Felicia from Customer Service & Communications
Download MP3We know our services and programs impact you, so let's talk about them. Together, we'll learn from the people behind the scenes and get to know our city a little better. From the city of Winnipeg, this is Our City, Our Podcast.
Rachel:This podcast is recorded in Treaty 1 Territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Ininew, and Dakota peoples, and in the national homeland of the Red River Metis. We acknowledge that our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory.
Natalie:Yeah. So this is Our City, Our Podcast, and your hosts for this episode are myself, Natalie Geddes,
Rachel:and me, Rachel Bergen.
Natalie:And today, we're joined by Felicia Wilshire. She is the director of customer service and communications at the city, and she has the very big job of letting citizens know what the city is up to.
Rachel:So, Felicia, tell us about your job. What is it that you do?
Felicia:So my job is really fulsome here at the city as the director of customer service and communications. We are responsible from everything from media relations to public engagement to French language services and the city's 311 service. So we are responsible for letting the residents know what's going on in the city and helping to connect them with information about city services and everything that happens.
Natalie:And what would, say, your neighbor know about what you do?
Felicia:So our your neighbor is most likely to encounter our department, probably through 311. That's where most people know our work, because they've had a reason that they needed to connect with 311 to find out about a city service. But where you might not realize that you know all about the things we do, is when you turn on your local news in the evening, and you see stories about the city, or you attend a community engagement event, that's also some of our work.
Natalie:Right.
Rachel:So, I guess, tell us about a typical day starting with your first of what I assume are many cups of coffee.
Felicia:So a typical day is really busy, and it generally starts really early in the morning. You know, settling down with that first cup of coffee well before I'm in the office and just finding out what's happening in the city. A lot of times I'm waking up to emails and messages about things that have happened overnight, whether it be fires, or other incidents that have happened, and also finding out about things in general that are happening. So if we're looking out for, say, a storm system might be moving into the city that we need to start getting ourselves prepared for, or some other type of event. And, that's, you know, a lot of what we spend our mornings doing so that by the time we get into the office, we have a good grasp of what's happening, in the given day and can start provide direction to everybody on what we need to let residents know about today.
Felicia:You know, a big chunk of of your world is 311,
Natalie:And it's kind of like a, you know, a temperature check on the city. Seasonally, you find are there ebbs and flows, hot topics?
Felicia:Yeah. Definitely. 311 is so seasonal, and the work that gets done there, they're, you know, so driven by different programs that might be offered at the city. So, you know, whether it be your leisure guide, whether it's tax time, and we're sending out those property tax bills, you know, changes to transit schedules. We know that there's a lot of cyclical things that happen in there.
Felicia:But also things like I mentioned, you know, weather events are coming through. That's gonna make a difference whether it's a winter storm or it's one of those great summer thunderstorms that's coming through. And so we're always keeping a pulse on what's happening. So all of these different events make for some really dynamic days at 311.
Rachel:Sounds like your job is a lot about listening and responding, and also, I guess, being proactive. But are there some common myths or misconceptions that you could dispel here and now maybe about 311 or just generally about city and city communications?
Felicia:Yeah. I think one of the things, especially when it comes to 311, that's important for everyone to know is that our three one one staff are Winnipeg residents too. And, you know, they care just as much as everyone else about what is happening in our city and making sure that city services are delivered. And the other piece of it though too is always remembering that 311 is just a just an avenue to log your complaint and log your request. I often will say, you know, they're not taking your call and then hanging up the phone and going and filling your pothole.
Felicia:But rather they're taking that information and making sure that the appropriate department has the information to, fulfill your request that you need.
Natalie:You know another misconception that is is out there, and it's it's more about the the greater industry of public relations, that the job is to to control or to to spin doctor things. I don't know if you wanna talk about that.
Felicia:Yeah. It's, interesting, and and that is a lot of, what we hear too is that people think, you know, we're out there to manipulate the message, and and it's not that case at all. You know, we're always doing our best to provide residents with the most up to date information, the most fulsome information that we're able to provide. You know, there are times that we encounter, challenges in doing that, you know, whether it's for legal reasons or privacy reasons that maybe prevent us from providing a whole picture on a situation that people feel that they need to know about. But at the same time, we really wanna make sure that residents have a really good understanding and good grasp of what's happening, and not not at all that we're trying to manipulate a message, or make people feel like they're not getting the information they need.
