Sparta Implementing After Hours Phone Service For Customers

Sparta has an agreement with Ben Lomand that will create an after hours phone line for city departments.

City Administrator Brad Hennessee said the one-year agreement costs $500 divided between the public works and electric departments.

“The goal is to improve customer service, but a side benefit from that is it should be able to speak to a live operator and prevent some call ins for employees that are unnecessary the city ends up paying overtime for,” Hennessee said.

Hennessee said the service should be in operation on April 1st. Hennessee said he sees the service helping in the event of mass outages.

“Say there was a weather event, and there’s a lot of people calling at the same time and getting a busy signal, we understand that makes people mad, and we want to do better if we can,” Hennessee said. “This system allows for more operators on duty 24 hours a day that will catch what we miss in the office.”

Hennessee said missed phone calls would revert to the Ben Lomand offices and provide live interactions. Hennessee said the after hours line will not have a unique number and kick in when calling regular office numbers after hours.

Hennessee said if the after hours line works out, the city will work with the 911 department to install mass emergency notification system as well.