NYC 311 Hotline Gets High Marks, Bloomberg Praise

NEW YORK (AP) —
Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits the 311 call center on Thursday to tout a customer satisfaction survey. (Edward Reed)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits the 311 call center on Thursday to tout a customer satisfaction survey. (Edward Reed)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is touting the glowing reviews for one of his signature creations — New York City’s 311 hotline.

The nonemergency hotline, which was founded in 2003 during Bloomberg’s first term, helps New Yorkers get answers to their questions about city agencies and services.

The mayor visited a lower Manhattan call center Thursday morning to praise the workers and release the results of a new customer satisfaction survey.

The survey, conducted by CFI Group Inc., revealed that 83 percent of callers were satisfied, a jump of 4 percentage points from the baseline set in 2008.

“We have the best work force in the world, and the customer satisfaction survey of our 311 call takers is just the latest example of that,” Bloomberg said in a statement released Thursday.

The center handles 50,000 calls a day on average and has received more than 170 million calls since it was opened. Its website, which is available in more than 50 languages, averages 12,000 visits a day.

The hotline was one of Bloomberg’s first landmark initiatives. It consolidated more than 40 separate city information lines and has been widely imitated in other cities.

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has praised the 311 system and plans to maintain it.

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