Covington, Virginia First in Commonwealth to Implement Online Citizen Service Request System

The City of Covington, Va., is the first in the commonwealth to offer the QAlert service to its citizens through its recently redesigned Web site. The QAlert Municipal CRM System, is a dynamic Web-based tool that enables citizens to place non-emergency service requests from anywhere with Internet access, 24 hours a day.

"This new Web-based tool provides a new level of customer service and we are pleased to offer the service request system through the city's Web site," said Claire Collins, Covington city manager. "Being the first in the commonwealth to offer such a service, we welcome all comments and input regarding this new service and look forward to addressing service requests received."

With QAlert, service requests or complaints are entered online by citizens and tracked by city staff. Each entry is automatically assigned a ticket number and instantly routed via e-mail to the department responsible for handling the request. Citizens can be notified by e-mail and/or telephone each time an action is taken, or just when the service request has been addressed and is closed.

QAlert also enables city department heads to generate a variety of reports including issues resolved, issues outstanding, length of time outstanding, issue type, and many more.

The City of Covington collaborated with Virginia.gov to create the new intuitive Web site design. Virginia.gov has formed a partnership with QScend Technologies Inc., the developer of the QAlert system. Virginia.gov serves as the point of contact to offer QAlert, as well as QScend's other services, to Virginia municipalities and agencies.