Rosetta Carrington

Lue

Executive Customer

Experience – Bio & Profile

Materials

Rosetta Carrington Lue Chief Customer Service Officer

Executive Director of Philly311

Contact Center

Office of the Managing Director

City of Philadelphia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 | P a g e

BIOGRAPHY

PHILLY311 OVERVIEW

PHILLY311 PROGRAMS

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT UPGRADE

TESTIMONIALS

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

PRESS

DAY IN THE LIFE – ROSETTA LUE

4 | P a g e

BIOGRAPHY

Rosetta Carrington Lue is a highly sought after keynote and panelist speaker in the field of

Government Customer Experience Management, Community Engagement, and Social Media

strategies.

She is a dynamic executive with more than fifteen years experience in leading large operations,

services, and customer engagement organizations. In her current role, she helps drive a range of

high priority projects and initiatives to improve all aspects of customer experience for 1.5 million

residents, businesses, and visitors for the 5th largest city in America.

She was appointed by Mayor Michael A. Nutter in May 2008 as the Deputy Managing Director

to launch the City's Philly311 non-emergency contact center. She was chosen as the City of

Philadelphia's first Chief Customer Service Officer and is focused on bringing innovative, cloud

and traditional customer experience excellence to the public sector.

She was recently selected as City's Project Executive to oversee the city wide implementation of

the Salesforce CRM platform for both internal and external customers, the 28k employees and

the residents, businesses and visitors. The cloud-based CRM project was successfully launched

on time and within budget in December 2014 and was highlighted at the first Philly Innovates

Summit in February 2015.

Under her leadership, in addition to numerous nationally recognized honors and awards, the City

of Philadelphia Philly311 Customer Contact Center was recently named a finalist for the

prestigious 2015 United Nations "Innovating Public Service Delivery" international award.

Due to her accomplishments, Rosetta has received several awards including Minority Executive

Business Leader by the Philadelphia Business Journal, Top 50 Contact Center Thought Leaders

on Twitter by International Customer Management Institute, National Next Generation Public

Sector Silent Hero finalist by GovLoop Magazine, Top 100 Huffington Post Customer Service

Pro (only public sector leader named), and Woman of Distinction & Influence by the

Philadelphia Business Journal.

Rosetta graduated with a B.S. in Finance and a MBA degree in Business Administration, in

addition to an Executive Leadership certification from

University of Virginia, Darden School of Business. Based on

a national search, she was selected as a 2014 American

Heart Association Go Red for Women National

Spokesperson and currently serves on the Board of Directors

of the Southeastern Region American Heart Association.

Read Rosetta’s blog: http://rosettacarringtonlue.com/

Follow Rosetta on twitter: @rosettalue.

Connect with Rosetta on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosettalue.

5 | P a g e

PHILLY311 OVERVIEW

Key benefits resulting from Philly311

The largest impact of the Philly311 is that it created a centralized customer service plan for the

City of Philadelphia. Since its inception, Philly311 has received an average of 1.2 million calls

each year.

Philly311’s multiple platforms provide easy access for customers. The Mobile App, which now

accounts for 18% of Philly311’s received requests, reflects the City’s effort to integrate

technology into city government. More than 1,600 Philly311 Neighborhood Liaisons have been

trained across the city.

Philly311 data is shared through and used as the basis for the city’s performance management

system, PhillyStat. Today, the system has expanded its reach and has with thousands of social

media followers. Philly311 continues to build towards an overall better and reliable city

government.

Philly311 has been able to maintain and exceed a 90% customer satisfaction rating since its

launch—taking in more than 1 million calls each year.

Successful outputs that contributed to the success of Philly311

How to establish of a contact center allowed for the collection of departmental servicing data.

How to engage and service customers who have adopted a mobile lifestyle.

The Philly311 Neighborhood Liaison Program establishes partnerships and trains community

leaders on the 311 system. Similarly, the Youth 311 Neighborhood Liaison program was

created to help educate youth about public services, and to teach younger generations how to

make a difference in their neighborhood using their smart phones.

Creative and innovative initiative

While many city governments have implemented a 311 system, very few have transformed and

innovated as well as Philly311. Using private-sector customer service practices, Philly311 has

utilized a multichannel approach to customer engagement. Customers can contact Philly311 and

enter service requests by calling the 3-1-1 number, using the web-self service portal, visiting the

Walk-in Center in City Hall, sending mail, sending email, or by tweeting @Philly311 or leaving

a comment to Philly311 on Facebook.

The center is accessible long after the 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. weekday timeframe that so many call

centers are limited to. Another feature that’s unique to Philly311 is that we have trained more

than 2,000 police officers on the 311 system, further extending the system’s customer reach.

In a response to Philadelphia’s growing digital divide, Philly311 also created the Philly311

Mobile App to meet customers who have adopted a mobile lifestyle and may not have home

access to Internet.

6 | P a g e

PHILLY311 PROGRAMS

Philly311 Mobile Application This application brings the 311 services to any smart phone for free – iPhone, Android, and

Blackberry devices.

Users can attach custom pictures and descriptions to their requests. With the app, users can also

view requests made nearby a specific geographic location.

The Philly311 Mobile App also includes an Election Day widget with a polling locator and

candidate information, widgets for resources in times of extreme weather, and a Licenses and

Inspections widget to find specific property history.

Philly311 mobile app is responsive and can create widgets for occasions as they arise. For

example, right now we are planning how a widget for the Pope visit in the fall can help the

millions of visitors navigate Philadelphia.

The Philly311 Mobile App translates to 17 languages to meet the needs of the very diverse

population of the city.

Philly311 Facebook, twitter, YouTube, tumblr, linked in and more

Philly311’s Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Philly311) and Twitter (@Philly311) are

managed by trained contact agents who are empowered to immediately answer questions and

enter service requests in response to comments or tweets received through social media.

Philly311 has also leveraged YouTube to release three different series as part of Philly311 TV https://www.youtube.com/user/philly311center

Philly311 Show is an interview series with employees from across city departments to engage citizens with

stories about municipal services and resources.

Day In the Life series is a way to show our constituents the human side of government. By highlighting

the day to day of government workers, DIL series transparently, and artfully, demonstrates individuals

connection to the communities they serve.

