Indianapolis -> Indiana -> India
If you’ve tried to get a hold of someone at the Mayor’s Action Center, you probably have had an issue or two. Wait times have been ridiculously long, if you get to someone at all. The Ballard administration is looking at privatizing the MAC line. A decision hasn’t been made yet, but they have received requests for proposals.I’m going to go one step further. Not only should the call center be privatized, but outsourced to India. As a taxpayer I could care less who is on the other side of the line as long as they do two things.
- Take my complaint and get it to where it needs to be.
- Save me money.
If they can accomplish that, who cares if the call center is in Indianapolis, somewhere in Indiana or in India. The job of government is not to employ people, but to provide services at the most efficient costs. As long as it does that, who cares who answers the phone.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:59 am
I agree about providing services, but (BUT!!) why would we* not want our tax dollars spent on a service that would also provide employment to our citizens who also pay taxes? Not to mention, how do you explain to someone 3,000 miles away that the stop light at 71st and Keystone is out? C’mon Abdul….
August 13th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I agree with Abdul, the situation is as broken as the BMV used to be. But it goes much farther than MAC, when I send in zoning violations, inoperable vehicles, etc, and the DMD does nothing about them, that’s not on MAC. That’s DMD being lazy – several times they’ve closed the case without fixing obviuos issues.
(Pardon the threadjack but why does a 32 oz pop cost $5 at the State Fair ? Five bucks ? That’s more than at the movie theatres.)
August 13th, 2008 at 8:16 am
A couple of things are obvious about the MAC. Number 1, there is seldom any action (especially under the Peterson era) and Number 2, you won’t hear from the Mayor.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Man, the Peterson bashing never stops here. Get over it folks.
I have called the MAC several times recently regarding abandoned cars in my neighborhood. The cars were removed within a week.
I’m no Ballard fan, but it worked.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I’ve taken a tour of the MAC, right after Ballard won, but the Peterson folks were still in charge. (I assume that has somewhat changed.) They said the first mistake was to name it the “Mayor’s” Action Center as it politicizes the whole program which I agree with. The second problem is dimwits call constantly about the dumbest problems and take up a lot of time and attention away from more serious calls and problems. The number of calls they receive were staggering and their methods of tracking the calls were fairly sophisticated, but once it goes on to the department responsible for the problem, they have no way of knowing if it was taken care of or not.
I also agree with privatization and believe there should be consolidation. There are at least three other fairly large and separate call centers that they could consolidate into one with big savings. I don’t know if Abdul was looking for humor with the India idea, but these people make minimum wage and many are older and/or the only head of household. Many have worked there for years and turnover is very low.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I don’t care about privatization, but going to India would pretty much make the center much worse. For starters, people would likely just avoid using it since the language barrier usually sucks and is a pain to work through. If someone called me and said they wanted to report a “pothole”, “chuckhole”, or “crater on the road in front of my house,” I pretty much understand what they are saying. Will the Indians understand? If someone calls up saying they want to report someone “slinging rock,” will the Indian call taker have a vision of someone throwing rocks, or someone one selling drugs?
I personally wouldn’t mind them just shutting down the call center as is. Instead, just have an automated computer offer choices to direct the calls: Street issue, press 1. Crime issue, press 2. Etc. etc.. Then those calls would be transfered to someone in the actual department that might be a little more knowledgeable about the issue.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:42 am
John Doe – I agree with your Indian take on the issue. However, the MAC already has an automated service (dial one, dial two) when you first call to weed out the easy and mindless answers. The MAC employees are trained to answer all of the questions regarding problems in different departments, and trying to just forward those calls directly to the specific departments would just lead to an extra burden and more employees for each department. I’m not sure there would be any savings there, possibly more expense.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Holy smokes, Abdul. You’re killin’ me. This idea of benefiting by saving money now as a result of outsourcing will ultimately remove the economic results of the job from the US economic cycle. Todays savings transcend into tomorrows inability to cycle your dollars back into any contribution within the US market.
.
It’s not the same as a corporation who outsources to a domestic contractor or service firm, where the cost of business provides an economic return that stimulates US jobs and helps to grow local, regional, and national markets. Outsourcing across borders is essentially a funnel. Our dollars leave and become a net gain for a foreign economy. And a net loss for the US economy.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I don’t know. I think if you’re calling the Mayor’s Action Line it might be helpful for the person taking the call to have a cursory knowledge of your city and its geography.
And this would be an unrecoverable political mistake and wayyyy too much fodder for the other side to attack.
From a libertarian perspective, source it to the most capable and cost-effective provider. From a pragmatic and political perspective, keep it in town.
The process should be set up though so that whoever has called is updated that their complaint/request has indeed been forwarded to the responsible agency who must then take action.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Sounds like a “Tier 1″ call center. The recepient has a canned list of questions & methods for figuring our where to refer the problem for action. If an emergency, it’s transferred to whomever owns that, 7 x 24. Geographically-savy locally and methodically trained sound like legit concerns or it won’t fly. I wish we’d privatize locally or within state. Same mentality as buying local produce, buying American vs Chinese when possible, etc. Except for short-term city budget concerns, if your family & your grocery store are affected by your job loss, why wouldn’t somebody elses? This begs the same question I have of school districts: What’s your headcount, salary, and benefits relative to what you’re doing & customers served relative to a comparable?
August 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Hey Abdul please add speaking English to your list! I deal with numerous bank centers that are in India and there is a real problem with them understanding me and me understanding them.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Just a small trivial clarification taxpayer, the calls are not forwarded to any one. The MAC employees enter each request into the computer and those requests are sent digitally (via computer) to the corresponding departments. Their software was big bucks, and not sure if they can transfer licenses to a private corp or what, and if the private companies would be willing to invest in the software and still be competitive. I’d be all about seeing some RFQs and quotes from private coprorations, but with the relatively small number of employees making little money (I used to make more as a telemarketer in high school) – not sure what the cost savings would be if we did privatize, if any savings.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Pardon. I was trying to initially describe the situation as it might be handled by a business or private firm.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Abdul,
There you go again – confusing us with fact and logic.
Now,even worse, you contemplate breaking a government employee’s rice bowl. Bad deal!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 5:12 am
(Pardon the threadjack but why does a 32 oz pop cost $5 at the State Fair ? Five bucks ? That’s more than at the movie theatres.)
Because people are willing to pay it. If not you would see a price drop.