The City of Gardiner, Maine (pop 5800) has launched a new CRM system this week, in conjunction with a re-design of our City website (www.GardinerMaine.com).  This new system is powered by GovQA and although we have yet to put out an official announcement about it, we have already received a handful of citizen requests.  In most cases, staff enters these requests for citizens who walk into City Hall or who phone in a concern, but citizens are also able to submit a request through our website or through the "Access Gardiner" app on their smart phone.

We're hoping this new and relatively inexpensive tool will help us achieve the following:

• Keep better track of citizen requests (no more issues "slipping through the cracks")
• Provide answers and updates to citizens when they make a request.  Our CRM software allows users to add their email address so that we can email them with updates (i.e. "It's on our work list for next week" or "We just patched that pothole")
• Have better data on the types of complaints and frequencies of such complaints.  This will be helpful for year-end reporting purposes, along with resource allocation of both staff and $$$
• See how efficient we are. How long does it take for us to respond to certain requests?  Are we filling in potholes within 24 hours, for example, as required by law?  Is there a problem area we keep returning to?

Once we feel confident we've worked out the bugs in the software and the new website (which will be very soon), we'll make a public announcement letting our residents and business owners know about this new resource.

Thanks to Cory Fleming and ICMA for allowing us to blog about our experience.  We'll keep you posted and hopefully our experience will provide some value to you and your community if you are looking to implement a 311/CRM system.  Feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions.

Scott Morelli, City Manager
Gardiner, Maine
207-582-4200
smorelli@gardinermaine.com