The City of Toronto launched a 311 service back on September 24. If you call 311, you get a real live human on the other end of the line prepared to answer your questions about the City and its services. Based on my experience with the City, I didn’t think the service would be up to much and I didn’t give it another thought.

Last week I needed a bit of information from the City. It was an oddball bit of information, and I didn’t hold much hope that it was information the City tracked and could or would pull for me. With nothing to lose, I decided to call 311. I asked the operator my question. He took a minute to futz about on his computer and said, “Well, I can’t pull that information directly from my computer for you, sir. I’ll have to get in touch with the manager of that department on your behalf.” Wow. I said, “wow, you’re going to do that for me?” “Yes sir, I’ll call you back shortly.”

Sure enough, he called back. “I’ve spoken to so and so, the manager in charge of this’n’that. She’s not sure how exactly to get that information for you so she’s going to need a little time. She’ll call you back by 2:00 today. Just in case you don’t hear from her, here’s her phone number…” Wow.

At about 1:00, I got a call from the manager. “Sir, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to extract the information you’re looking for, but it turns out it’s something our systems just don’t track. There might be one possible way, but I’d need a little more information from you.”  The information she needed wasn’t going to be readily available to me, so I thanked her, satisfied that she did everything possible to help me.

A couple days later, I received a call from the first operator I spoke with. “I’m just following up, sir, to make sure that you got a response from the department of this’n’that.” I explained that I had received a call, and I really appreciated their efforts to help me out.

So, the City couldn’t provide me with the information I needed, but in fairness, it was an obscure bit of information that they didn’t have any reason to track. I was none-the-less impressed that they tried, and that there was concern for customer service and there was follow-up. The two people I spoke with both seemed happy and determined to help me.

I have not always been generous with my comments about the operations of our fair city (nor about the politicians who represent the place), but I’m going to say now that I dismissed the Toronto 311 service before I even gave it a shot.

I was wrong.

I won’t let that happen again.