Free app for residents improves how city services are delivered
The City of Gulfport
Gulfport, MS
There was no digital way for residents to report issues until the city introduced a free mobile application to their residents. After implementation, not only did service requests increase, but citizen engagement and happiness improved.
Topics Covered
Cost
Initial: 20 Thousand USD
O&M: 16 Thousand USD
Funding
General Fund/Existing Public Funds
Project Status
Operational since 2018
Gov Champion
Public Works
Problem Addressed
The City of Gulfport needed to offer ways for residents to digitally access its services and report issues.
Residents had to call the city directly to report issues. Residents who did not call the city directly were left to deal with the problem without the city even being aware of the issue(s). Aside from accessing city services via the website, residents did not have the means to access services conveniently or digitally. To solve the problem, the city introduced a free mobile application to their residents. The application allows residents to report issues at any time (avail. 24hrs) as well as access city services from their smartphones. As a result of deploying the easy-to-use application, the number of service requests has gone up, resident-to-government interaction (civic engagement) has increased, and the city is receiving better geo-tagged service request data.
Solutions Used
Gulfport adopted a free digital application to better serve the community that allows residents to easily submit service requests.
For example, when the city is working on a service request, they update the status to In Progress, a mobile notification is sent to the resident via the free app, making them aware of the update. This bi-directional communication enhances resident satisfaction. As a bonus, city staff did not have to learn a new system to manage the service requests because of the Rock Solid-Cityworks integration.
Outcomes
1
Number of service requests submitted to the city increased, equating to more resident-government interaction.
2
The city saw a decrease in the number of calls received and an increase in the number of service requests being reported through the mobile application.
3
Increase in sustainability and growth opportunity for the city of Gulfport, MS
Something Unique
The Gulfport Connect mobile application is the official and first city-wide application, introducing digitalization to the city.
Who Should Consider
Agencies struggling to get a hold of their app sprawl or innovational agencies ready to combine citizen services into a single access experience.
Last Updated
Mar 25th, 2022Keywords
