By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commission spent 20 minutes on Monday, March 17, discussing possible changes to the telephone system after Commissioner Alison Hamilton wanted to prevent people from calling the county clerk’s office unnecessarily.
The homepage of the county’s website, www.linncountyks.com , has only the clerk’s office phone number at the bottom of the page. The clerk’s office number is also the only number on the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/linncoks , which the clerk’s office hosts.
However, the directory on the county’s website has the phone number of each department but only after clicking on that department’s page. Printed telephone directories for the area have the numbers of the major departments listed alphabetically with the appraiser’s office at the top of the list.
Hamilton had asked the Information Technology Director Chris Martin to bring in the number of calls each department received and bring that information to the commission meeting.
Martin provided a list of the numbers called most frequently over a 30 day period. Top on the list was the sheriff’s office with 1,755 calls, followed by the treasurer’s office with 521, Department of Motor Vehicles with 502, district court with 456, and the clerk’s offie with 414.
Other departments receiving the most calls in descending order included a second sheriff’s office line (288), Planning and Zoning Department (211), the Linn County Park Marina, the county attorney’s office, the county health department (176), register of deeds (174), transportation scheduling for seniors (167), court services (139), Appraiser’s personal property number (114) and the Public Works Department (105).
Hamilton said she wanted to set up automated menu lists on the phones around the county so that the county Clerk’s Office does not have to answer all the calls for the county.
Under Hamilton’s plan, calls would go to an automated system that lists the different offices and the caller could choose the office they want. However, there are nearly three dozen departments, not including several fax lines.
Commissioner Jason Hightower questioned whether this would really save time, because if the caller did not choose an option it would still go to the clerk’s office or another possibility is that the person would choose the wrong option and that could eventually end up at the clerk’s office.
Hamilton wanted to go over the number of calls to each department and develop a flow chart so that certain offices could be set up under one number that was answered with an automated menu list. An example would be if person called one number set up for the courthouse, possibly the county clerk number, an automated menu would have the caller pick the option he or she wanted.
However, callers may not be aware what offices were listed under the courthouse main number and what offices would be listed under the courthouse annex, like public works.
Martin suggested that, to be caller friendly, to not make people who call the clerk’s office wait to go through the whole list if they want the clerk’s office. An option could be added that says to stay on the line if they want to speak to the clerk’s office or press one if they would like the menu for other offices.
County Clerk Danielle Souza suggested, “On the home page of the website maybe listing a couple different of those key persons (numbers), you know, clerk’s office at our normal number, treasurer, DMV. Those are the high traffic ones, and if people could easily have access to those phone numbers instead of having to call (the main number).”
Souza then said that she was getting messages from the treasurer’s office that they want their calls coming straight to them. That they do not want to be part of an extension phone messaging system.
Souza said, “Or we could change nothing and then just increase the compensation for my team of girls for answering the phones and feeling that doing a receptionist type job by a few cents an hour. Not that I’m trying to promote my team getting a raise that’s just where the calls are filtered to.”
The conclusion of the discussion is that Hamilton is going to develop a list with what departments could be combined under certain numbers.
The following are excerpts from the conversation about changing the phone system. To listen to more of the conversation go the the video stream of the commission meeting at YouTube.com and then put in Linn County Live Stream.
Hamilton told Martin and the other commissioners that they needed to go over how many calls are coming into each line to see if they wanted to do something different with the system.
Commissioner Jason Hightower asked Hamilton what she was trying to fix.
Hamilton said that she was wanting to have an automated response to callers. She asked, “How many phone numbers do we have again?”
Hightower answered 30 some for all the departments.
“As a county that’s a lot of numbers,” said Hamilton. “I am confused just looking at it. It’s costing us money, right?”
Martin said that the way the system is set up it wouldn’t cost anymore if they had 50 numbers set up.
Commission Chair Jim Johnson asked if the county paid for the fair board phone line for just 12 calls for 12 months out of the year.
“No. Once again, the way our phone system is we don’t pay by the phone or by the line,” Martin explained, “we pay by just the number of voice channels. With the fair board the phone doesn’t cost us anything.
“The phone number doesn’t cost. In fact I believe that number is forwarded to a cell phone. So when they call there it’s actually going somewhere else it’s actually going to somebody’s cellphone.”
Martin told the commissioners that the county does not pay for the phone lines in a traditional sense.
“Where it used to be if I had 10 phone lines and I paid $30 for each line.” Martin explained. “We pay for what are called voice channels. We have 30 for the entire operation.
“And then the clerk’s office actually takes that actual cost per month and divides it by the number of departments and it comes out to, oh, it’s not much. Somewhere between, I think it’s $11 and $15 per month.”
Hamilton confirmed that she had seen the cost and it was $13 per month.
Hamilton asked, “Jason, are you okay with the way it is set up?”
Hightower answered, “I’m not saying that. I’m just saying what’s the problem and how do we fix it?”
“That’s my question too,” said Johnson.
“What is the problem? Is it we’re getting too many calls from the website to the clerk’s office?” asked Hightower.
Hamilton answered, “I would say that’s maybe one of the problems.”
Hightower asked, “If we put everybody in the courthouse on the same phone number, we give a list of menu options for them to go to their deal. If they don’t pick an option or they pick the wrong option then it’s ringing to where? Then it rings to the clerk’s office anyway now we’ve got a full-time receptionist.”
Hamilton proposed having callers dial one number and then choose from a menu of several numbers for the departments that get the most calls.
Hamilton said, “I think is should be under a number. I do, but your question was what if they call the treasurer’s office? They’re still the receptionist. I thought that’s what you were saying.”
Hightower continued, “What I am saying is if they don’t pick their menu item where does it go then and are we creating more volume of calls going to a certain department based off of just calling the courthouse?”
Johnson said, “Well you’ll get more calls to the clerk if you base it off the clerk and the default goes to the clerk. The clerk is the one that is going to end up with more calls.”
Hamilton explained, “So if you are on our website like right now you are looking at the website and you want to call someone at Linn County, the phone number goes to the clerk’s office. So let’s say you call that number that number would give you that department. You’d have five options or six or whatever it is and if they click there then they are going to transfer that to that department but if that isn’t who they wanted to get a hold of yes the clerk would take that call. It would go to their receptionist. I mean each office is their own receptionist. It’s like they all have one.”
“So I feel like it would help alleviate some of the work you guys are having to do if all the numbers stay the same. People still are just googling down the first number they see they call it. It’s not like they’re really looking at it and trying to find the right department. We have a very confusing website and you can’t find much so I feel like the phone number situation is just one thing we can do to help alleviate the confusion on who we’re trying to call.”
Hightower asked, “What are you proposing?”
Hamilton answered, “I guess we need to go back through and every one of these numbers needs to be put in a category like if it’s the courthouse.”
Hamilton said she would just develop a flow chart and get back with the commission next week.
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