By April Lehmbeck
C & G Staff Writer

EASTPOINTE — When the city set its annual goals in motion last March, it didn’t just write a list of goals and move on, but instead set up a means for accountability.

That meant quarterly reviews of those goals, and this quarter’s topic was public relations.

City Manager Darwin Parks reviewed a list of things that the administration has done so far to turn those goals into reality during the City Council’s Aug. 19 meeting.

“The City Council public relations goals deal with several broad goals,” Parks said.

One of those areas was keeping “a strong customer service focus” among city staff and various departments.

The work they’ve put into that shows based on a significant drop in the number of complaints that the administration has received since last year, Parks said, adding that all of the departments are making steps in improving this area.

However, Parks had a suggestion. He wants “to implement one of the practices that the private sector engages in.” That practice is using “mystery shoppers” who periodically come in to test the service by acting as a customer.

“That would give us a good idea of the level of customer service that we’re providing our citizens,” Parks said.

Council asked Parks to look into the costs of a “mystery shopper” project.

Improving the phone system so that people can reach the person they need to speak to quickly was another goal, which the administration can implement due to the upcoming move to the new City Hall.

They want people to be able to get through the phone system and be able to get through to the right department on the first try.

“We take that very seriously and we will work ahead on that,” Parks said.

The city also is working on having a booklet with city information that can be given to new residents.

“We’re hoping to have the booklets available to the public in October,” Parks said.

Public education and information about issues like the operations of the city’s new water system are in the works. The city hopes to put that type of information in the city calendar or the possible newsletters that it wants to get out to the public.

“I would like to set some possible timeline for the newsletter,” Council member Wendy Richardson said.

The city has worked with a company to create promotional videos that are on the city’s Web site.

“The videos highlight Eastpointe as a family town,” Parks said. “I think CGI did an excellent job on those videos.”

However, Mayor Pro Tem Veronica Klinefelt had some concerns with how accessible those videos are to people outside the city.

“The videos are great, but, once again, in order to view them, somebody’s going to have to come across our site,” she said. “I don’t know how many people come to the Web site that aren’t already residents.”

Council member Bill Sweeney asked the administration to consider if it can inform local real estate agents about the option to possibly let their clients know that the city has promotional information on its Web site.

“When I was looking at houses, I didn’t know anything about Eastpointe,” Richardson said, adding that those videos would have been helpful.

They are planning other ways to target people to move into the city, including demographics like young families, or looking at ways to promote the city as environmentally friendly.

While Sweeney doesn’t mind promoting the city to people, he wants to make sure that Eastpointe is promoted to anyone who would make a good neighbor and keep up their property, and not exclusively to one group.

Working with the schools to promote the city is a goal as well.

“This would be a great time to collaborate with them,” Richardson said.

Klinefelt agreed.

“East Detroit is doing a phenomenal job in promoting itself,” she said, citing recent advertising by the district that she’s seen. “I would like to see us partner with them and talk about sharing costs.”

You can reach Staff Writer April Lehmbeck at alehmbeck@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1043.