San Francisco updates customer service app

San Francisco launched an updated mobile application on Thursday that allows citizens to report problems to city officials via the city’s 311 customer service center.

The app, called SF311, allows residents and visitors to report quality of live issuces such as graffiti, potholes or street cleaning, by sending a photo, a brief description and a GPS waypoint.

“The new SF311 mobile application will make it even easier for San Francisco residents and visitors to communicate with City government and request City services while ‘on the go,’” said Mayor Edwin Lee. “311 is using innovation to deliver exceptional customer service and enable City Departments to react, repair and address quality of life issues. By adopting the Open311 platform and opening up government even more, we are able to provide better City services for everyone.”

Along with reporting incidents, the user can view the status of the case in the app and receive a notification of its completion.

The app will also provide contact information for the center, which is available 24 hours per day and seven days per week, but also allow citizens to connect using Twitter, Facebook and the standard web.

“We are very excited because what makes our SF311 App different than any other is that it fully exposes to the public the knowledge database used internally by our staff. The Connected Bits Spot Reporter platform has allowed us to support an expanded range of services in a simple, user friendly application, greatly improving the accuracy of how we route requests to the appropriate servicing agency.” said 311 Director Nancy Alfaro.  “Using the app also improves our ability to link a customer’s request from the app to those reported via the web or by phone and provides end to end continuity of requests.”

The new SF311 App is available on both Apple iPhone and Android platforms.