Residents only need to remember 519-846-9691 to get in touch with Centre Wellington staff.
The township has been in the process of fine-tuning the communication system since early spring.
Municipal clerk Kerri O’Kane said, “we’d been fine tuning for a while, but it took a back seat to the election.”
Work is underway to fine tune the directories.
One telephone number can connect residents to every department and the township has stopped publishing numbers previously used.
But O’Kane commented the old numbers still work.
She said, “if someone dialed the Fergus Sportsplex at 843-2800 and it’s the number they always used, they will get directly to the Sportsplex.”
She said, “everything now will filter through the 846-9691 number.”
As for the old numbers, “we will never get rid of them … we will just stop publishing them.”
O’Kane explained the township is working with this system because it works with both voice recognition and directories to easily connect residents to the service or staff being sought.
It also involves changing municipal letterheads and staff information to include the proper extension.
“We’re just trying to facilitate them directly to the person.”
O’Kane noted that during the election, where there was an abundant amount of calls each day on a particular issue, “we started off the directory with a message that if the call was related to the election, the person was requested to dial in a specific extension – and directly reach an election official.”
Fine tuning is still happening over the next month so residents can be connected the right person as quickly and efficiently as possible O’Kane said.
She agreed there have been some challenges in the switch over to the newer technology.
One of those challenges involved people who got lost in the system.
After three tries whether the person was unsuccessful or mis-dialed, the system would disconnect the call.
“Now it won’t kick you out. Instead the system will direct the person to Alicia at corporate services and she will verbally help the person get to the person they need to reach.”
O’Kane added, “your call shouldn’t be dropped because you didn’t get anywhere after three tries. So if you press ‘0’ you get right to Alicia.”