Rachel:Backing up a little bit, can you talk about about, like, the history of 311? How did it come to be? Like, how did it come to you know, we're I'm now chatting with a 3 one one rep on Facebook Messenger, whereas before it might have just been, you know, a call. Yeah.
Felicia:So, I mean, 311 is is a service that exists across Canada, and it was a service that Winnipeg adopted 15 years ago now. And it was about amalgamating, you know, all the different call centers that used to exist at the city and trying to provide residents with a more wholesome approach to their concerns and what they needed done and really finding a more efficient way and it's supposed to residents only being able to reach city, you know, Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 4:30 when someone was in an office and needing to know exactly what department they needed to phone to get their issue, resolved. So they had initially started out 15 years ago obviously with a 3 one one call line, and, you know, adding in things like email over time, and now we've really broadened into providing a lot more online services, a lot of touch points through, social media as you mentioned. And now we're really looking at the next step of evolution of 3 one one, and we're working really closely with our innovation department, to launch a citizen portal and, which will really be a one stop shop, for your residents to get all of the city services, in one place.
Felicia:And then beyond that, you know, we're looking at at all kinds of That is a great question, and I don't know that I could actually count that. It to try to clearly articulate how many different issues we are dealing with in any given day is so challenging. And one thing that I will tell people sometimes just to give them a little snapshot is I'll say, turn on the 6 o'clock news. Watch the first 10, 15 minutes and see how many of the stories that are on the 6 o'clock news are related to the city. Our our service that the city delivers.
Felicia:And that kinda gives you a bit of a snapshot of how many different things. But that's also just what's happening today. We're also doing a lot of forward thinking, a lot of planning on what's upcoming. So this just such a broad such a broad amount of things that we're working on in any given day. There's 15 different departments in the city.
Felicia:And even if every department only had one thing going on today, that's still 15 different things. And then you throw in there, you know, things that might be happening with our elected officials that might be changing our day, things that might be happening broader in the city that all of a sudden throw a really big curve ball into our day. So there's just there is a lot of stuff that's going on. And then it's just, I I am the head of a department. So there are just the mundane things that happen every day, like dealing with the budget and, you know, things that just,
Natalie:multitasking. So
Felicia:given that giant inbox, full
Natalie:of information, what's the best way, though, for for someone listening to to stay up to date
Felicia:with what's going on? Yeah. I think, you know, there's a number of different ways that you can stay up to date. You know, through the city's website, we've launched a couple of different things. We now have a newsletter that will deliver to your inbox, once a week that'll sort of compile all of the different things that have happened in the city or that you need to know about over that course of that week.
Felicia:You know, we're very active on social media. So if you need things quicker and more up to date, follow us, on all of our social media platforms and even just checking in on the city's website. We're regularly posting new content. We have our own, I'll say news, area called our city our stories where we're just posting general interest stories about things that are happening in the city. So I think there's a lot of different ways that you are able to connect with us and just find out what's happening.
Rachel:Yeah. So, Felicia, you you mentioned all these ways that people can can, like, learn more about the city. We're we're really trying to do that with this podcast. What do you hope to see as we, you know, compile these episodes and put them out month by month?
Felicia:I'm really excited for this new project, of the podcast because I think it's one more way that we can reach residents and hopefully where they are. I know myself, I'm an avid podcast listener. I I'm, you know, active and out and like to just have something in my ear talking to me, and and learning information. And I really hope that we're able to that, with this podcast. But if you don't have the time to sit down in front of a computer and read the information that we have, you can take this in the car.
Felicia:You can take it on your walk, and find out a little snapshot of what's happening in your city as well. And also, we have
Natalie:a lot of interesting people working here. No?
Felicia:Yeah. I mean, there are so many phenomenal staff working at the city and I think that's something folks don't always realize. And people who are so passionate about their jobs and, you know, know, this is really gonna give us an avenue to highlight those folks, because the staff that we have at the city takes such great pride in the work that they do. And we have some people that do some really neat jobs, that you don't always realize, and it doesn't come, to front of mind. And we're really excited to have this opportunity to highlight some of those unique, stories in the city and, really talk about the great work that our staff does.
Natalie:Any any suggestions, who you wanna hear from?
Felicia:Yeah. I think one of my favorite stories, that I loved, to hear at the city was learning about the guy who's in charge of Christmas. You know, there's there's some folks in public work, some one guy in particular whose job it is to make sure that all of the work that goes into putting up Christmas lights and putting up the Christmas tree and getting the city ready for that festive holiday. It is months of preparation that go into that and it's just so neat. To get a little bit of insight from him into what his job entails and what he does because you just see the stuff go up.
