Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Dasan Center Phoned Over 15 Mil. Times
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
The “120 Dasan Call Center,” Seoul’s one-step call center, received its 15 millionth call last week, about three years after beginning operations.
The Dasan Call Center provides information and assistance on subway delays during rush hour, payment of utility bills, events and festivals of Seoul City, and when taxi drivers refuse passengers among other useful tips.
According to Seoul City, the call center had received 15,195,215 calls as of Monday. It also received 606,410 text messages, 25,530 sign language or text requests from the hearing-impaired and 28,690 calls from single senior citizens.
The 15 millionth caller asked for the arrival time of bus No. 342 on April 12. “I often call 120 for minor questions. On the day, I called for the bus I was waiting for and the agent told me it would arrive in six minutes,” the caller identified as Jeong said.
The 120 call center can also be used for directions and information on attractions. “I once went to Cheonggye Stream with my friends and we called 120 to ask where we could have dinner,” Kim Ji-won, a 26-year-old office worker, said.
In addition, the call center provides services in five foreign languages ― English, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian and Vietnamese.
Started in February, the foreign language service provides information on transportation, tourism, and visa and labor laws, as well as interpretation services. Some 5,700 calls came through during the last two months.
The 120 Dasan Call Center is benchmarked both domestically and internationally. A total of 465 government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety; local governments; and private companies have visited the center.
Major cities abroad have also expressed an interest in the functioning of the center. Delegates from Moscow, Beijing, Madrid and other major cities have come to see how the call center is operated.
The call center is also be the focuse of courses at several public administration graduate schools in the United States, including Cornell University. Twenty-six professors and students visited the center earlier this month as part of the course.
Seoul City aims to expand the service to mobiles and the Internet, keeping pace with advances in technologies.
“We will provide new, convenient and relevant services for citizens based on the reviews of users,” a city official said. “More service channels such as email, online chats and widgets will be introduced to offer a better service.”