Tempe officials reported that the city’s 3-1-1 customer service center has consistently met or exceeded its internal performance targets and will roll out a new customer-relationship system aimed at improving self-service and chat options.

At a City Council work study session on April 10, Tanya Chavez, Mayor and Council chief of staff, introduced the update and turned the presentation over to Kim Mancayo, Tempe 3-1-1 supervisor. Mancayo said the team has met three city performance measures for at least five years: single-point-of-contact resolution (target >=75%), caller wait time (target <=60 seconds for 90% of calls) and email response (respond to inquiries within 1 business day for 90% of inquiries). Mancayo said the five‑year averages are 83% for single-point resolution, 96.8% of phone calls answered within 60 seconds and 96.4% response for emails.

Mancayo described growth in demand and staffing. The 3-1-1 team handles nonemergency city services, operates as “one call to City Hall” and has seven full‑time staff. Annual contacts approach 96,000 calls and service requests; Mancayo said that figure equates to about 273 calls per person per day when fully staffed. Monthly call volume rose from about 2,800 calls in a February cited by staff to more than 5,700 calls in December. Mancayo also said expanding hours added weekend service and extended weekday coverage — moving from Monday–Friday 7 a.m.–5 p.m. to Monday–Friday 7 a.m.–6 p.m. plus Saturday–Sunday 8 a.m.–5 p.m., which she said represented a 42% increase in service hours and produced more than 3,400 weekend calls from December 2023 through March 2024.

City staff described several service improvements in progress. A new CRM (customer-relationship management) system is scheduled for a project kickoff in June and a public rollout in January 2026; staff said the new system will allow residents and businesses to self-create intake requests, and will include a test chat feature and other online tools. Mancayo told council, “We are one call to City Hall. We handle most non emergency operations, we do have 7 full time staff and we are the single point of contact for city services.”

Council members asked for comparative data, outreach and user experience options. Council Member Hodge asked how Tempe compares with other cities; staff said they did not have a benchmark on hand but would follow up. Several council members asked that the city’s communications team promote 3-1-1 in utility bills and newsletters. Council Member Keating and others suggested the new system should include a clear option to connect to a live person and, where possible, show wait times; staff said human answerability will remain a priority and that chat features will be tested before broader deployment. Council Member Adams asked for more specific form fields and dropdowns for common requests to reduce ambiguous submissions; staff said they are refining topic categories and plan to improve intake specificity in the CRM.

The presentation closed with staff taking follow-up items: provide comparative benchmarking of other cities’ 3-1-1 centers, coordinate additional outreach through communications, and finalize the CRM procurement and testing plan ahead of the June kickoff.

Looking ahead, staff expect the CRM project to proceed through procurement and technical kickoff in June, with phased rollout to residents beginning in January 2026. Council members expressed general support but asked staff to return with benchmarking and outreach details.