Felicia:And then one day it vanishes and everyone forgets about Christmas and, you know, their staff are still working, getting all of those pieces together to make sure that our city is magical at that time.
Rachel:Well, it sounds like you've got, like, a lot of fun things that happen behind the scenes here at the city. What are some of the challenges that that you face, managing this department or directing this department?
Felicia:Yeah. I think, you know, one of the biggest challenges that we have is just making sure that information is consumable by residents and really breaking down technical information. We have a lot of highly skilled professionals in the city that are really passionate about the work that they do. But they use a lot of jargon, a lot of times and really technical information. And so, you know, we spend a lot of our time and and my staff are phenomenal for this of being able to take those really technical pieces of information and make it so that residents can understand it, and it makes sense for you.
Felicia:Because we also need to realize our residents come from a variety of backgrounds. Not everybody has English as their first language. You know, not everybody has a master's degree. And, you know, there's a lot of different residents that we're speaking to, but this information is really important, for them to have. So it's it's making doesn't know that that is the place where you go to dump your garbage at the garbage dump.
Felicia:Nope.
Rachel:I hear you.
Felicia:So, you know, it's it's things like that. And, just, yeah, taking the time to really read what we're putting out and making sure that it really connects with with our residents. Any bizarre media requests this year? Well, my favorite request that comes in rather regularly, so we have one reporter that regularly wants to go in the sewers. And I'm not we're still not always sure why, and I think it's, you know, movies may have glorified what a sewer system looks like in a place like New York.
Felicia:That's not what Winnipeg's sewer system looks like. So, you know, things like that we get, you know, sometimes we get requests too about oh, we had one recently about, oh my goodness, reptiles in the sewer system, going down toilets. So there's funny things that we get every now and then, and I give our media full credit for trying to find new and interesting stories to tell residents, but sometimes they're just they're not there. It's not a thing.
Rachel:Sounds like some of our local media members are really big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans.
Felicia:And it could be a generational thing. We just yeah. There's there's a generation of us that grew up with Ninja Turtles in a sewer system. So Love it.
Rachel:Love to see it.
Natalie:You gotta ask. Right? You gotta ask and find out.
Felicia:You gotta yeah. You gotta you gotta ask the question. So
Natalie:I I have to ask you. It's it's I've heard this, and you can you can set the record straight. Is there really a a cry room for staff at 311?
Felicia:There's a quiet room at 311. So we do have a space for staff that's, you know, got some comfy chairs and dim lighting and a space for staff to decompress. Mental health is so so important to us, and the job at 311 can be really tough sometimes. Residents are are, not always kind. They're often frustrated by the time they're phoning 311.
Felicia:And, unfortunately, our call agents, will bear the brunt of that frustration sometimes. And so we've got a we've got a space, for the staff when they need a moment after they've had a particularly challenging call, that they can just go and take some time to to decompress. And, so I think it also, you know, goes back to that earlier, message that I delivered about, you know, our 3 one one staff or Winnipeg residents too, and they're just, you know, trying their best. And I think if you're contacting 311, try to keep that in mind. You know, I know it might be challenging or frustrating if you've been dealing with an issue and you don't think that you're getting the resolution that you want as quickly as you want.
Felicia:But our agents are really just generally doing the best that they can with what they have available to them at the time. So, don't don't be mean. Don't ruin their day. Don't don't make them have to go to the quiet room. That would be just super.
Rachel:Felicia, thanks so much for joining us today. Before we let you go, we'd like for you to share something about Winnipeg you wish everyone knew.
Felicia:You know, I think the thing that you need to know, and I I will go back to the staff, that work for the city, is just there are so many passionate people here at the city. And, you know, city staff often get a bad rap, and, the reputation of city staff sometimes, precedes them. But there really are just genuinely amazing people, that work at the city and are really here to do the best that they can for the residents of the city. And they're here because they have a strong belief in public service and in serving their fellow residents. And so I hope people take that away and remember that when they're interacting with city staff that you know they're they're good people.
Felicia:They're here for usually here for the right reasons and, just trying to do the best with what they have available to them.
Rachel:Join us next month when we connect with Leland Gordon from animal services.
Natalie:Talk about an employee who's passionate about the work he does at the city. Before we go, we'd love to hear from
Rachel:our listeners. What programs and services impact you the most? Email us at city-podcast@winnipeg.ca with suggestions for future episodes. Thanks for listening.
