Service requests: the 311 request with photo and location, routed to the right department, with its status in view
A pothole, a dark streetlight, a broken trash container. Residents report it from their phone in a minute, the city receives it already classified and located, and residents watch it move until it is resolved.
Today a request comes in by phone, by a council member’s text messages, on social media or at the counter, and on each channel someone writes it down somewhere. It gets lost, duplicated or resolved without the resident ever knowing. Govlink™’s Service Requests module is one intake with one outbound circuit: every request has a number, a responsible department, a status and a close-out.
Why requests get lost today
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They come in through ten channels and land in none
Phone, counter, social media, an official’s text messages. Each channel has its own notebook and none knows about the others. The same pothole gets reported five times.
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They arrive without a location or a photo
“The light on the corner by my house” is not an address. The crew goes out to find the problem instead of fixing it.
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Nobody knows whose it is
The request bounces between Public Works, Streets and Lighting until someone picks it up, or not. Routing depends on who answered the phone.
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Residents never find out
They reported it, then silence. They call again, report again, or stop. The perception is that the city does not respond, even when it did.
How a request moves through Govlink™
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Residents report from their phone
They pick the type and subtype —pothole, streetlight, tree trimming, trash— take a photo, confirm the location on the map and describe it. With Govlink ID or anonymously, if the city allows it. They get a request number.
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The request reaches the right department, classified and located
Each request type has a responsible department configured. The request goes straight to its queue, with the zone already resolved from the location. If there is a matching one nearby, the duplicate is flagged.
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The department resolves it or creates the work order
What can be resolved at a desk is closed there. What needs a crew moves to the Work Orders module, with the photo, location and request history already loaded.
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Residents see the status and get the close-out
From the portal they follow their request: received, in progress, resolved. Every change reaches them as a notice, and at close-out they can see what was done.
What changes for the city
One intake, however many contact channels
A request that comes in by phone or at the counter is entered by a clerk into the same system. Everything ends up in the same queue, with the same number and the same circuit.
Requests tied to assets with a file
A streetlight, a container, a traffic signal each has an asset file. The request is linked to the asset and the city sees each one’s history: which always breaks, which was never fixed.
A map and dashboards of what the city is asking for
Requests by type, zone, department and time to resolution. Where potholes cluster, which neighborhood reports most, which department takes longest to close.
Open through API and webhooks
A state app or a utility company’s system can create requests and add notes; every status change notifies through webhooks. Requests are not locked inside Govlink™.
Which Govlink™ modules it works with
- Work orders: a request that needs a crew becomes a work order without re-entering it.
- Govlink ID and self-service portal: residents report signed in and follow their requests.
- Official communications: notices on every status change and at close-out.
- Reports and analytics: request map, times by department and by type.
- AI agents: duplicate detection and assisted classification.
See how your city would take requests with Govlink™
- Requests with photo, location and type, from a phone or entered by a clerk.
- Automatic routing to the responsible department and duplicate detection.
- Work order created from the request, with no data re-entry.
- Status visible to residents and a notice at close-out.
Govlink™ does not mean fewer potholes: it means every one has a number, an owner and a close-out the resident can see.
Request a demo and we will enter a sample request end to end, through the work order.
