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311 officials tout tech overhaul; councilors press on language access and notification for district offices
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Summary
At the Ways and Means hearing, 311 staff described a CRM and asset-focused tech upgrade meant to speed case management; councilors pressed about Cantonese access, supervisor staffing on overnight shifts and a proposal to automatically notify district councilors of 311 cases in their neighborhoods.
Boston's 311 team told the council it handles roughly 300,000 cases a year and reported a service-level performance "around 88%," above a cited national average of 80. Officials said the department is moving to a new CRM that shifts from an address-focused system to an asset-based model to improve departmental visibility into problems and asset management.
"Our service level percentage falls around 88%," the 311 director said during the presentation, adding that the center connects callers to languages via a language line. When asked whether callers can reach a Cantonese-speaking agent, the director said, "At the moment, no. It is an older language. Kinda hard to find people that do still speak that language, but that's why the universal line is the easiest." The office said the language line can connect callers to Cantonese speakers when needed.
Councilors also raised staffing and supervisory capacity: 311 staff said the operation is 24/7 but currently has only two supervisors, limiting the ability to field supervisor requests late at night. Officials said the new CRM and reporting dashboards are designed to make case data cleaner and reduce duplication across departments.
Several councilors urged adding a feature to the 311 intake that would automatically flag or notify the district city councilor's office when a complaint in that councilor's district is filed. 311 and ONS staff responded that the city is mid-C RM revamp and would explore possibilities, but cautioned that some data and privacy constraints mean not all backend fields are public; they pointed councilors to publicly available 311 data at data.boston.gov and said they could provide trainings for council offices to use existing tools.
What happens next: ONS and 311 staff agreed to follow up on notification options and to run trainings for council offices on the 311 system and data access.
