ASTANA – Astana’s city utility services response centre iKomek has received more than 703,000 inquiries in 2018, of which 99.7 percent were processed, reports the city administration’s press service.
Photo credit: astana.gov.kz.
The number of inquiries increased by more than 300,000 over 2017. The centre also marked a 20 percent decrease in the number of official requests to district offices and akimat (city administration) departments in comparison to last year.
iKomek merges all call centres of the city’s utility services, functioning as the single point of contact for its residents. It offers more than 1,050 types of services in its catalogue, which an operator may provide upon the first call. Its expanded scope of work includes advising on school or kindergarten enrolment, filing capital house maintenance firm (KSK) complaints and transferring emergency calls in Kazakh or Russian. Seventy seven percent of requests are fully processed upon the first point of contact, and the centre aims to improve this figure to 85 percent.
Common inquiries concern street flooding, road and pavement damage, elevator maintenance and repair, open manhole and well covers and stray dog capture. For the resolution of issues in a timely manner, appeals are processed and, if necessary, entered into the Astana resident appeal registry with an assigned registration number for further transfer to state bodies and public utility services. Within seven days, the appropriate authorities respond to the centre on the issue and residents are promptly notified. In this way, iKomek continuously works on improving and developing life in the capital.
Residents may communicate their inquiries to operators through the social network hashtag #astana109, Facebook (@astana109), Instagram (@astana109), Telegram channel (@astana109112), Telegram chat bot (@astanaikomek109_bot), Astana Akimat website www.astana.gov.kz and the toll-free number 109 for landline and mobile phones.
The centre’s social media presence also informs residents on activities in the city, such as scheduled water, heat or power outages and emergency situations.