Customer Service Series provides insight into private sector approaches to customer service within the

City of Philadelphia. This branch of Philly311 TV, aims to draw a parallel between private and public

sector strategic customer service initiatives.

Philly311 regularly posts on the http://phillyinnovates.com/ blog about new services, FAQs, and

stories of citizen empowerment.

Customer Service Leadership Academy: Free training classes offered to all City employees

facilitated by Philly311 to enhance customer service skills. The Customer Service Leadership

Academy also has a Distinguished Speaker Series: The series spans over a six week period and

includes panel discussions and key speakers. The speakers are professionals who have a

7 | P a g e

background in customer service, customer experience, or speakers who have participated in the

creation or implementation of customer relationship systems.

Customer Service Officer Program: The program is designed to outline recommendations to

assist the important Administrative Departments to achieve their respective customer service

goals and performance objectives. The program’s goal is to create a culture of customer service

excellence through a formalized program and to drive results which exceed customer

expectations.

8 | P a g e

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why is Philly 311 important?

Philly311 is a single access point to City government that allows more Philadelphians to be

served, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Philly311 helps the City of Philadelphia deliver world-class customer service to our residents.

City employees all serve the same customers, which include residents, businesses and visitors.

We all want to create a better Philadelphia for all of our customers.

Philly311 has demonstrated that it has and will continue to provide unprecedented customer

service, while maximizing limited resources. We prepare our agents with months of training on

how to use the technology to service a request and how to treat our customers, being courteous

and efficient at all times.

Citizens of Philadelphia have come to rely on Philly311, which you can see from the 7,173,965

contacts we have received since launching.

How does Philly311 work?

Requests come into our contact center in many forms. Customers can access Philly311 on our

smart phone mobile app, through social media (we are operating on twitter and facebook), online

at Philly311.gov, by calling 311 on your cell phone or 215-686-8686 from a landline, or coming

in to the walk-in center at City Hall. We encourage our customers to interact with us on our

many channels and our mobile app is in 17 languages.

However the request comes in, it is processed through the same Salesforce CRM, making the

information centralized and easy to track. If there is an information request, such as directory

assistance, updates on special events, or other general information, the inquiry is answered

immediately using our Knowledge Base. If there is a service request, it is coded and sent to the

correct servicing department or departments. Customers with a service request receive a Service

Level Agreement (SLA), which is an estimated time for the request to be completed, provided by

the servicing department, and a tracking number to follow-up on the request.

How does Philly311 impact you?

Philly311 streamlines customer service intake, allowing employees to make better use of their

time with less distractions from misdirected calls, or processing information that can be done

automatically with Philly311. Also, Philly311 has improved accountability by better tracking

service requests and providing clear standards or Service Level Agreements.

What is next for Philly311?

Implementing the new CRM at the end of 2014 signals the completion of Phase 2 for Philly311.

In the next phase, we are able to customize our technology, systems and processes. This stage of

development is about continuous improvement and expansion in order to keep building on the

success of Philly311 it is important to maintain the best contact center available.

9 | P a g e

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

UPGRADE

https://vimeo.com/121293995

This year, Philly311 implemented a new robust CRM system through Salesforce. The Salesforce

CRM leverages social media and cutting-edge communication technology to maximize

government transparency, knowledge-sharing, and overall effectiveness. The new 311 platform

works across departments, into the homes and devices of citizens to create a social network

around municipal services and information, ensuring that government is accessible and effective

for all customers, internal and external.

10 | P a g e

TESTIMONIALS

“With the new Philly 311 customer service platform, our goal is not only to

create a more connected, citizen-responsive city, but also to inspire other cities

to follow our model and engage their citizens,” said Mayor Nutter.

"A truly connected government is citizen-centric and builds connections between

citizens, employees, governments and services," said Ron Huddleston, senior vice

president, global AppExchange and Partner Programs, Salesforce.com. "The City

of Philadelphia has embraced mobile cloud solutions to transform their ability to

connect with citizens while realizing operational and cost efficiencies for the

benefit of its entire community."

“I think we are starting to see a shift away from the discussion of big government

versus small government and into a conversation about smart government through

solutions like this,” adds Vivek Kundra, Executive Vice President of Salesforce

and former Chief Information Officer for President Barack Obama.

“There’s always an adrenaline rush when you flip the switch and something goes

live,” says Crystal Cooper, the vice president of Unisys Public Sector for North

America. “And I’m excited, because the expectation is that citizens should be able

to interact with their government 365 days a year.”

"It’s really City Hall in the palm of your hand. You call that one number, easy to

remember – 311. You don’t even need to know anybody at City Hall to get things

done. This is about treating our citizens like customers," said Rich Negrin, deputy

mayor and managing director.

"It’s exciting, something different every day. You never know what you are going

to get. It’s pretty fulfilling knowing that you are going to help the citizens of

Philadelphia," said Morris Hobson, who's been taking 311 calls for the past two

years.

"What 311 does is it actually gets people involved. It’s really a good community

engagement organization. It gets businesses together to clean up their area. It helps

(connect people) with the police, fire and L&I," said Barbara Kelley, of the Point

Breeze Community Development Corporation.

11 | P a g e

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2008, oversaw the implementation of Philly311 non-emergency call center

In the first year of operations, Philly311 received an average of 1.2 million calls each

year, posting a 96% customer satisfaction rating.

2009, Rosetta created the Philly311 Neighborhood Liaison Program.

2010, Rosetta established an in-house customer service training program for city

employees. This program, the Customer Service Leadership Academy, offers classes

such as “How to Effectively Handle Customer Complaints” and “Basic Customer Service

Telephone Skills.” Since its launch, the CSLA has seen more than 1,400 participants.

2011-2013, Public Technology Institute designated the City of Philadelphia as a

“Citizen’s Engaged Community.”

2011, Rosetta was asked to be a American Heart Association Go Red for Women

National Spokesperson

2012, Rosetta created the Customer Service Officers Program, an internal initiative to

improve customer service across the city’s key operating departments.

2012, Rosetta was named one of the Huffington Post’s Top 100 Customer Service Pros

on Twitter

2012, Rosetta oversaw the launch of the Philly311 Mobile App.

