Audit Report on the Effectiveness of the DOT Customer Service Call Center (CALLDOT)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) maintains the city’s streets and many of its bridges and highways and operates the Staten Island Ferry and many parking lots and garages in the City. In 1996, DOT installed an automated customer service telephone line system, CALLDOT, that offers recorded information, as well as a mechanism to make complaints and requests within DOT’s service areas.

Callers hear an automated greeting that offers a menu of options to choose from. Callers can reach an operator (Call Manager) directly at any time by pressing "0." The Interactive Voice Response system (IVR), an automated component of CALLDOT through which callers obtain information, handled 52 percent of the calls received in Fiscal Year 2001. Call Managers handled the remaining 48 percent of the calls.

In conjunction with the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication (DOITT), DOT added an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) in February 2000. The ACD technology allowed DOT to view real-time information and obtain reports about call volume and waiting times.

After September 11, 2001, the CALLDOT Call Center moved its operations from 40 Worth Street to a temporary location in Queens. CALLDOT’s 27 Call Managers share office space with the Parking Permits for People with Disabilities (PPPD) Customer Service Unit and with Traffic Operations. As of May 2002, CALLDOT was still operating from this location, where the IVR system was replaced with a call routing system that plays a four-minute recorded message. The recorded message provides a brief overview of current travel information. Following the recorded message, the system transfers the caller to a Call Manager.

Many functions that were handled automatically at CALLDOT’s prior location now have to be handled manually. For example, call volume, which was formerly calculated automatically, is now calculated by adding the ticks that each Call Manager marks on a log sheet classifying the types of calls received. The log sheets are collected every hour by a CALLDOT supervisor, who calculates the tick marks to obtain a daily total count of calls handled.

The Mayor’s Office of Operations established the Citywide Phone Standards for Customer Service (Citywide Standards), which include several requirements: all calls to City agencies must be answered within three rings; each agency must use a standard telephone greeting; callers are not to be kept on hold for more than two minutes; and each agency must respond to all caller inquiries within 10 working days with an acknowledgement regarding the issue.

The objectives of this audit were to determine whether CALLDOT is in compliance with the Citywide Standards and to determine whether it is providing accurate and useful information to callers.

The scope of our audit was September 2001 through March 2002. To accomplish our objectives, we interviewed DOT officials and reviewed their policies and procedures and the Citywide Standards. We made a series of telephone calls to CALLDOT requesting transportation information, to determine whether the Citywide Standards were being met and whether the information provided was accurate.

We reviewed and analyzed CALLDOT tracking reports of callbacks for five randomly sampled days in January 2002. We reviewed CALLDOT’s Monthly Call Volume reports for Fiscal Year 2001. We reviewed CALLDOT’s current call-routing telephone system and manual processes at its Queens location. We observed three Call Managers as they answered customer telephone calls and noted, among other things, whether the Call Managers answered with the proper greeting, whether the call was transferred, and whether the Call Manager gave a referral telephone number.

We checked various telephone numbers listed in DOT’s Yellow Pages—A Comprehensive Directory of DOT and other Transportation-Related Services (Yellow Pages), used by Call Managers for transportation inquiries. We reviewed the training manuals and the amount of training received by each of the Call Managers.

This audit was conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) and included tests of the records and other auditing procedures considered necessary. This audit was performed in accordance with the New York City Comptroller’s audit and responsibilities as set forth in Chapter 5, § 93, of the New York City Charter.

Overall, CALLDOT complies with the Citywide Phone Standards for Customer Service set forth by the Mayor’s Office of Operations and provides useful information to its customers. Furthermore, the Call Managers are courteous and friendly, and handle calls in a professional and efficient manner. CALLDOT staff answered 100 (99%) out of 101 telephone calls within three rings, met the two-minute hold-time standard 97 (96%) out of 101 times, and called 150 (91.5%) of 164 callers back about the status of their complaints.

CALLDOT also promptly mailed accurate and useful information when requested to do so; for example, CALLDOT mailed Alternate Side Parking Regulations Calendars to 91.7% of the callers who requested them.

However, we found some weaknesses that affect CALLDOT’s ability to provide the best possible service.

• When Call Managers did not know the answer to our questions regarding municipal parking lots, private ferry and bus services, and travel updates due to bridge construction projects, they failed to provide an answer to our question or to provide a referral telephone number seven (7%) out of 95 times. Moreover, the telephone referral numbers Call Managers provided were incorrect 10 (22%) out of 45 times.

We checked the telephone numbers listed in the DOT Yellow Pages for the eight information categories for which we requested specific information. The correct telephone numbers were listed for only four categories. The Yellow Pages listed no telephone number for three categories and an incorrect telephone number was listed for one category. Each Call Manager’s copy of the Yellow Pages is manually updated when there is a telephone number change. This results in crossed-out numbers and handwritten notes. DOT needs to consider a more efficient way of updating telephone numbers.

In addition, CALLDOT is not always immediately notified by other DOT units of changes and updates to such DOT-related information as street closures, bridge repairs, limitations on turning on certain streets, and lane closures. Updated information is received sporadically. To compensate for this lack of communication, CALLDOT uses data gathered from outside DOT, such as newspaper articles, like "Gridlock Sam" in the Daily News.

• Call Managers failed to transfer callers directly to the referred telephone number 41 (91%) out of 45 times, as required by CALLDOT. According to the CALLDOT Director, DOT management wants callers to dial as few telephone numbers as possible to obtain information. Therefore, it is CALLDOT’s unwritten policy to attempt to transfer the caller directly to the referred telephone number. We found that not all Call Managers are aware of this policy.
• Calls were either disconnected or never connected to a Call Manager four (4%) of 101 times. One reason for the disconnected calls could be that the phone system currently used by CALLDOT at the Queens location is limited in its ability to handle a large number of calls. The call routing system can only hold 25 callers in the queue. In addition, CALLDOT’s Queens location does not have an ACD system that can provide CALLDOT with diagnostic reports that show the frequency of disconnected calls experienced by the public.
• Call Managers failed to provide their names when greeting the caller 16 (27%) out of 60 times. In accordance with the Citywide Standards, Call Managers are required to use a standard telephone greeting when answering calls from the public.

The audit resulted in six recommendations. The following is a list of the major recommendations.

DOT should:

• Update the DOT Yellow Pages more frequently. DOT should also evaluate the possibility of using an automated database with search capabilities to store referral phone numbers and to replace the hard-copy Yellow Pages.
• Develop a better system of communicating between DOT unit heads and CALLDOT that will ensure that new and updated transportation information is regularly and promptly sent to CALLDOT.
• Continue to request that the Mayor’s Office of Operations allow CALLDOT to return to its Manhattan office location, where it has an ACD system. If the return to the Manhattan Office is delayed beyond a reasonable time, DOF should install its ACD system at the Queens location.

The matters covered in this report were discussed with officials from the Department of Transportation during and at the conclusion of this audit. A preliminary draft report was sent to DOT officials and discussed at an exit conference on May 17, 2002. On May 22, 2002 we submitted a draft report to DOT officials with a request for comments. We received a written response from DOT on June 6, 2002.

DOT agreed with the audit’s findings and recommendations, and also stated:

"We agree with the audit results that CALLDOT complies with the Citywide Phone Standards for Customer Service and provides useful information to its customers; Call Managers are courteous and friendly and handle calls in a professional and efficient manner; and CALLDOT promptly mailed accurate and useful information when requested to do so."