County Executive Announces One Million Calls Handled by MC311 Since the Pandemic Began

Per Montgomery County:

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich announced that MC311 has fielded more than one million calls since the pandemic was identified in the County in March 2020. This milestone was reached just before the two-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case that was identified in China in 2019. Throughout the pandemic, the County has directed residents to call MC311 for assistance and the one-million-call milestone is an indication of the tremendous need that people have had for local government services throughout the pandemic.

This accomplishment is also significant because the County successfully moved MC311 operations to 100-percent remote on March 17, 2020, to protect the health of all employees on the team. This innovative approach, as well as the institution of new customer service tools, resulted in the County receiving an award from the National Association of Counties.,

“When the people of Montgomery County need information about the County’s COVID-19 testing and vaccine efforts, social services, bulk trash pickup, and property tax information, they often call 311 or visit MC311.com,” said County Executive Elrich. “These dedicated employees handle roughly 2,000 calls per day with professionalism and courtesy, and we appreciate their work.”

During the height of the pandemic, MC311’s call volume increased significantly, and there was a need to add more customer service representatives (CSRs) to assist callers. To accommodate that need, MC311 cut the time it takes to train new employees by 50 percent so that CSRs were ready to handle calls sooner. This change, as well as some process-improvement measures helped to reduce the rate of abandon calls below 5 percent as well as reducing average customer wait times to less than 40 seconds. In addition, MC311 was able to maintain its customer satisfaction rate over 85 percent.

During this challenging time, MC311 became an indispensable resource for Montgomery County residents seeking access to food, help paying rent, tree maintenance and numerous other County services, presented by kind and helpful voices over the phone.

MC311, Montgomery County’s Customer Service Center for all nonemergency County information and services, is available 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, in hundreds of languages by dialing 3-1-1 in Montgomery County, 240-777-0311 from anywhere, 24/7 online at MC311.com, and you can tweet them @311MC311.