2012, City Paper honored the Philly311 Mobile App with its Big Vision Award in the

category of Government and Politics.

2012, Philly311 received its 5,000,000th call since its launch in 2008.

2012, ICMA Philly311/Smart Cities Case Study on Philly311 completed

2013, the Public Technology Institute recognized the mobile app

2013, Rosetta was named one of Philadelphia Business Journal’s Women of Distinction

2013, ICMI Global Call Center Award Finalist

2013, Youth Neighborhood Liaison Program Pilot Program Launched

2013-2014, Public Technology Institute named Philly311 “Most Engaged Community

Destination.”

2015, Public Launch of Philly311 new customer relationship management solution.

2015, Philly311 is United Nations Public Service award finalist

12 | P a g e

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Philly311 has made it to the final round of contestants to receive the United Nations Public

Service Awards – 2015.

One of the most prestigious international recognitions of excellence in public service.

Rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions

that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries

worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promotes

the role, professionalism and visibility of public service.

Received the Public Institute of Technology’s Citizens Engaged

Community designation four consecutive years, from 2012 - 2015,

for customer-centric multi-channel communications with city

residents – 2012 - 2015.

Made the short list of finalist in the Best “Small-to-Medium”

Contact Center category for the International Customer

Management Institute annual Best Global Contact Center Awards

– 2013 and 2014.

Winner City Paper’s Big Vision Award – 2013.

International Customer Management Institution Global Contact Center Awards finalist –

2013.

International Customer Management Institute Global Call Center Awards Finalist –2013.

The Public Institute of Technology Technical Award Honorable Mention – 2013.

Geekadelphia & The Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia Geek Award Nominee –

2013.

Savvy Award from 3CMA (City-County Communications and Marketing) Finalist – 2013.

Featured in Japanese Public Television documentary for innovative use of technology

(mobile app) in citizen engagement – 2013.

Winner of Best Innovations in Practice Paper Award, International Conference on Theory

and Practice of Electronic Governance – 2012.

Subject for International Customer Management Institute’s international case study on

smart cities; 1 of 9 cities selected – 2012.

13 | P a g e

PRESS

Tech Target

http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/news/2240242665/Philadelphia-chief-customer-service-officer-

honed-skills-in-private-sector

Critics of government have long complained about its inefficiencies: It is slow to act and less

responsive to constituencies compared with the private sector, they say. But some local city

governments are trying to change those perceptions, one citizen at a time.

That's one of the primary goals of Rosetta Lue, chief customer service officer for the city of

Philadelphia. Her philosophy is that local government should treat residents like customers to

operate in a transparent, responsive and flexible way.

Lue has ample experience in the private sector, after stints at American Express and USAA

Insurance, which helped shaped her vision for the city's own customer service project. They were

her training ground, she says, in making resident concerns paramount. Lue has brought the

importance of customer service and engagement to Philly 311, a multichannel initiative to

enable citizens to report nonemergency problems, such as wayward trash or graffiti, and to get

these issues addressed quickly.

With Philly 311, citizens can report incidents by phone, in person, or online with a PC or mobile

device. With the city’s cloud-based CRM and a custom-developed mobile app, residents can take

pictures and "geolocate" the problem on a PC or mobile device, then log a case in the city's

customer relationship management system and even track its resolution.

14 | P a g e

Lue traces her passion for customer service to her childhood experience growing up on St.

Croix, the tiny 70-square-mile island in the Caribbean that has developed a deep culture of

customer service given the importance of tourism to the island.

"That is some of my DNA when it comes to customer service," Lue said.

Lue sat down with SearchCRM to discuss her career and her philosophy about making customer

service central to business operations.

What brought you to the U.S. from St. Croix?

Lue: I went to Wayne State University. I thought I wanted to be a physician. I went right into

Detroit -- growing up in St. Croix, you see images of Detroit from the heyday, you know,

Motown. I couldn't wait to get there -- but when I did I was plopped down in an urban center that

was decaying. So then I moved to Florida.

What did growing up in St. Croix teach you that informs your career today?

A lot of the tourist meccas deal primarily in service. People won't come back if you don't treat

them well. You have to learn how to treat people and respect ethic.

What did you learn at American Express and USAA Insurance that you consider formative

in your work today?

American Express taught me not just about their products, but how to work with customers and

that they really valued that relationship. Then I went to the true training ground when it comes to

customer experience: at USAA. They are No. 1 or 2 in customer satisfaction. That is also true

from an employee standpoint. Very few are accepted to even work in the contact center. Phone

agents were all degreed when I worked there -- that is the caliber of employees that USAA can

attract. They also required four months of training before we could get on the floor to talk to

customers.

How did your experience at American Express and USAA help you in your role in

government?

It was the same technology, but the question was, "How can I get them to change their mind-set

that they are just a telephone operator?" Someone who is calling might have a question about

their bill, but they also may not be able to afford their bill. That person may need help. Take the

two minutes out to work with them on a payment plan, instead of, "I'm sorry, we're going to cut

you off." That's where you can begin to see more of a purpose, a connection with people and

public service.

When I joined Philly 311, I thought, "I can build a call center, that's pretty basic for me at this

point." But I wanted to be part of this project where it would be the first centralized contact

center in the city; I wanted to be part of that. It was supposed to last 1.5 years.

15 | P a g e

Six years later, though, I'm still here. I saw the mayor’s commitment to change the way the city

deals with its citizens. Before, to get something done, you used to have to know somebody who

knew somebody or navigate through like, 500 different phone numbers to get a simple question

answered. Access to information was very hard to get. We needed to standardize how

departments were delivering when residents call about a pothole to be fixed or trash to be picked

up so that we can respond to our customers efficiently.

We can bring the technology, the science and the best practices from the private sector and

couple that with listening to folks, creating programs that make a difference in their lives and

catering programs to their needs.

What still needs to be done?

Working directly with community leaders and regular folks that want to make a change in their

neighborhoods. We are trying to create more of an omnichannel-type experience, just like the

private sector.

The next steps are about, "What else can we do to have citizens participate?" When they aren't,

you are going to have problems. There is a cost associated with not improving local customer

service delivery. When you listen, you get a sense of knowing your neighborhood, being part of

the solution.

Do you see your role as helping to change the perception of government?

