Case Study: Washington, D.C. Office of Unified Communications achieves faster response times and streamlined 311 services with Salesforce Service Cloud

Office of Unified Communications - Customer Case Study

The Washington, D.C. Office of Unified Communications (OUC) runs the city’s 911 and 311 services—including a 24/7 311 center—and supports a transient daytime population that swells to over 2 million during peak events. Faced with roughly 1.8 million annual contacts, rising social media and mobile requests, fragmented visibility across agencies, and an outdated server-based CRM that required disruptive updates, OUC needed a more flexible, reliable way to manage cases and meet changing citizen expectations.

OUC replatformed its 311 services to the cloud using Salesforce Service Cloud, adding Live Agent chat, integrated mobile and social channels, automated notifications, and seamless updates. The move cut costs and downtime, improved visibility and reporting, and enabled data-driven decisions (e.g., automating high-volume parking meter calls). Results include faster reporting, a drop in complaints, steady handling of 1.8M contacts with greatly improved response times (average wait time down from ~7 minutes to 31 seconds), and workforce gains through the L.E.A.P. program that converted trainees into full-time staff.

Office of Unified Communications

Erick Hines

311 Operations Manager