan is? Could you call him for a favor?” Alex asks. “Many people say, ‘It is not what you know, it’s who you know.’ I say, ‘It’s not who you know, but who knows you. Build your brand so people know you and think of you when opportunities arise.”
We closed the session with another exercise. The kids used pieces of paper as rocks and had to get everyone across the river (classroom floor) without touching the water/floor. It took several tries but in the end, the students realized that they had to plan ahead and work together to get everyone across the “river” and successfully complete the activity. It was really interesting to see them work through the process and assess through trial and error the best way to get across the river together.
It was really great to see how engaged the students were with Alex’s presentation. He caught their attention and talked about some important concepts in a way the youth could relate and understand.
The overall goal of the Philly311 Youth Engagement Program is to teach young people about local government and empower them to make a positive change in their community. By teaching them about leadership, branding, and networking we can empower them to take responsibility for themselves, and their neighborhood. Another major factor of our program is that we are humanizing government. Instead of government being some mysterious entity, we are showing students that government is run by people who are just like you. I think that by putting faces like Alex Peay and Joy Soto of the Youth Commission to City government we are really changing the way these students think about government. Hopefully, by meeting these different government employees and getting to know us, the students will be encouraged to work with local government and help make Philadelphia better for all of us.
Creating a Welcoming and Connected City: The story of Philly311’s Youth Engagement Program
A few weeks ago I posed a challenge to my Philly311 Customer Service Programs and Engagement Strategist, Amanda V. Wagner: Create a program that encourages young people to be civicly involved. Amanda leads the Philly311 Customer Service Programs and Strategies Unit which is responsible for Philly311’s customer service innovative programs and communications.
She was excited by the idea; however creating the program would be a challenge within itself. Daniel Ramos, Philly311’s Community Engagement Coordinator managed a similar program in the past with the 311 Youth Neighborhood Liaison Program. The experience that Daniel acquired during the 311 Youth Neighborhood Liaison Program would shape what recently became the Youth Engagement Program.
I strongly believe that by engaging young talent early we can help resolve future neighborhood problems, and encourage a younger generation to consider a career in government. At the core of Philly311’s philosophy is one simple idea. Philly311 connects citizens to city services and resources, and there is a plethora of city services available to people outside of what citizens see on a daily basis. We want to educate adults about those city related services, and especially kids who could benefit most from it.
For example, one of the organizations we have partnered with on the youth program, After School Activities Partnerships (ASAP), works to serve the 45,000 kids citywide that spend an average of “20-25 hours a week alone after school between 3pm and 6pm, the most dangerous time of day for youth according to the Police Department.” Organizations like ASAP are a huge resource to citizens and meet a significant need in the community.
The Philly311 Youth Engagement Program (Y.E.P) kicks off in July for five week sessions. Y.E.P’s programming will teach a group of early middle school kids how to interact with Philly311, including a discussion on our award winning mobile app, and how to engage with community resources. Y.E.P has partnered with several City of Philadelphia affiliated youth programs to provide a well-rounded roster of opportunities. Under the supervision of Amanda V. Wagner, and Director of Communications for Philly311 Customer Service, Gabriela Raczka, the program has created long lasting alliances with community partners.
I am grateful for a great Philly311 team that shares my passion for government customer service, and I’m looking forward to the feedback we’ll receive and the impact the program will create for the children of Philadelphia.
Addressing Unexpected Problems on the Road to Progress
My team and I have been working on procuring and implementing a new city wide CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system for nearly two years now. The system will improve the City’s ability to communicate with citizens and internal departments, as well as, create a social platform around 311. The CRM will facilitate collaborations between neighbors and stakeholders encourage them to share practices, and organize events to better their communities.
Like any project, we have experienced ups and downs. I would be lying if I said that the journey hasn’t had unanticipated hiccups. Inevitably with a project of this magnitude, there are bumps in the road. Some of these challenges are foreseeable, and accounted for in the very beginning, and others reveal themselves in the process.
In February 2014 we kicked off our CRM implementation and a new era of citizen engagement in Philadelphia. Before we were able to introduce the project throughout the City, we spent months planning, collecting data, and journey-mapping to ensure that the customers’ needs would be met and their expectations exceeded. Yet in that mission there were some obvious challenges. Anytime you, or a company, are implementing new technology, training your internal customers has to be a high priority. However, who needs to be trained, and when they need to be trained, often fluxes in relation to a number of factors. When schedules, resources, and strategies change in the process, you have to remember to be proactive and not reactive.