We're seeing a trend where there is a movement at the federal level to be more customer-centric

and focused.

We are all in the service industry. Service is king and we're all going after the same

customers. And consumers are now more informed: You can go online and become more

informed about products and services. So now when you call government and it says, "We can't

do that," consumers say, "What do you mean? I was just interacting with companies in the

private sector that can." It's no longer acceptable for government to say, "Too bad. It is what it is,

don't ask any questions." We have to become more transparent.

But government is stepping up to the plate. Things that happened 15 years ago in the private

sector are coming to government. But they are coming quickly. We're now in the cloud. We're

almost toe to toe in some areas. There is still a lot of bureaucracy in place, but hiring is changing

and government is going out to communities to adapt. We can't go backward.

19 Mar 2015

All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2000 - 2015, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Statement

16 | P a g e

http://www.argylejournal.com/customer-care/creating-a-connected-city-in-todays-ever-evolving-world/

In today’s society, how do you create a connected city?

There are multiple levels to creating a truly connected city. We are working through public private partnerships to

leverage technology and all available resources to make our services innovative, accessible, more efficient, and

adaptable based on customer needs.

Another element of a connected city is that city departments can talk to each other easily and effectively to provide

high quality service to our citizens. In our newly upgraded Customer Relationship Management solution, City

agencies are better able to work together, with real-time information updates, creating more accountability and

increasing the completion rate of service requests and customer satisfaction.

How have you expanded customer service into the community?

The design of our digital service platform is entirely based on our customers. In order to improve customer service

in the City of Philadelphia we identify and engage with our target audience, establish a strategic plan, listen to the

community’s feedback, and adjust our process accordingly.

In the same spirit, we have community engagement programs that operate in the community, like the Neighborhood

Liaison Program. The Neighborhood Liaison Program, a community empowerment program within Philly311, we

are able to encourage citizens to utilize 311’s services while educating them on how to get the most out of our

system they in turn share that information with their neighbors, family and friends. With this program, we can

connect influencers with each other through trainings and workshops. The Neighborhood Liaison program

empowers citizens with tools to interact with their government and get problems resolved.

“We are working through public private partnerships to leverage technology and all available resources to make our

services innovative, accessible, more efficient, and adaptable based on customer needs.”

When it comes to customer service initiatives, why it is important to have them?

In city government, we understand that the citizen is our customer, and using those terms as synonyms, have

reoriented our overall framework. The citizens’ customer experience expands beyond providing city services, it is

about how they feel from the time they submit a request to the time that request has been completed.

Customer experience is frequently lumped in with customer service; (though it is the foundation of it) customer

experience is the long game. Customer experience is the total experience, and every interaction the customer has

17 | P a g e

with the supplier. As a city contact center, customer experience becomes all encompassing. The citizen’s experience

often goes hand in hand with their experience with all city services and not just the call center itself. Every

improvement we make for our customer affects their quality of life.

What are important things to consider when building partnerships?

Especially with the implementation of the new customer management system, our partners have played a significant

role in helping us move towards our goals this year. Government has limited resources, which is why partnerships

are so important. When working with external organizations it is important to keep in mind that organizations

mission and goals and make sure it aligns with our own. We try to identify and respond to the needs of the groups

we work with and value its input in planning and decision-making.

For both partners and customers, we focus on transparency, efficiency and effectiveness – a top priority of Mayor

Nutter and his administration. It is an important aspect of why we want to provide the highest quality customer

experience possible.

“Customer experience is frequently lumped in with customer service; (though it is the foundation of it) customer

experience is the long game. “

How has the government effectively used social media in emergencies?

Every day we at Philly 311 have a duty to provide citizens with factual information and critical answers about City

services, but when the City is facing a crisis, the importance of that information is magnified. Citizens look to the

City for guidance, and we provide it. One of the most efficient ways to do this is through our social media channels.

One example is snow emergencies. During major snow events the contact center often remains open 24-7 to handle

in high call volume. 311 uses social media to answer frequently asked questions, providing citizens with relevant

information before they ask for it. We know the information citizens need during these types of emergencies, for

example, we have seen from experience that they want to know about parking, street cleaning, and trash collection.

This information is easy to share on our social media, and through our social media working groups we are able to

multiply the potential audience reached with this information by coordinating strategic and intentional messages so

citizens know how to react in these situations without submitting information requests.

Hurricane Sandy is another example of an emergency situation that we were able to respond to effectively. In

Philadelphia during Hurricane Sandy, public transportation was shut down, Philadelphia International airport

suspended flights, and all major highways were closed. At Philly311, we had a plan ahead of time. Working with

city departments, such as the Office of Emergency Management, we were able to collect data and stay up-to-date on

the progress of the storm. We established a strategy ahead of time and were prepared to deliver accurate information

through multiple channels, including our social media accounts.

Do you have any last thoughts that you would like to share?

One of our goals is to reach and engage our citizens on channels they are comfortable using. The Philly311 app

makes our services more accessible to diverse audiences. Research by the PEW Foundation and others, suggests that

many low income citizens do not have internet access in their home but do have internet on their smart phones. We

want everyone to be able to use 311, which is why we have so many channels, including the call-in and walk-in

centers for more tradition communications. We also provide language services in 17 different languages on the app,

which increases accessibility. We want to make sure that all citizens have positive and productive interactions with

local government.

18 | P a g e

Q&A: Philadelphia Chief Customer Service Officer Rosetta Carrington Lue on the city's

new 311 system upgrade February 24, 2015 | By Chris Nehls http://www.fiercecities.com/story/qa-philadelphia-chief-customer-service-officer-rosetta-carrington-lue-citys/2015-02-24

Last week, the city of Philadelphia announced the re-launch of its 311 municipal customer service system. The city

has operated a 311 call center since 2008, but recession-related budget limitations prevented it from upgrading its

data-gathering systems until recently. The new system uses a cloud-based computing platform that allows 311 call

center operators and city departments to share information and communicate directly about requests in real time.

The new customer relationship management system, or CRM, significantly upgrades Philadelphia's old keystroke-

intensive system and promises to improve the accuracy of data gathered from service requests.

