Lakewood Connect for service requests, information, and community

Click to make a request service

In conjunction with the 2007 State of the City, Lakewood launched a new way for residents to connect to their community. This new collection of Web services and customer service features is called “Lakewood Connect.” Click for a simple how-to on Lakewood Connect

It’s as easy as one, two, three, four, five with new “Lakewood Connect” technology that lets you submit and track your municipal service request.

Lakewood Connect combines the city’s “reach-a-live-person” service commitment with the 24/7 convenience of the Internet and the CityLine automated phone system. The new online service center joins all the most popular city services and info-searches into a single page for one-click convenience. Visitors can create personal service accounts to check on status: www.lakewoodcity.org/service.

1. Click the “Request Service” link to go to www.lakewoodcity.org/service.

Set up a family’s account and secure password (and be sure to read About Accounts when you do). Make a service request – any time, any day. And return to your account later for an update on the status of every request logged to your account. If we need more information to serve you better, we’ll call you on our next business day.

All your city service requests online, in one place, secure, and easy to retrieve. That’s Lakewood Connect – a new way of making it even faster and easier to connect Lakewood residents to city services whenever they wish. The key is your secure account and the Lakewood Connect look-up feature. Now, you’ll know what city services you’ve requested, when your requests were made, and what’s been done to meet your service needs. Think of it as a way of keeping Lakewood accountable.

2. Click “About Accounts” tells you how the service request system works. 3. Or, create a secure account with the the ‘New Account” link.
4. Once logged in, send Lakewood Customer Service your request. We’ll take action on our next business day. (Request form, right)
5. Log in later (using your User Name and secure Password) to get an update on this request and any others linked to your account.

Connect to service

The city’s main service request form is the most prominent feature of the new “service portal.” But, it goes well beyond that by giving easy access to things ranging from online recreation sign-ups and requesting RV/trailer parking permits (another new addition to Lakewood Online) to looking up zoning and building codes and commonly called numbers.

Personal service accounts

Lakewood Connect not only makes it easy to request service--it makes it easy for residents to check on the status of their requests 24/7--when it is convenient for them. Customers can create their own private service accounts and log in through the Web, just as they might at Amazon.com or checking Yahoo Mail. If a request is phoned in, then city staff can create the account on the customer’s behalf for checking later.

“Personal service accounts are just one of the ways we’re trying to keep residents in touch with their community. They work hand-in-hand with Web site ‘service search’ features and e-newsletters. But, it’s really the attentive humans behind the scenes that make it all work,” says Public Information Officer Donald Waldie. “The city’s unique, centralized service team is really at the heart of things. They’re specifically trained to give effective service whether reached by phone, the Net, or by walk-in visits.”

High tech/high touch

New Lakewood Connect features are the result of a complete overhaul of the city’s service system. “Lakewood has had a dedicated service “call center” for decades. At 24 years old, the system may have been a dinosaur in ‘computer years,’ but it gave us an unprecedented set of carefully developed service standards and guidelines for a new system to build on. Our goal in adopting the new system is for staff to be ever efficient and accountable, while services are more accessible to citizens,” says Lisa Novotny, Assistant to the City Manager.

“We train our staff to never let a citizen get lost in our phone system. Internet customers may receive a ‘we got it’ automated e-mail, but they’ll find many requests will be routed promptly by a live person--usually the next business day,” says service coordinator Paolo Beltran.

“The new system helps us more efficiently deal with the over 160 services we handle. Our goal is to put the right person on an issue and then follow up to be sure the issue is resolved. Instead of labor intensive printing and next day delivery of stacks of paper requests, we now ‘click’ to send an issue on its way to the correct city department or service contractor.”

Connect to information: Service searches, eMagazines, document library

Since many city hall contacts are information requests, Lakewood Connect is more than just connecting to service. Lakewood Connect is also about residents connecting to information.

Each week the Lakewood Connect team sends out illustrated eMagazines, updates Lakewood Online, and maintains two extensive ‘service search’ tools: Service Guide A-to-Z and FAQs on the city Web site.

Lakewood residents and businesses can also obtain information, services, records and forms from city hall 24 hours a day through Lakewood Online, or by telephone, 7 days a week, thanks to the automated citizen's information system called CityLine.

CityLine is an extensive collection of pages, and CityLine contains 200 pre-recorded informational messages about everything from dog licenses to library hours. The CityLine service will also automatically fax selected documents or forms to callers saving them time and needless trips to city hall.

"Lakewood Online, eMagazines and CityLine system are not meant to replace person-to-person contact," assures Don Waldie, Lakewood's public information officer.

"There are ways to enhance our ability to provide important information and services to the public. They’re all part of our effort to maintain a strong relationship between Lakewood citizens and local government.” For example, a person calling CityLine on a Saturday night could learn a great deal about our graffiti removal policy and leave a recorded service request to have the graffiti removed. Or, they can e-mail us a graffiti removal request. There's no need to wait until Monday. That's more convenient and faster service thanks to e-government services," notes Waldie.

Connect to community

Lakewood Connect is effective because it leverages the skills of the city’s service team and e-government tools. “We want residents to be able to ‘connect’ to their community in whatever way works best for them. Most important, there’s always a link to a live person who can help them during extended business hours,” explains Novotny.

“Describing senior citizen services or getting a concerned mom to someone who can explain the Lakewood “Tot Lot” program are things that need a real human for dialog.”

The Lakewood service team believes being responsive in dealing with service issues and making information accessible is an important part of helping Lakewood keep its long tradition of community.“‘Connectedness’ and community are important city and resident values. Lakewood’s 50^th Anniversary showed us how very important keeping a hometown feel is to our residents. Lakewood Connect is a big part of our commitment to keeping that alive in years to come,” said Public Information Officer Donald Waldie.

Go back to the Service Center