Citizens Appreciate 120 Dasan Call Center
Seoul's call center for processing civic requests, the "120 Dasan Call Center," had received ten million calls as of Tuesday, according to the city government.
The hotline received an average of 1,184 calls when it was undergoing trial operations in January 2007. Since then, they have dramatically increased in the last two years and 10 months, reaching an average of 33,000 calls per day last month.
The level of satisfaction among callers has also increased from 40 percent in the beginning to 90 percent last year. More than 70 percent of citizens in Seoul have said they are aware of the service. 45.75 percent of the calls were related to transportation, 9.5 percent about welfare and 8.5 percent about waterworks and drainage systems.
Seoul attributes the success of the call center to the adoption of video consultations using sign language for the hearing impaired, text messaging consultations, checking-in calls for senior citizens living alone and 24-hour availability.
Hwang Jong-il, who heads the city's efforts for citizens' satisfaction with public service, said that the call center will continue to "qualitatively enhance the level of our services to cater to the quantitative increase of callers seeking the city's assistance."