Shortly after the announcement, FierceCities spoke with Rosetta Carrington Lue, who leads Philadelphia's 311

system as the city's first chief customer service officer, to discuss how the city is implementing the new CRM

technology and how it promises to improve her department's relationship with Philadelphians.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

FierceCities: You spent a year examining customer service across city departments. What did you learn along the

way?

Rosetta Carrington Lue: When we started in 2008 one of the things we found was there weren't a lot of

documented processes in these departments. Many times, it was like if there's an issue, go to Chris. And now

everything was in Chris' head about what to do. And Chris was about to retire as a city employee, so you found a lot

of reliance on people. Unless it was legislatively issued or some type of mandate a lot of the departmental processes

and policies were not in writing.

So we had to figure out a way to build trust with these departments to slowly let us work with those key knowledge

folks on types of calls that you don't want transferred to that department -- simple questions like what time are you

open, what do you do.

We started small because there was still a hesitancy because if you start taking my calls, what am I going to do?

That was part of the change management process: we had to explain to them why this was necessary.

In many cases, the customers were frustrated or upset because people [in the 311 call center] were getting all these

calls they couldn't handle. What the mayor wanted was for the departments to really concentrate on the more

complex calls and work-related issues, versus the first tier of ones like what time are you open.

It took a little while, but within that knowledge base that started at zero we have over 5,000 articles now. We have

over 100 knowledge base liaisons from the various departments. 311is not dictating what each department does. The

departments are still responsible for their content. We really just tell the citizens what the processes are.

FC: Was there a computerized system for 311 operators before this new arrangement with Unisys and Salesforce, or

is this replacing one that wasn't working?

RCL: Originally, when the mayor was rolling out the 311 plan the project was in three different phases: launch,

procurement of technology, and then continuous improvement. So we launched using a temporary application while

we were going to acquire a full-blown CRM.

But the recession happened and we had to fall back on that. We couldn't justify losing police officers, closing

libraries because we wanted a CRM.

19 | P a g e

The temporary fix lasted five years. It did what it needed to do. It just wasn't scalable.

FC: So what does this new system allow you to do to make up for those painful five years?

RCL: I think that painful five years gave us an opportunity to understand what we want and what we don't want. It

gave us an opportunity to see what the limitations were on the system and what the departmental needs were.

It gave us an opportunity to really build a good base. At least we could capture data with that old system. However,

it was too open, and the accuracy of the data was questionable. We had to go ahead and blow out a manual to fix

things.

Now, when we went out to procurement, we were able to work with 100 different stakeholders on lead gap analysis.

All of our stakeholders were involved in the process because they knew what 311 was about, they knew their

limitations, and they knew what they wanted. So that worked out really well.

When we went to procure a platform, it was a citywide effort, not just a 311 effort.

We also wanted to start looking at a cloud solution, something that was robust and leading the market because we

were also interested in what the private sector was doing to continue to improve their customer experience and bring

that into government.

FC: What does the cloud based system allow you to do that you like?

RCL: As the platform gets better, we instantly get the benefits of that without having to add additional technical

staff to our payroll, which was going to be the issue just six years ago.

What I like is the chatter tool. Agents can go online and talk to anyone anywhere and get files, see documents, see

cases. They can do that wherever they are, which is awesome. It improves efficiency and accuracy of the

information.

There are apps available. We didn't have to do a lot of customization to get something new and it can be done in a

short period of time. Again, we like that kind of agility because things change. Tomorrow, there could be another

snow storm and we need to add another type of service request. Nobody has the time to throw it over to OIT, have

somebody look at it and decide where in the priority it is. The storm will be gone by then. Now we can do that

within our own operation.

20 | P a g e

Philadelphia unveils enhanced 311 system at innovation summit Lauren Hertzler Feb 19, 2015, 8:56am EST

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2015/02/19/philadelphia-unveils-enhanced-311-system-120m-

set.html?page=all

The revamped Philly 311 was announced by Mayor Michael Nutter at the city’s first Citizen Engagement Innovation

Summit.

Imagine taking out your smartphone and with a few finger taps, you've successfully reported a

city issue — say, a fallen tree, dangerous-looking building or abandoned car. That's what

Philadelphia's revamped 311 system is all about.

Mayor Michael Nutter officially unveiled the city's newly enhanced 311 system at Philadelphia's

first Citizen Engagement Innovation Summit Wednesday. Philly311 is a customer service

platform for city dwellers looking to easily report non-emergency problems, like graffiti or

potholes, via a mobile application.

If not for the great recession, Nutter said, the "announcement probably would have been made a

couple years ago."

Here are some perks for users of the 311 system:

• Service requests can be tracked from start to finish.

• Users can see other citizens' nearby requests.

• Neighbors with mutual concerns can connect.

• It has GPS integrative mapping, so the public and city government can view service requests by

location.

• Data is easier to collect and analyze, allowing the city to address common needs of citizens and

change local policies.

• Relevant departments can access a citizen's request in real time, improving the city's own

internal communications.

The innovation summit was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and was hosted by

Salesforce and Unisys.

Salesforce and Unisys are behind the revamped 311, too. Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys was the IT

company the city contracted to implement the new platform, which is being powered by

Salesforce, a global cloud computing company.

21 | P a g e

The Philadelphia Business Journal wrote about Unisys' efforts to help revamp Philly311 last

summer, when it was still in its pilot process. The biggest changes that have been made since,

said Robert West, a Unisys vice president, have been "minor in concept." He mentioned

improvements that were made on the internal side — improving agent interaction for users of the

system.

This is Unisys' third city implementing a 311 system on the Salesforce platform. It has helped

develop similar systems in Hampton, Va., and Elgin, Ill, West said. Philadelphia is the largest

municipality Salesforce and Unisys have worked with in this capacity.

Philly311 first launched in late 2008, thanks to the efforts of Nutter, who hoped to make it easier

for people to connect with a more open local government.

Early in Nutter's tenure as mayor, he announced the city would put aside $120 million in capital

funding to invest in eight major innovation projects for technology infrastructure upgrades.

Nutter said the revamped Philly311 platform is one of the first of these major projects to be

completed.

