City of Markham Slashes Resolution Time with Comm100 Live Chat

4.11 / 5 – Live chat CSAT rating
21,000+ – Total chats in 2022

Markham is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of over 338,000, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and 16th largest in Canada.

In 2015, the City of Markham only offered telephone and email support to their constituents and customers. While this had long served many of their constituents in the past, email support volumes were increasingly rising which presented them with two problems.

Firstly, the team was inundated with email tickets. As well as putting strain on their agents, this was also increasing resolution time as the team did their best to tackle each query as efficiently as email allows.

Secondly, high email volumes compared to phone clearly indicated that their constituents and customers wanted to connect with them digitally. However, offering just one digital channel wasn’t sufficiently meeting these digital expectations, and they knew they could do more to improve accessibility, speed, and citizen satisfaction.

To improve their support’s accessibility and efficiency, the City of Markham adopted Comm100 Live Chat. Rather than waiting in a queue on the phone or waiting days for a response on email, constituents now receive faster and more convenient support on live chat. As well as improving the constituents’ experience, Comm100 Live Chat has also increased the team’s support capacity as they can resolve queries more quickly and efficiently via live chat.

Launching in 2015, the team received over 16,000 chats within the first year alone. In 2022, this rose to 21,000 chats over the year, indicating a continual preference towards digital communication, and more specifically, live chat communication. The team’s post-chat survey supports this as they have achieved a 4.11/5 average customer satisfaction (CSAT) score – an impressively high score within government standings.

Sitting on every page on their website, the team responds to questions from their constituents, as well as external customers such as business partners and other municipalities. Utilizing canned messaging and knowledge base, agents can quickly answer queries or provide links for the customer to locate the information themselves. If the query needs specialist support, the agent can provide them with contact details or open a case for the relevant department to get back to them.

The platform’s ease of use and intuitive functionality was a key reason for the City of Markham choosing Comm100. The team learnt quickly how to use it following training from Comm100, as Rosie Cozis explained:

With a constant eye on innovation, the City of Markham has proven with the adoption of Comm100 Live Chat that it is essential for government agencies to embrace digital communication. With a live chat offering, government agencies can improve their two key challenges – improving support efficiency and citizen satisfaction.