Metro looks into automation services for better service delivery response times

Tshwane metro plans to automate services on its various platforms such as emails, to improve response times to customer queries and complaints.

Finance MMC Mare-Lise Fourie said this was due to the increase in the number of incoming emails from residents.

Fourie said customer queries and complaints were mainly lodged via Tshwane’s digital and online platforms due to Covid-19.

She said the metro had noted that residents would choose to rather not access a walk-in centre to avoid potential exposure to the virus.

“We are making a strong effort in ensuring we attend to customer issues to resolve them timeously, and issue correct reference numbers to matters that may need time for investigation,” said Fourie.

“However, much like the rest of the world, the metro has also been impacted significantly by Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown periods.”

Fourie said frustration was caused as the current waiting times at operational walk-in centres had increased due to social distancing measures.

She said the metro had various channels of service assistance, which were based on the historical preferences of customers and the number of emails and calls it received varied each day.

“The Tshwane call centre is the largest channel pool, as according to city standards set, 80% of calls had to be answered within 20 seconds,” she said.

“The standard was exceeded and the response time for May 2021 was 81%.”

She said the benchmarked 48 hours response time on emails would also serve as a guideline although the target was to work towards a real-time response rate.

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Other platforms such as social media were also monitored on a 24-hour basis to ensure as much real-time response as possible.

Fourie said residents and businesses had to note that various complaints and queries such as finance-related queries, water meter queries and meter readings sometimes had to be investigated before the metro could act on them.

She said this sometimes delayed their response times.

“Another problem is insufficient information from the customer. We ask that customers provide the metro with as much information as possible when sending a query.”

She said the Tshwane metro was always putting measures in place to minimise any challenges it faced which affected service delivery.

Fourie said such measures were the use of the weekly service delivery platforms such as the executive mayor’s service delivery war room and the operations performance task teams, which were aimed to ensure immediate and continued improvements in service delivery response times.

She encouraged customers to use the following details to interact with the metro:

Call centre: 012 358 999 or Toll-free 080 111 1556

e-Tshwane: https://www.e-Tshwane.co.za

Social media:

· Facebook – City of Tshwane and

· Twitter – @CityTshwane

Email:

• General enquiries including billing: customercare@tshwane.gov.za

• Bulk waste enquiries: bulkwaste@tshwane.gov.za

• Waste (bins, etc.) enquiries: domesticwaste@tshwane.gov.za

• Submission of meter readings: meterrecords@tshwane.gov.za

• Credit control enquiries: creditcontrol@tshwane.gov.za

• Enquiries of Areyeng bus services: areyengenquiries@tshwane.gov.za

• Faulty streetlights: streetlights@tshwane.gov.za

• Faulty traffic lights: trafficsignalfaults@tshwane.gov.za

• Reporting potholes: pothole@tshwane.gov.za

• Reporting sewer: sewerblockages@tshwane.gov.za

• Reporting water leaks: waterleaks@tshwane.gov.za

Power failures:

Customers can report using SMS or online. SMS the word “power” followed by your account number to 082 612 0333 or 44676, or visit www.tshwane.gov.za and follow the “Report Power Failure” link.

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