Other speakers at the summit included Rosetta Lue, the city's chief customer service officer;Rich

Negrin, the city's managing director and deputy mayor; Adel Ebeid, the city's chief innovation

officer; and Vivek Kundra, a Salesforce executive and former federal chief information officer

under President Barack Obama. There was a hackathon for String Theory School students during

lunch, as well as a panel discussion and breakout sessions during the daylong summit, too.

22 | P a g e

Press Release on 311 Executive Leadership Council FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Cory Fleming, 311 Program Director, ICMA

October 9, 2014 cfleming@icma.org; 207-854-1083

NATIONAL 311 COUNCIL ANNOUNCES PLANS TO

CREATE BENCHMARKING TOOLS AND STANDARDS

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Leaders of large urban 311 contact centers throughout the United States

have announced plans to raise the profile of 311 and the need for excellence in government customer

service by focusing on the creation of new benchmarking tools and standards for the field.

The new group, known as the National 311 Executive Council, includes representatives from

Baltimore, Md.; the City and County of Denver, Colo.; Chicago, Ill.; Charlotte/Mecklenburg County,

N.C.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and New York, N.Y. (see page 3). Cory Fleming, 311/CRM program director

with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), serves as the group’s facilitator.

The group has adopted three projects for its first year.

Measuring the Customer Service-Citizen Engagement Experience—This project will

examine the customer service-citizen engagement experience to learn more about how

citizens prefer to interact with their local government. Research questions include: How do

we measure the customer service experience in an omni-channel environment? How do

hyper-engaged, engaged, and unengaged populations interact with local government thru

311? Which communication technologies work best with which populations?

Examining Customer Service Maturity Models—This project will look at the range of

customer service models that currently exist in North America and will identify features and

services that could be offered as a 311 center evolves over time. This project will create a

framework for beginner organizations to help them understand how to improve their

citizens’ customer service experience.

Creating a Research Database of Performance Management and Customer

Satisfaction Data—The Minneapolis 311 Comparative Survey has provided the industry

with a glimpse into what practices are in place in 311 centers across North America. The

project will take the next step and create a national research database for 311 centers to

learn about leading practices methodologies that have been adopted.

311 non-emergency systems allow citizens to access their local government for non-emergency

issues such as loss of water service, stray animals, and potholes. The City of Baltimore became the first

city to adopt the 311 number for handling non-emergency calls in 1996. As the field has matured over the

years, 311 centers have emerged as leaders and innovators in customer service, citizen engagement,

23 | P a g e

performance measurement and management, disaster response and recovery, and community/economic

development.

Joe Morrisroe, executive director of NYC311, noted, "This is an exciting opportunity to leverage

the success and collective experience of government customer service leaders across the country in

furthering our goal of delivering equity, equality, and opportunity for our constituents." Janice Quintana,

director of the CharMeck 311 Customer Contract Center said, “I am eager to join forces with innovative

leaders from across the country to share knowledge, advocate, and showcase the positive impacts the 311

industry has on local government and citizen engagement.”

Rosetta Carrington Lue, chief customer service officer and director of the Philly311 Customer

Contact Center, hosted the group’s first in-person meeting this summer. She observed, "The council is

made up of talented and creative city leaders. We have all developed innovative 311 services in our own

cities; now we are collaborating to improve the collective 311 experience across all cities. This group will

be transformative for the public sector customer

service industry by utilizing collaboration to explore, test, and innovate to exceed our customer's

experience and service delivery performance.”

About ICMA

ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, advances professional local government worldwide.

The organization’s mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional

management to build sustainable communities that improve people’s lives. ICMA provides member support;

publications; data and information; peer and results-oriented assistance; and training and professional development

to nearly 9,300 appointed city, town, and county leaders and other individuals and organizations throughout the

world. The management decisions made by ICMA's members affect millions of individuals living in thousands of

communities throughout the world, from small villages and towns to large metropolitan areas.

# # #

NATIONAL 311 EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS

Lisa Allen

Call Center Director

City of Baltimore

Rosetta Carrington Lue

Philly311 Executive Director &

Chief Customer Service Officer

City of Philadelphia

Audrey Mathis

Director, 311 City Services

City of Chicago

Mike Major

Director, 311 Operations

City and County of Denver

Joe Morrisroe

Executive Director, NYC311

New York City

Janice Quintana,

Director CharMeck 311

Charlotte/Mecklenburg County

ICMA • 777 North Capitol Street NE, Suite 500 • Washington, DC 20002 •

24 | P a g e

202/289-ICMA • FAX 202/962-3500 • http://icma.org

Major Cities Announce Formation of National 311 Executive Council Michael Grass October 9, 2014 http://www.govexec.com/state-local/2014/10/national-311-executive-council/96188/

The National 311 Executive Council includes representatives from Philadelphia.

A coalition of 311 contact centers from large U.S. urban areas has announced the formation of

the National 311 Executive Council, a group that will aim to raise the profile of 311 systems, set

standards and create new tools.

Cory Fleming, the 311/customer relationship management director for the International

City/County Management Association, will serve as the point person for the group, which

includes representatives from 311 systems in Baltimore, Charlotte, Denver, New York City and

Philadelphia.

The National 311 Executive Council has three projects for its first year, according to its

announcement, released Thursday:

Measuring the Customer Service-Citizen Engagement Experience—This project will

examine the customer service-citizen engagement experience to learn more about how

citizens prefer to interact with their local government. Research questions include: How do

we measure the customer service experience in an omni-channel environment? How do

hyper-engaged, engaged, and unengaged populations interact with local government thru

311? Which communication technologies work best with which populations?

Examining Customer Service Maturity Models—This project will look at the range of

customer service models that currently exist in North America and will identify features and

services that could be offered as a 311 center evolves over time. This project will create a

framework for beginner organizations to help them understand how to improve their

citizens’ customer service experience.

Creating a Research Database of Performance Management and Customer Satisfaction

Data—The Minneapolis 311 Comparative Survey has provided the industry with a glimpse

into what practices are in place in 311 centers across North America. The project will take

the next step and create a national research database for 311 centers to learn about

leading practices methodologies that have been adopted.

In 1996, the city of Baltimore was the first U.S. city to use 311 as its non-emergency contact

number and since then, 311 contact centers have popped up in cities around the nation.

