The City of Menlo Park believes it is the mission of the City government to “respond to values and priorities of residents.” The City strives to encourage dialogue and enable residents to actively engage in civic life. In order to do so, Menlo Park is continually working to enhance communication and leverage technology to provide easy and open access to information and timely, responsive service.
Menlo Park saw the benefits of using eFeedbackManager for centralized complaint management and data collection and implemented the solution in November 2002. The simplicity of the concept and the user interface was exciting for the City initially.
“As a new City employee, eFeedbackManager was already being used in Menlo Park prior to my arrival. As a testament to its ease of use, I did not need hands-on training to be up and running and responding to requests. Within an hour I was using the program and providing better customer service to our community!”
-Silvia Vonderlinden, Former City Clerk, City of Menlo Park, CA
Menlo Park implemented citywide standards for response time, and is improving average response time since initial launch of eFeedbackManager in 2002.
“Comcate software gives the City of Menlo Park confidence that every citizen request is responded to quickly, is well managed, and that no concern falls through the cracks. Staff is empowered and accountable for excellent citizen request management and citizens are satisfied that the City consistently meets their needs.”
-Cherise Brandell, Community Services Director, City of Menlo Park
Leveraging Email to Enhance Government-to-Citizen Communication
The City of Menlo Park, like most local governments, has experienced increasing demand from the community for information and transparency. After launching Comcate and realizing the potential to improve government through technology, the City of Menlo Park began searching for a solution that would allow City information to be distributed by email, the #1 use of the Internet.
“Menlo Park residents have high expectations for access to local government information – GovDelivery is a primary tool for supporting us in meeting those expectations.”
-Cherise Brandell, Community Services Director, City of Menlo Park
Enhanced Citizen Service & Improved Access to Government
Comcate’s CRM tool and GovDelivery’s digital communication platform are implemented throughout all City departments. These software as a service (SaaS) applications fulfill different needs in meeting Menlo Park’s outreach and communication goals.
Specifically, eFeedback Manager improves the timeliness and efficiency of responding to the publics’ concerns, while providing a method of identifying issues in their request management process. The email and digital subscription management solution has enhanced the City’s overall transparency and mitigated much of their printing and postage costs through digital delivery.
“The solutions match our outreach and constituent response goals by ensuring access to staff support and ‘real time’ information and by greatly enhancing transparency.”
-Cherise Brandell, Community Services Director, City of Menlo Park
