The City of Grande Prairie has launched a new system that will allow citizens to contact the City directly via different platforms, at any time. Access Grande Prairie will allow residents to text, call, email, use the Access GP portal online, chat with a customer service bot, and reach out to the city on their Facebook page.
Corporate Citizen Experience Supervisor Doug McGuire says the hope is an expanded number of communication options all in one place will encourage citizens to reach out more if they have issues, or need questions answered.
“We also want to make sure our responses are consistent because technology can bring those channels of communication together so that we can provide consistency across those channels,” he says. “All of this allows us to address their issues in a way that’s predictable, reliable, and supports them.”
McGuire says that a lot of work has gone into launching Access GP and he is very proud of the system they have in place.
“We launched Access GP on November 1st. It’s been a two-year project behind the scenes. We launched 3-1-1 in the spring and we look to continue to advance the system and bring more capabilities forward as it grows. This is a big milestone for us to get to this point,” he says.
McGuire recognizes that the city itself has a very young population and that was a huge factor in how they developed the Access GP system.
“We are a very young community and we all use different technologies all the time in our daily life from how we shop and how we engage with people. It just makes sense that as a City, we are accessible to the citizens so that they can connect in their preferred methods,” he says.
McGuire says that the feedback they receive through Access GP is invaluable. He encourages people to call if they have any questions or concerns.
“We are looking forward to continuing to grow the system. We love when we get feedback from the citizens of Grande Prairie. People providing feedback through Access GP is really important to us, so please reach out if need be. We are just looking to innovate within the lines of our community,” he says.
You can reach the online Citizen Access Portal using this link.