"This is an exciting opportunity to leverage the success and collective experience of government

customer service leaders across the country in furthering our goal of delivering equity, equality,

25 | P a g e

and opportunity for our constituents," NYC311 Executive Director Joe Morrisroe said in the

announcement.

BY JASON SHUEH / OCTOBER 30, 2014

Rosetta Carrington Lue, executive director of Philadelphia's citizen service

program, Philly 311, speaks in a city video about the benefits to citizens.

With the rise of digital, cities are pressed to answer demand for

high citizen engagement with minimal — or preferably no —

face-to-face involvement. The typical tool for this kind of

automation has been 311, the nationally established speed dial

number for non-emergency service calls. Since it was officially

designated in 1996, cities have employed 311 in the form of

citizen call centers and more recently, mobile apps that can do

everything from report potholes to facilitate chat sessions with city staff.

Now, officials seek to add a more formal structure to the budding service. In October, New York

City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Baltimore and Charlotte, N.C., and Mecklenburg County,

N.C., announced a partnership christened as the National 311 Executive Council. The seven-

jurisdiction collaboration is positioned as a repository for 311 data, best practices, standards and

policies.

As 311 program director at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA),

Cory Fleming is the group’s facilitator. Fleming and the ICMA took a consulting role in the

group largely for research on 311 best practices that analyzed hundreds of customer service

centers and 311 programs from 2006 to 2011. The partnership is expected to further similar

research.

"This group represents some of the largest 311 centers in the country,” Fleming said. "The

reason they came together is because 311 doesn't have any kind of central repository for all of

the information collected. So what they're wanting to do is set about creating some standards and

develop some research that shows the return on investment and cost benefit analysis that's

associated with 311 centers."

26 | P a g e

For its first year, four projects are pinned down. The first centers on metrics and is a run to scout

311 programs for comparative measurements of citizen service. The second — a hunt for new

311 offerings — weighs compatible customer service models that enable innovative new tools

and functions. And the third project, a data repository, attempts to engineer a research database

for 311 centers nationwide, emphasizing education and front-running practices.

"The intent is to finish the projects and have new material to release throughout the year,“

Fleming said. She added that additional funding may be required, which might delay progress.

Rosetta Carrington Lue, executive director of Philly 311, hosted the group’s first in-person

meeting this summer and said, based on her experience, and the growth of 311, she sees the

collaborative endeavor as pioneering. In Philadelphia alone, Lue said the city averages more than

1.5 million 311 requests each year. And these, through the city’s app and call center, represent

valuable data sets that amplify leadership's understanding of specific city geographies and

demographics.

“The data that’s collected now allows us to say ‘Here are the issues, here are the questions and

here are the changes that we need to make in regard to our response to targeted

[neighborhoods],” Lue said.

Should the partnership supercharge 311 initiatives nationally, insights and benefits are likely to

be found in the process — especially through apps and government tech. In Chicago, for

example, city officials have used analytics to take 311 requests for sanitation problems and turn

them into one-week forecasts for rat infestations. Similarly Lue has said that just by looking at

numbers, the city knows 80 percent of requests are informational and only 20 percent stem from

quality of life issues (things like potholes, graffiti, abandoned cars and trash collection

problems).

In the near future, such data-driven 311 systems are foreseeable as cities confront problems in

population growth and outcries for expanded service. Philadelphia itself expects its 1.5 million

calls to grow significantly — to about 5 million — in the next few years. To compensate,

technology and innovative service delivery are likely to become the norm.

“You can either be proactive ... and join the conversation or stay on the sidelines,” Lue said.

"We're finding that in a lot of the public sector they don't have that option of staying on the

outside looking in. You want to help drive the conversation.”

Fleming said the 311 council will continue to add projects gradually based on progress. She

believes momentum will only increase, comparing the 311 movement to the emergence of 911

systems during the 70s and 80s.

“I think this group is particularly important," Fleming said, "because they're trying to take a big

picture approach, looking at this from the industry standpoint and asking 'What does it take to

make the industry grow?'"

27 | P a g e

Philadelphia 311 Service Calls For Help Elena Malykhina

4/29/2014, 9:06am http://www.informationweek.com/government/leadership/philadelphia-311-service-

calls-for-help/d/d-id/1234858

Philadelphia's 311 contact center gets help from nonprofit to implement customer

satisfaction surveys that improve non-emergency customer service.

Faced with a limited technology budget, but a need to improve the customer experience

at its 311 non-emergency contact center, the City of Philadelphia did what many cities

are trying: using data collection more intelligently and turning to partnerships outside the

public sector.

Philadelphia's 311 contact center serves more than 1.5 million residents, businesses, and

visitors seeking city-related services and information, according to the Philadelphia's

deputy managing director Rosetta Carrington Lue.

One of Lue's responsibilities is serving as chief customer service officer, which led her to

implement the city's Customer Service Support Plan, a performance-based initiative

centered on improved customer service and responsiveness. At the heart of that initiative

is the city's contact center, which needed a better way of collecting feedback from callers

and coaching its employees to improve customer experience with each transaction.

"One challenge faced by many contact centers is staffing limitations to handle the volume

of incoming customer traffic. There are barely enough employees to operate phones, let

alone work on meeting or exceeding the organizational customer satisfaction

performance goals," Lue said in a blog post on DigitalGov, a site managed by the General

Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies.

"We needed to find innovative solutions to effectively collect, and manage, accurate and

real-time customer experience responses," she says.

Lue and her team turned to the private sector by partnering with a Fortune 500 company,

which helped the city develop a customer satisfaction survey pro bono. The team also

collaborated with a local non-profit organization for surveying and data-entry staffing

support. As part of its Work Experience programs, the non-profit equipped the contact

28 | P a g e

center with workers for up to 20 hours a week for a period of time or until they find

employment.

The Work Experience employees receive formal training necessary to become familiar

with the center's data collection processes. They are the ones who administer customer

satisfaction surveys on the phone to callers who have agreed to participate. The workers

then enter the results into a centralized database.

"Overall, our ability to gather customer satisfaction data has been instrumental in our

growth as our city's customer service center. The data has improved our technology and

business processes, external communication, and service offerings as we continue to

strive for customer service excellence," says Lue.

