Customer care details 311 and utility-billing operations; proposes $200,000 Salesforce CRM migration

Customer care leadership presented FY27 priorities for the city’s customer service, utility billing and newly centralized solid‑waste customer support. The department said it processed nearly 6,000 new accounts through April, handled more than 32,000 utility office calls year‑to‑date, recorded about 16,000 first‑call resolutions through the 311 team and coordinated roughly 25,000 service requests citywide.

Staff proposed two new positions for FY27 — a community solutions specialist (311/TTX connect agent) and a utility billing coordinator — to manage growth in accounts and service volumes. The call center reported 95% first‑call resolution in many cases and noted that agent‑handled interactions still outnumber self‑service app usage, although app adoption is growing.

To improve integration and reduce vendor dependence, staff proposed migrating the existing portal and app onto the city’s Salesforce CRM with a one‑time implementation and first‑year support cost staff described as approximately $200,000 and year‑to‑year support at a much lower rate. Staff said the current vendor charges about $6,000 per month and that a new implementation partner would reduce annual support costs once the migration is complete.

Councilmembers asked about the app’s return on investment and whether current use justifies the one‑time migration cost; staff said marketing and steady usage growth would improve the payback and noted a projected break‑even timeframe under current estimates.