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Here are top 5 reasons residents called Newmarket's customer service line

The Town of Newmarket department noted new online trends as a result of its pandemic pivots, including a skyrocketing increase in marriage licence booking inquiries
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If you had to hazard a guess, what do you think is the most common complaint heard by Town of Newmarket staff through customer service calls?

The top five service issues in 2020 were requests for parking enforcement (1,167 calls), property standard complaints (705), COVID-19 inquiries (682), curb stop repair for the water department (266) and sidewalk snow removal/sod repair (260).

As part of Monday’s council meeting, staff presented strides made in customer service through 2020, and addressed how the pandemic has caused a pivot within the department to better serve Newmarket residents.

“There is a lot of (new) activity related to online services. Forms we used to have to email out to a resident are now being put online, whether it be marriage licences or the purchase of a garbage tag,” Bonnie Munslow, manager of corporate customer services, told councillors. “There are a multitude of services that are being pushed to the website. The pandemic has forced and enabled us to do these things a lot more quickly than we thought.”

In 2020, the customer service centre received 81,288 calls, while the customer service kiosks (at the Magna Centre, Ray Twinney Recreation Complex and Seniors' Meeting Place) received 69,898 contacts. This is a marked decrease from 2019, where the centre received 90,935 calls and the kiosks received 250,272 requests.

The decrease at the kiosks was attributed largely to the pandemic, as the kiosks were closed to the public at different points in 2020. Munslow attributed the slight decrease in the centre calls to the increase in available online supports.

In 2020, marriage licence booking inquiries skyrocketed, with staff noting they dealt with 748 booking inquiries compared to 446 the previous year. However, Munslow clarified the numbers may be skewed as due to COVID-19 restrictions, the process to apply was changed in 2020 and more appointments were required per licence to ensure social distancing could be enforced. In 2019, 414 licences were issued in Newmarket, whereas in 2020, 153 were issued.

Jamie Boyle, supervisor of customer service kiosks, talked about a partnership between the town and Seneca College where town staff are creating workshops for Seneca’s curriculum focusing on best practices in municipal service delivery.

“These workshops were very successful,” said Boyle. “They...were developed internally and provide additional revenue to the Town of Newmarket.”

In 2020, Boyle said just under 90 per cent of customer service contacts were by phone, while 8.8 per cent of contacts were via email.

“Our email volumes in 2020 were higher than they have been in previous years,” he said.

All councillors acknowledged the work of customer services staff throughout the pandemic.

“The dedication to customer service is such a long tradition here but is so clearly obvious to the point where we’re... training and certifying staff in other municipalities,” said Mayor John Taylor.

Council voted unanimously to receive the presentation.


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Jessica Owen

About the Author: Jessica Owen

Jessica Owen is an experienced journalist working for Village Media since 2018, primarily covering Collingwood and education.
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