1999 Citizen HotlineTaipei
■ Outline
The 1999 Citizen Hotline is the call center of Taipei City government. It is an accurate, speedy, and efficient channel of communication established between the citizen and the city government, enhancing government departments’ public relations and service efficiency, and assuring that the services entrusted by the public to the government are performed successfully, with more direct interaction.
■ Period of Implementation
- The 1999 Citizen Hotline was first established in January 25, 2005 and was vastly improved on July 3, 2008.
■ Features
- The 1999 Citizen Hotline is the first 24-hour nonemergency service in Taiwan. It provides residents with convenient access to public services over the phone. Calling 1999 is free when the calls are made from a landline, a mobile phone, or an IP phone, not including public telephones and pre-paid mobile phones. By dialing 1999, residents in Taipei can make simple inquiries concerning municipal government services, receive information about upcoming programs or have the call transferred to any city government agency. In order to strengthen each department’s ability to handle call-forwarding, appeals and suggestions, the 1999 Citizen Hotline made a series of significant improvements. The 1999 Hotline integrated a wide range of services previously provided by 16 toll-free numbers and 2 dedicated fixed lines run by many city government agencies. The City Government renewed the call center information system and related equipments, and increased the service agent seats from 31 to 92 in 2008.
The second part of those improvements are the processes reengineering of 20 public work items that are closely related to the residents’ daily life, including “handling of illegal parking”, “fixing pot holes”, “repairing damages of gutters” , “reporting household water leakage or stoppage”, “reporting noises in premises and facilities”, “reporting pollution”, “disposing large-sized waste”, “disposing unattended garbage”, “dredging of gutters and flood drainages”, “handling of human and animal noises”, and “reporting broken traffic lights, traffic signs, road lamps and road trees”…etc. After this process reengineering, the agents can dispatch personnel to handle citizens’ needs within a prescribed time. The third part of those improvements is the sign-language service which was launched in February, 2010. Taipei City is the first local government in Taiwan to offer such a service for the benefit of the hearing-impaired population.
■ Outcomes / Achievements
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The 1999 Citizen Hotline has received an overall satisfaction rating as high as 86% for its convenience and wide coverage. Following the improvement made in 2008, the 1999 Citizen Hotline earned the “2009 Asia Pacific Customer Relationship Excellence Award for Best Public Service” from the Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium (APCSC). As of the end of 2010, the 1999 Citizen Hotline now handled an average of 190,000 incoming calls per month, compared to 50,000 calls per month when the call center first launched in 2005. Clearly, the 1999 Citizen Hotline has already had a deep impact on the lives of residents in Taipei.
■ Cost
- The operating budget of the 1999 Citizen Hotline was 78 million NTD in the fiscal year 2010.
■ Inquiries
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Department of Information Technology, Taipei City Government
(Tel) +886-2-2720-8889
(Fax) +886-2-2720-1999
(Text messaging service for the hearing-impaired) +886-975-10-1999
(website) http://1999.taipei.gov.tw
■ Related Links
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