The government of Jinzhong City, north China's Shanxi Province, is now capable of working actively to settle the potential public service concerns of its residents thanks to an intelligent system that helps analyze past complaints and provide guidance for officials to coordinate works of different departments.
In Jinzhong City's 12345 Government Service Hotline Center, more than 150 operators answer phone calls around the clock every day throughout the year, and winter typically sees an increase in complaints on the city's heating supply.
"It’s the season for heating supply complaints. Recently, we’ve received more than 100 complaints a day on average. For example, we had about 130 to 140 complaints daily over the recent period," said Li Meijuan, an operator.
But this winter, the situation improves. Liu Xiaofeng, head of the hotline center, said complaints about the heating supply have dropped nearly 60 percent compared with the same period last year.
The change is credited to the implementation of an intelligent system which helps address issues before complaint arises.
The intelligent system works to analyze the telephone inquiry data collected so far this year and by comparing it with the previous data the system can show what issues are likely to arise in the future, thus enabling the implementation of proactive measures.
Officials can also monitor and supervise issue resolution processes in real-time through a mobile program.
"The system's analysis revealed that heating supply was the most common complaint last year. We timely contacted community workers, the Urban Management and Law Enforcement Department, and the Urban Services Department. We sit together and analyzed the problems we had last year. Last year, the main heating pipe in our city was overloaded with pressure, causing days of heating outage. This was the biggest concern of our residents. To avoid similar outages, in August, the city launched extensive repairs on the critical and the weak sections of the heating pipes, a measure that helped reduce the complaint rate," said Liu.
For critical services like heating, gas, and water supply, the hotline center arranged special operators to speak to suppliers directly for a quick response and many residents were satisfied with the timely problem handling.
""The temperature in my house was around 15 degrees Celsius, so I called the hotline center and the heating suppliers soon arrived and repaired the leaking pipes. The handling was very efficient and my house soon warmed up," said Wang Chunsheng, a resident.
Liu said the center continues refining its working mechanism and improving its services with a clear timetable being set to address complained issues.
"Complained issues should be addressed within 12 hours with follow-up calls being made to gather the opinions of the callers and to ensure the issues are fully settled," said Liu.
Big data helps service hotline in north China city timely address residents' concerns
