Ticket Formats

New Email Ticket Format:

We are offering a new ticket format for email receiving stations.  Please click here to view the new format. If you are interested in receiving your tickets using this new format please contact the help desk at 651-681-7326 or 800-245-5852.

 

Occasional User Ticket Format:

Introduction

Many of you know the Gopher State One Call Center (GSOC) as a resource for the professional excavator.  What you may not know is that hundreds of thousands of homeowners in Minnesota make use of GSOC during the busy season, too.  During the months of April – October, the number of homeowners and one-time excavators calling the center actually exceeds that of professional excavators.

Background

It usually takes more time to process a locate request called in by a homeowner than a professional excavator.  This is not surprising, because there are excavators who have called the center for nearly twenty years.  They are very familiar with the information GSOC requires and can prepare in advance to provide it. 

The casual excavator or homeowner may be making their first call to GSOC.  They have heard the “call before you dig message”, but, through no fault of their own, have only a general understanding of what GSOC is or how it works.  As a result, special care is required, making their calls longer than those of professional excavators.  The unintended result is that hold times inevitably climb during the busiest months of the year.

Last fall, we began asking ourselves if we could change this equation to produce a more satisfactory result for all users.   For example, callers selecting the “homeowner” option already receive a recorded message that states the basic purpose of GSOC, asks them to use white paint to pre-mark their job and refers them to hand digging requirements of 216D.  Could we, by streamlining the homeowner call taking process, actually reduce the length of the call and help cut hold time at the same time?

We identified a number of changes that could be made during the questioning process to make it more streamlined and better educate the caller at the same time.  More importantly, we identified twelve data fields that could be eliminated.  While it may be important to obtain all this information from a professional excavator working for hire in the field, some of these questions are redundant for a homeowner working on their own property.  

For example, the mailing address, while always asked of the callers, was not retained by the call center as in the case of homeowners.  In almost all cases, the homeowner is calling in for work being performed on their own property and the mailing address and the work address were the same.  The address is still, of course, carried on the ticket.

In addition to this example, the terms and questions, which are known to the professional excavator, may not be intuitive to a first time caller. In the table below we have set forth on the left side the prior call taking procedures for homeowners.  As you can see, many questions were either not relevant, redundant, or rarely provided.  Besides the time required to take questions, they also resulted in negative feedback from callers.  This further slowed the call taking process and made for a less positive overall experience.  Since both your organization and ours wants to encourage homeowners to call, we felt a change would be helpful.

 

 

Field Prompt	Action
“Phone:”	Ask  “What is the best number to reach you:”
“Ext:”	None
“Caller ID”	Removed not applicable
“Last Called:”	Removed not relevant
“Caller:”	Ask “May I have your Name:”
“Address:”	Removed as redundant
“City:”	Removed as redundant
“State:”	Removed as redundant
“Zip:”	Removed as redundant
“Code:”	Removed as redundant
“Email:”	Removed not retained by GSOC
“Alt. Contact:”	Removed not used
“Alt. Phone Number:”	Removed rarely provided
“Caller Fax:”	Removed as retained by GSOC
“Best time:”	Removed rarely provided
“Explosives:”	Ask “Will you be using explosives to do your work?:”
“ROW:”	Ask “Are you digging in the street, between the curb and sidewalk, in the sidewalk or within 25ft of the road edge?:”
“Duration:”	Ask: How many days will it take you to do this digging?:”
“Type of work:”	Ask “What kind of digging are you doing?:”
“Work being done for:”	Remove.
“County:”	Ask “What is the name of the County are you digging in:”
“”City/Place:”	Ask “What is the name of the city or town are you working in:”
“Address:”	Ask “What is the house or building number where you are working:”
“Street:”	Ask “What street is the house or building you are working at on:”
“Nearest Intersection:”	Ask “What is the nearest cross street to this address:”
“Location of work”	Ask “Please describe where at this address your digging will take place:”
“Remarks:”	Ask “Is there any additional information you wish to add:”

 

CONCLUSION

The new homeowner ticket format was implemented at the end of March 2006.  As of this writing, we are accumulating data to determine the impact on the call taking times.  Thanks to everyone who has made this transition a success.  Our best wishes for a safe digging season go out to all.