Embrace and face change. This isn’t to say that you should spend all your time planning for the unexpected, but to rely on your greater objective as a source to keep from getting discouraged. Part of being a project executive means establishing a strategy to confront the unexpected opposed to simply reacting to them as they come along. Don’t spend too much time planning for what cannot be planned.
The procurement and implementation journey has been long, but certainly worthwhile. With every mention of the new CRM I can’t help but to thank the people who have supported this process. A big thank you to Mayor Nutter, Executive Sponsor and City Managing Director Richard Negrin, Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid, Philly311 staff and our internal and external partners.
Regardless of the inevitable challenges we’ve faced, the ultimate outcome: a transparent government that prioritizes its citizens, is what makes bumps in the road, simply that.
Stay tuned for news of our PhillyInnovates summit on February 18, 2015 with our partners at Salesforce. This will be a huge opportunity for the community to learn about the whos, whats, whys, and hows behind how the City of Philadelphia is connecting with its customers.
Photo by Pulpolux
10 Things Revolutionizing the Customer Experience in City Government in 2015
As the year inches towards a closing, I can’t help but to reflect on all that the City of Philadelphia has accomplished in the past year. With the implementation of a new customer relationship management system, new partnerships, and program expansion, it has been a long year. It has also been a year that has brought us at 311 closer to fully realizing our big goals. We are on the cusp of a movement. We are aggressively steering away from what traditional government has been, revamping our customer service strategy, and leading the nation with an innovative approach. By incorporating private sector methods, and platforms, to better our customer experience, we have been working to revolutionize the way government operates. Here are a few things that are changing city government, and in a very big way.
1. The Customer. Understanding that the citizen is our customer, and using those terms as synonyms, has reoriented our general framework. Our customers are unique because they are citizens! The citizens’ customer experience expands beyond providing city services. Every improvement we make for our customer affects their quality of life.
2. Executive sponsorship from Mayor Nutter and his cabinet. Having people who share your desire to create a city environment of customer excellence, has been imperative to the process.
3. Managing Director, Richard Negrin, follows suit in understanding and supporting our movement towards a progressive and transparent city government. Support from Mayor Nutter, Mayor Nutter’s cabinet, and the Managing Director, influences and facilitates change in every step of the journey. These folks are more than okaying improvements, they are standing by them, and pushing them to the next level.
4. The Mayor’s Goal Five: “Government Efficiency and Effectiveness.” A focus on efficiency and effectiveness is imperative for city government, and the Mayor’s goal five is a constant reminder of what type of experience we should be crafting for our customers. Keeping this in mind, sets a mindset of progress.
5. The Innovation Lab. The Innovation Lab encourages creativity and gives us a designated space for our citizens to generate new ideas. The Lab is another extension of how the city is bringing the customer further into the conversation, and also helping them lead the conversation.
6. The Neighborhood Liaison Program. NLP is just one example of programming that we have implemented to give our customs self sustainable tools. In the last year the program has doubled in size from 600 to 1,200 contributors. This increase demonstrates an increase in trust towards city government. Citizens are seeing results and relying on us more and more.
7. Having a Staff that Cares. Our staff at 311 is always there for the citizens, and realize that they are a direct reflection of the city they work for and love. Understanding our common objective, fosters a motivated and caring internal environment.
8. Customer Service Officers. 311 is no longer limited to City Hall. With people like Customer Service Officers, we are out in the communities and impacting people where it counts.
9. Partnering In and outside of the City. Especially with the implementation of the new customer management system, our partners have played a significant role in helping us move towards our goals this year.
10. Taking Notes from business and tech communities. Paying attention to what private sector companies are doing, and translating them into our own practices, sets us a head of the curve.
The list could easily go on, and will as 2015 unfolds. We are excited about the future and so are the citizens of Philadelphia. Tell me what’s changing your industry and what you look forward to in the New Year.
Call for Customer Service Speakers!
Mark your calendars! Philly311 will be hosting a customer service focused speaking series and would like YOU to participate in it.
