2018-142 Engage Denton UpdateDate: September 28, 2018 Report No. 2018-142
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INFORMAL STAFF REPORT
TO MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT: Provide an update on the first three months of the Engage Denton citizen request application
including metrics and recent improvements.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The City of Denton launched the Engage Denton citizen request application on June 18, 2018. In
the three months since the launch, the City has received 1,283 requests with an average time to
close of 5.2 days. Recent modifications have been made to the structure of request types to be more
user-friendly and add the ability to submit street/sidewalk issues. Also, a waste reminder feature
has been added that will allow individuals to request an email or text message as a reminder on their trash day. Staff has received favorable comments from citizens regarding the application and
continues to monitor the requests to ensure that we are being responsive and addressing issues with
the application. Information on the application will be provided in the upcoming
October/November Resident Update newsletter and DTV has created a promotional video to
increase awareness of the application city-wide.
BACKGROUND: In the 2016-2017 Strategic Plan, an interim citizen request solution was identified as a key action
item to allow citizens to submit requests electronically. An online form-based system was
implemented during the website update in January 2017. Although an interim solution to allow requests to be submitted online, it was a manual process that resulted in service delivery delays
for customers and lacked automatic routing, reporting, and escalation levels. A supplemental
request was approved in the fiscal year 2017-2018 budget for the purchase of a software solution.
This type of software provides citizens with a user-friendly solution and central place to request
services from their government. After a purchasing process, and with direction by the Committee on Citizen Engagement (COCE), CitySourced was selected to be the City’s software provider in
March 2018.
On June 5, 2018 staff presented information on the Engage Denton application to the COCE and
provided a preview of the application. Staff worked with the initial user departments (Community Improvement Services, Animal Services, Customer Service, Solid Waste, and Traffic Operations)
utilizing the software during the soft launch phase to test the request routing functionality and
ensure that software and processes are working effectively.
RECENT MODIFICATIONS: Since the initial launch, there have been a number of modifications made improve the Engage Denton application. These modifications were made based on feedback from council members,
citizens, and staff. Below is a list of the recent improvements that have been made:
The backend software has been improved for better automated responses to citizens and more accurate routing to departments due to issues that arose with requests routing to
Date: September 28, 2018 Report No. 2018-142
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incorrect departments. Automatic responses are more general now stating requests will be
referred to appropriate staff which allows requests to be reroute when submitted under the
incorrect request type without alerting the user.
Escalation levels are now setup to notify the user and supervisor if requests have not received an initial response within two business days or have not been closed within five
business days to ensure staff is being responsive to requests.
Automatic responses were modified to dissuade users from entering requests requiring an immediate response and to instead call either the utilities dispatch or police non-emergency
phone number and staff is working with the vendor to add this as a pop-up prior to the
submission of the request.
The request types have been expanded and reorganized for a better user experience
including condensing property maintenance requests under one category. New request
types that have been added for Capital Projects and Development Services have been listed
below:
Street/Sidewalk Issues (Dropdown List)
Pothole
Guardrail Damage
Sidewalk Repair
Curb Repair
Debris in the Street
Road Striping
Zoning Enforcement Issues (Dropdown List)
Too Many Unrelated Occupants
Work Without a Permit
Illegal Home Occupation
Storage Container Placement Without
a Permit
NEXT STEPS:
Trash Reminders – Beginning next week, citizens will be able to sign up to receive either text
messages or email notifications in the evening prior or morning of their collection day, which will
automatically adjust with holiday schedules. Trash reminder sign up and FAQs will be on the
homepage of the mobile application. Staff will be sharing this information by email to the current
users of the application including information on how to sign up for notifications through Engage Denton.
The City had a separate My-Waste mobile application that sends reminders about trash collection
and has a frequently asked question feature for trash and recycling related questions. Solid Waste,
Sustainability, and Public Affairs staff have worked together and in an effort to consolidate functions and standardize to a single platform, the City will be moving away from the My-Waste
app and using Engage Denton to provide these features.
Promotion – Staff will be promoting the application community-wide in the coming months
through the Resident Update, City website, DTV and social media. Additionally, promotional material will be developed for City events such as the State of the City.
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DISCUSSION:
Figure 1 describes the biweekly totals of requests that have been received since the launch on June
18. There has been a steady increase in the number of requests received. Other than an initial social
media post and an article in the Denton Record Chronicle, staff has not actively promoted the application during the first three months to ensure any issues were corrected prior.
Figure 1. Biweekly Request Count
Table 1 describes the number of requests and percentage of total requests received by department.
The majority of requests were processed by Community Improvement Services (CIS). CIS
experiences higher request volumes because they had the largest percent of available request types. The Public Affairs department has the second highest requests due to the department coordinating
all “Other Requests” submissions which continue to be manually routed to departments with
coordination by Public Affairs employees. A majority of these requests were sent to either Capital
Projects or Development Services, so staff expects a reduction in “Other Requests” with the
addition of new request types which are automatically routed to those departments.
Department Request Count Percentage
Community Improvement Services 842 66%
Public Affairs 234 18%
Police Department 74 6%
Capital Projects 46 4%
Animal Services 46 4%
Customer Service 20 2%
Traffic Ops 15 1%
Development Services 5 0%
Solid Waste 1 0%
Grand Total 1283 100%
Table 1. Request Count and Percent Total by Department
Figure 2 is the app download information for Engage Denton divided between the Apple and
Android mobile platforms. Currently, there are a total of 580 downloads.
