Smitherman wants customer service improved, PronTO
admin | Friday, June 4th, 2010 | No Comments »
Librarians would serve as model
Toronto public librarians would be the new model for customer service at the City of Toronto if George Smitherman is elected mayor.
“I’ve heard many compliments about our libraries and the helpfulness of librarians,” Smitherman told a lunch meeting of the Toronto Rotary Club. “We want other areas of the city to emulate that.” Smitherman used the speech to unveil his plan to improve customer service, which he dubbed PronTO. Under the plan, Smitherman said all levels of the bureaucracy would receive special training in how to make Torontonians’ interactions with the city easier and more effective.
“All areas would be expected to change the way they think about service,” he said. “We all live busy lives and it’s important.”
The plan would also see the hours of operation for city services increase to an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. model offered by financial institutions.
“On a practical level it’s about helping the civic government to make a big attitude adjustment to find ways to be more responsive to the needs of constituents,” he said. “311 is a good step as a foundation for that – I’ve heard good feedback. But lots of challenging situations occur when people go to the building or planning department. Well if people are willing to make investment in their home we need to be more responsive.”
Smitherman suggested cost implications of the plan would tend to balance out.
“PronTO may have some financial implications. Some will be new costs. Some will be cost savings. If you have the same numbers of employees, but spread them out through the day they require less space. There may be incremental costs, but incremental savings as well. We’ll roll any additional costs into a fiscal plan,” he said.
- David Nickle
