SFGate.com had an interesting article about the “411″ service that San Francisco recently launched using the 311 number. Dial 311 and ask any question. And apparently they get some interesting questions. One caller calls to report Graffitti 5-7 times a day.
San Francisco is offering an interesting and probably valuable service… but considering the cost of living, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t outsource the call center to some lower cost area (Georgia, or somewhere else in the “deep south” where the housing costs are lower than the average annual salaries in San Francisco.) The call center reps make somewhere between 50k-60k per year. That means that the cost of running the call center is easily a quarter million per year, or higher. As valuable as this service might seem, I’m not sure that it’s worth $250,000+ a year to process calls about the bus system (and how confusing people find the bus system), or deal with crank complaints… As if the police don’t get enough calls from people who are borderline 5150.
Summary: I like the idea as a theory, but in practice it’s too easily abused.
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