110
175 160 182
221 248
327
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
6/18/2018 -
7/1/2018
7/2/2018 -
7/15/2018
7/16/2018 -
7/29/2018
7/30/2018 -
8/12/2018
8/13/2018 -
8/26/2018
8/27/2018 -
9/9/2018
9/10/2018 -
9/24/2018
Request Count
Date: September 28, 2018 Report No. 2018-142
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Figure 2. Mobile App Downloads
The application does allow users to submit requests anonymously without creating an account. Anonymous requests are also entered by City staff that receive calls reporting information that is
entered in the system. As shown in Table 2, approximately 44 percent of requests are submitted
anonymously. Additionally, there are 110 users that have entered multiple requests in the
application accounting for 411 total requests or approximately 3.7 requests per user. 304 requests were entered from one-time users of the application.
User Type # of Users Request Count
Anonymous - 568
Repeat User 110 411
One-time User 304 304
Grand Total 428 1283
Table 2. Requests by User Type
Attachment 1 provides greater detail on the metrics of the application with information by request type including the average time to close and percentage of total requests by request type. Staff is continuing to work with user departments to provide training on how to update the status of a
request, reroute requests if necessary, and communicate and close requests. With the addition of
the escalations feature setup through the soft launch period, staff expects the average time to close
a request to decrease as some requests had been responded to, but staff did not close out in the system in a timely manner.
Request types have been dispersed geographically across the City. Attachment 2 is a heat map of
the requests that have been received in the first three months showing where each request was
made in the City.
99 103 116 123 126 131 138 150 158 162 169 175 177 190
182 207 229 248 258 264 284 309 334 346 361 372 379 390
App Downloads
Android IOS
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ATTACHMENT(S):
Attachment 1 - Engage Denton Metrics
Attachment 2 - Engage Denton Heat Map
STAFF CONTACT: Sarah Kuechler
Director of Public Affairs
(940) 349-8356 Sarah.Kuechler@cityofdenton.com
Requests by Type Requests by Status
Service Request Metrics: All Recent Requests
Statistics
Average Days to Close per Request Type
Powered by
Total Reports Created 1283
Total Reports Open 3
Total Reports Closed 1280
Average Reports Created per Day 13.796
Average Reports Closed per Day 13.753
Average Time to Close 5.201 Days
0RVW&RPPRQ5HTXHVW7\SH Other Requests
Least Common Request Type Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk
28.9% Other Requests
25.8% High Grass/Weeds over 12 inches
18.1% Trash and Debris
9.3% Vehicle Complaints
3.7% Animal Issues
3.4% Trash/Recycling Container Placement
2.3% Rental Unit Complaints
2.1% Outside Storage of Objects
1.9% Tree Issues
1.5% Power Outage
1.0% Street Sign Repairs
0.9% Stagnant Water
0.6% Bulk Item Pickup
0.3% Fence Issues
0.2% Water Related Emergency
0.1% Household Chemical Collection
0.1% Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk
97.7% Closed
1.1% Duplicate
0.4% Could Not Verify
0.3% Cancelled
0.2% In Process
0.2% Not An Issue
0.1% Received
Other Requests
High Grass/Weeds over 12 inches
Trash and Debris
Vehicle Complaints
Animal Issues
Trash/Recycling Container Placement
Rental Unit Complaints
Outside Storage of Objects
Tree Issues
Power Outage
Street Sign Repairs
Stagnant Water
Bulk Item Pickup
Fence Issues
Water Related Emergency
Household Chemical Collection
Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Closed
Duplicate
Could Not Verify
Cancelled
Not An Issue
In Process
Received
0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400
High Grass/Weeds over 12 inches
Trash and Debris
Vehicle Complaints
Other Requests
Outside Storage of Objects
Water Related Emergency
Stagnant Water
Power Outage
Street Sign Repairs
Trash/Recycling Container Placement
Animal Issues
Tree Issues
Fence Issues
Rental Unit Complaints
Bulk Item Pickup
Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk
Household Chemical Collection
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Requests by Type Requests by StatusService Request Metrics: All Recent RequestsStatistics
Average Days to Close per Request Type
Powered by
Total Reports Created 1283Total Reports Open 3Total Reports Closed 1280Average Reports Created per Day 13.796Average Reports Closed per Day 13.753Average Time to Close 5.201 Days0RVW&RPPRQ5HTXHVW7\SH Other RequestsLeast Common Request Type Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk28.9% Other Requests25.8% High Grass/Weeds over 12 inches18.1% Trash and Debris9.3% Vehicle Complaints3.7% Animal Issues3.4% Trash/Recycling Container Placement2.3% Rental Unit Complaints2.1% Outside Storage of Objects1.9% Tree Issues1.5% Power Outage1.0% Street Sign Repairs0.9% Stagnant Water0.6% Bulk Item Pickup0.3% Fence Issues0.2% Water Related Emergency0.1% Household Chemical Collection0.1% Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk 97.7% Closed1.1% Duplicate0.4% Could Not Verify0.3% Cancelled0.2% In Process0.2% Not An Issue0.1% Received
Other Requests
High Grass/Weeds over 12 inches
Trash and Debris
Vehicle Complaints
Animal Issues
Trash/Recycling Container Placement
Rental Unit Complaints
Outside Storage of Objects
Tree Issues
Power Outage
Street Sign Repairs
Stagnant Water
Bulk Item Pickup
Fence Issues
Water Related Emergency
Household Chemical Collection
Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Closed
Duplicate
Could Not Verify
Cancelled
Not An Issue
In Process
Received
0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400
High Grass/Weeds over 12 inches
Trash and Debris
Vehicle Complaints
Other Requests
Outside Storage of Objects
Water Related Emergency
Stagnant Water
Power Outage
Street Sign Repairs
Trash/Recycling Container Placement
Animal Issues
Tree Issues
Fence Issues
Rental Unit Complaints
Bulk Item Pickup
Vehicle in Yard or over sidewalk
Household Chemical Collection
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Engage Denton Heat Map