{"id":191,"date":"2012-11-01T11:05:42","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T18:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/?p=191"},"modified":"2013-03-12T11:06:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T18:06:39","slug":"city-launches-new-online-services-to-better-connect-with-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/city-launches-new-online-services-to-better-connect-with-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"City Launches New Online Services to Better Connect With the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contact:<\/strong> Information Systems Manager Wayne Wantland \u2013 575-6048
\nUtility Services Manager Tammy Regimbal \u2013 575-6115<\/p>\n

In an ongoing effort to enhance customer service, the City of Yakima has launched new online services which make it a lot easier for citizens to pay bills, notify the City about problems, and share ideas and opinions.<\/p>\n

Through the City\u2019s new Online Payment Center, people can now pay water, irrigation, garbage, and sewer bills more conveniently.\u00a0 And an upgraded version of the Yak Back feature, which has been a longtime fixture on the City of Yakima website, now makes it simple for community members to let the City know about potholes, areas hit by graffiti, street lights that aren\u2019t working, and other issues that need attention.\u00a0 Both the Online Payment Center and the enhanced Yak Back feature can be accessed directly from the City website front page at https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/ .<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Yak Back feature has been around for quite a while, but its capability was limited to just e-mail,\u201d said Information Systems Manager Wayne Wantland.\u00a0 \u201cThe new and improved Yak Back now has enhanced e-mail functions and an \u2018app\u2019 that allows people to use their mobile devices to communicate with the City,\u201d said Wantland.\u00a0 \u201cWith the upgrades in place, the City will be able to respond to feedback we get from citizens through Yak Back within two business days.\u00a0 We\u2019ve taken what has always been good about Yak Back and made it better so the community has even more ways to connect with the City,\u201d said Wantland.<\/p>\n

The City provides utility services, including drinking water, irrigation, sewer, and garbage, to about 40,000 customers.\u00a0 Giving those customers another option for paying their bills other than in person or by postal mail was a natural transition to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaunching the Online Payment Center is a key part of the evolution we are undergoing to modernize how we interact with our customers,\u201d said Utility Services Manager Tammy Regimbal.\u00a0 \u201cMore and more people are paying all of their bills online.\u00a0 Creating a way for them to do that with City utility bills was something that we knew we could do that would have an immediate and positive impact on the quality of the service we provide,\u201d said Regimbal.<\/p>\n

Enhancing the quality of its customer service is one way the City is responding to the results of the 2012 Yakima Citizen Survey, which included relatively low marks in the area of public trust and accountability.\u00a0 In addition to the launching of the Online Payment Center and the new Yak Back feature, improving opportunities for citizens to interact with and do business with the City has also been incorporated in the City\u2019s 2013 Strategic Plan.\u00a0 Recently adopted by the City Council, the 2013 Strategic Plan will guide development of other customer service-related projects in the next year.<\/p>\n

New Online Services (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contact: Information Systems Manager Wayne Wantland \u2013 575-6048 Utility Services Manager Tammy Regimbal \u2013 575-6115 In an ongoing effort to enhance customer service, the City of Yakima has launched new online services which make it a lot easier for citizens to pay bills, notify the City about problems, and share ideas and opinions. Through the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yakimawa.gov\/media\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}