The City of Philadelphia continues to use Work Experience programs to collect customer

satisfaction surveys. Lue says the initiative also has been expanded to include social

media data mining, where select agents monitor social media to see what the public is

saying, such as which services they'd like to see offered or improved.

29 | P a g e

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2465580/philadelphia-uses-salesforcecom-for-upgraded-311-

system.html

Philadelphia is set to use a slew of Salesforce.com technologies in order to create a next-

generation version of its 311 system for public information and citizen reporting of

nonemergency situations around the city.

A pilot project is underway, with a full rollout expected in mid-December, said Rosetta Lue,

deputy managing director and chief customer service officer for Philadelphia, in an interview

Thursday.

The city’s original 311 system gives residents the ability to report on problems, such as a trash

pile or an abandoned car, and request that action be taken. The proper department is alerted to

the issue and a ticket is created. The site provides updates on ticket status, such as “received” or

closed.” It’s also possible for a resident to track a ticket by its number.

Philadelphia has hired systems integrator Unisys to develop the Salesforce.com-based 311

system, which takes the original’s general idea and expands upon it greatly. When complete,

there will be more than 70 types of service requests available in the system, according to a

statement.

Philadelphia is “very big into customer engagement,” Lue said. “We also want to push

information out, rather than just pull information in.”

The system will provide a number of major improvements, she said. For example, residents who

submit requests for service will be able to identify problems based on nearby landmarks, rather

than having to provide an exact address.

30 | P a g e

There’s also an intent to give residents a clearer sense of what’s happening with a given ticket, as

well as what actions were taken to resolve a problem, she said. The system will allow residents

to opt-in to receive notifications regarding a ticket on their mobile devices.

Also, while Philadelphia already has a presence on social media channels, Salesforce.com’s

technology will give the city the ability to ingest social data and then analyze it to spot

conversations related to municipal service delivery and take actions based on what they find, she

said.

The move to Salesforce.com will also involve new community portals geared toward specific

neighborhoods, where residents can discuss safety and beautification issues, organize volunteer

efforts and share their knowledge.

“Now they can talk to each other and say, we have a lot of trash in our alley we would like to

clean on Saturday,” Lue said. “Are you interested?”

Philadelphia has more than 1,000 community advocates, who Lue expects will help seed interest

in the community portals. Broad participation by residents is critical to this piece of the project’s

success, she said. “It’s not about the city and us pushing our agenda,” she said. “It’s their

neighborhood and they know what works.”

One thing Philadelphia won’t be using Salesforce.com for, at least for now, is a mobile

application for the new 311 system. An existing application developed by another vendor will be

integrated with Salesforce.com. The application provides support for 17 languages, which is

hugely valuable, and Salesforce.com’s API (application-programming-interface) capabilities will

make it fairly easy to connect it into the core platform, she said.

31 | P a g e

32 | P a g e

Rosetta Lue http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/print-

edition/2013/11/15/rosetta-lue.html Nov 15, 2013, 6:00am EST

Why she’s a Woman of Distinction:

Rosetta Carrington Lue joined MayorMichael Nutter’s

administration in 2008. Working often over 12 hour

days, she lead the construction of a 24-hour

operation, instantly putting the Philadelphia at the

forefront of emerging trends and ways to better serve

citizens. Among other accomplishments, she had

great success in inaugurating Philadelphia’s 311

non-emergency contact center. As a result of her

efforts, Philly311 is a multichannel, technology-driven

contact center, allowing citizens to communicate with

the city government through phone, email, a walk-in

center, website, letters and social media. Since the

end of 2008, Philly311 has received an average of

1.2 million calls each year, posting a 96 percent

customer satisfaction rating.

Nominator comment:

33 | P a g e

“As a leader, Rosetta is quick to recognize leadership qualities in others and constantly seeks

professional development opportunities for her staff ... I have come to know her as an unselfish

woman overflowing with brilliance. With a sincere and abiding concern for her staff, co-workers, our

city and women throughout the tri-state region, Rosetta is a fine

leader.”

Rosetta Carrington Lue

Chief customer service officer

City of Philadelphia Managing Directors Office

Philadelphia

www.phila.gov

The Big Vision Awards 2012

By Theresa Everline

Published: 12/11/2012 http://issuu.com/phillycp/docs/cp_2012-12-13

It all starts with an idea — for

something new or different or

even revolutionary. It’s that “We

could do this, couldn’t we?”

moment that epitomizes the spirit

we’re celebrating with our Big

Vision Awards. For the fourth

year, we’re giving an enthusiastic newsprint (and online) shout-out to a handful of Philadelphians

who have shown themselves able to come up with innovative, out-of-the-box ideas and make them a reality.

These six Big Vision Award winners and 18 honorable mentions are an eclectic crew who have

shaken up the realms of government, arts, activism, food and more. Some have recently burst onto

the scene. Others have been around much longer but made a notable impact this year. For example,

our sustainability and design winner, Onion Flats, a design/build construction firm, was founded

back in 1997. From the start, it has had somewhat unorthodox goals, including making architecture

less theoretical and more hands-on. It has launched an arm of the company specifically to design

green roofs and solar systems. But this year Onion Flats built the first super-energy-efficient passive

34 | P a g e

house in Pennsylvania, working with a nonprofit that helps people transition out of homelessness.

That’s the kind of idea that deserves major accolades.

To arrive at our winners and runners-up, nominations were made by City Paper staff and

contributors, and then voted on by the editorial board. There were a lot of worthy candidates to

choose from, which just goes to show how much creativity and ambition swirls through this city.

BIG VISION NOMINATING COMMITTEE

A.D. Amorosi, Meg Augustin, Jake Blumgart, Daniel Denvir, Adam Erace, Theresa Everline,

Christian Graham, Emily Guendelsberger, Catherine Haas, Gary M. Kramer, Drew Lazor, Natalie

Hope McDonald, Samantha Melamed, Josh Middleton, Patrick Rapa, Caroline Russock, Brion Shreffler, David Spelman, Carly Szkaradnik, Isaiah Thompson, John Vettese, Andrew Wimer

35 | P a g e

36 | P a g e

Philly311 TV – Day in the Life – Rosetta Lue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPkPnuaOSNw

“No problem.

Whatever the

issue is, we

got you.” –

Rosetta Lue