Event: The 311 Customer Service Winter Series. The series will feature and be hosted by the City of Philadelphia’s Chief Customer Service officer, Rosetta Carrington Lue. The series spans over a six week period and will include panel discussions and key speakers.
Who: The 311 Customer Service Winter Series is looking for speakers who have a background in customer service, customer experience, or speakers who have participated in the creation or implementation of customer relationship systems.
Date: February 11, 2015 – March 18, 2015
Location: Philadelphia, PA (TBA)
Topics: The series will focus on customer service, customer experience, and how technology is altering internal and external customer relations.
If you fit the above description, and would like to contribute to the series, please contact Amanda Wagner.
Stay tuned-in for more updates!
Event Contact:
Amanda V. Wagner: amanda.v.wagner@phila.gov
Public Sector Customer Service: Philly 311 – Triumphing to Transform Local Government Service Delivery
Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal is the first online publication to bring a public focus to social innovators and their nonprofit organizations, foundations and social sector businesses in the Greater Philadelphia area, to recognize their…
How Can Government Create A Community Engagement Program with $0 Budget
When we implemented Philly311 in 2008, we had no marketing budget. This was a problem. As the City of Philadelphia did not have a 311 system before, the idea of the contact center was foreign and we had no money to communicate its purpose to citizens. How could we properly serve our customers if our customers did not know about us? As any financial constraint does, our lack of a marketing budget led us to think creatively. What resulted was an effective community engagement program that cost us $0. Here’s how we did it:
Define a Purpose that is Meaningful to Your Customers/Community
In any program implementation, the first, most important step of the process is to define a purpose. In creating a community engagement program, you need to make sure that this purpose is beneficial to community members. For us, we wanted to create a community engagement program that not only educates the public about the 311 system but empowers them to use the contact center to make a difference in their community. Such would help us market Philly311 while providing a better level of service for our customers.
Develop a Program with No Incurred Cost
Once we had defined our purpose of education and empowerment, we could begin to develop a plan for a program. In this plan, we chose to give community members personal accounts in our work system portal so that they could directly enter and check the status of service requests. In order to obtain a personal account, community members needed to attend one training session taught by a Philly311 representative. This program would be called the Philly311 Neighborhood Liaison Program and would cost us $0.
Choose the Right Neighborhoods, Partners and Employees
After developing our program, we moved to the implementation phase, actually bringing our training sessions into neighborhoods. As Philly311 was a new service with very little name recognition, we needed to choose our target market wisely, especially because we had no money for a full-scale, city-wide effort. This meant that we needed partnerships. With partnerships, we could have an established audience in a location with resources (projector, chairs, computers, etc.) in exchange for a one-hour presentation that would be meaningful to the organization. For these partnerships, we looked internally at programs like PhillyRising and externally for various community and neighborhood organizations that were open to hosting our training sessions. Sometimes, we needed multiple partners for one location. If a community organization wanted us to give a presentation but had no computers in their facility, we looked for an additional partnering organization that could provide them. Coming up with the resources for a community engagement effort is like a complicated puzzle—it might take you some time but usually the right pieces can be found.
The second piece of this step was to find the right Philly311 representative to present in communities. This was essential. In looking for the right employees, we looked for those who were not only passionate about Philly311, but who were also willing and able to take on more work. While we were able to offer overtime pay, these employees would be going above and beyond their job descriptions in becoming a “spokesperson” for the contact center. To get this effort off the ground, it was necessary for myself and other senior-level employees to present at the Neighborhood Liaison training sessions and to attend various community meetings to establish partnerships.
Invite Feedback for Sustainability
Once the Philly311 Neighborhood Liaison effort was up and running, we needed to ensure that it was sustainable. A no-cost way of accomplishing this was to make regular “check-up” calls to liaisons to invite feedback on the program, the 311 service or to set-up another community meeting.
Since 2009, the Philly311 Neighborhood Liaison Program has trained over 600 liaisons in Philadelphia. We continue to make regular “check-up” calls, establish new partnerships and find new ways to improve the program.
I hope this post helps you in creating a community engagement program for $0. If you have any questions about our process, please feel free to leave a comment.
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue.
Innovative Customer Service Leadership Strategies 