In the era of digital citizenship, we start by mentioning that EMEL, despite having an excellent application, EMEL App to facilitate the payment of parking on the streets of Lisbon, it should improve the quality of customer service. We will illustrate this need with the experience of using the EMEL website in complaints, quality indicators and other aspects of use.
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Table of Contents
Quality Indicators
Let's look at the evolution of the user experience between March 2018 and January 2022.
O application for a resident badge, via electronic means, whose response was very slow in 2018, improved in 2022.
Does this evolution represent a sustained improvement?
In terms of quality management, the sample is not statistically significant, therefore, we looked for information on the subject on the EMEL website, namely on the set of quality indicators that shed light on the management of processes, in particular in the complaints to EMEL, of more "scientific" way.
The curiosity aroused by this contradiction, the modernity and effectiveness of a mobile application, The EMEL App – ePark and the operation of other services attributed to EMEL took us further.
Thus, in March 2018, we did not find any Quality Indicators on the EMEL website that would give us a measure of the degree of satisfaction of its “customers”, as well as any other Indicator about its performance as a service provider.
EMEL is a company of the Municipality of Lisbon and whose mission is “The construction, management, operation and maintenance of public parking spaces, as well as the elaboration and promotion of studies and projects of car parks, mobility and urban accessibility [….] to improve the quality of life in the City of Lisbon”.
However, since the quality of the service provided is a relevant value, assumed in EMEL's Mission, it should be evaluated by the Management.
It is not understood, therefore, that the quality indicators are not systematized, analyzed and disseminated, in the name of the transparency of the management of a public service.
O 2020 Report and Accounts presents a chapter on customer service, but nothing about the quality perceived by the customer.
The report presents information on the evolution of face-to-face attendance by store, evolution of incoming, missed and answered calls, as well as waiting times by subject.
In addition to this information, it presents the volumes of written interaction by subject.
It would be interesting to show, in particular on the website, mechanisms to record the level of satisfaction of the citizens and to be able to visualize the result at the moment and respective comparison with previous periods.
It is true that through the EMEL website it is possible to make a complaint, a compliment or even suggestions, as will be seen later..
You must be registered to access some of these options.
We decided to enter the EMEL website as a “registered person” and check if, in this way, the quality of service improved.
The option to speak with EMEL allows you to make compliments, suggestions, report occurrences and request information through a form.
Therefore, we made a request for information on March 9, 2018 about the existence of quality indicators.
We never got an answer!
However, as of January 2022 the site has some differences and when we log in as a registered person we see the following:
In the online registration procedure, a contact telephone number appears. An interesting novelty.
We can complete the registration either using the email and a password, or through the Digital Mobile Key.
After registering appears:
However, we asked again, on January 10, 2022, if there are any quality indicators that you can share with us.
The 2020 Annual Report and Accounts set out the objective of “ensuring an adequate response, within a maximum period of three days”, an objective that was not met, until the date of publication of this article.
Regarding telephone contacts, in March 2018, we did not see any email address or contact telephone number!
Meanwhile, in January 2022 we identified a phone number that appears on the registration form, which is active and working (211 163 060).
There seems to be an improvement.
However, we found that there is no form on the EMEL website to inquire about the level of customer satisfaction.
Evaluation of Complaints at EMEL
In the absence of any information on the level of performance of the services provided by the municipal company, we consulted the Complaint Portal.
We researched and identified the indicator “Satisfaction Index ”.
So the”Satisfaction Index” built by the Complaint Portal expresses, in an objective way, the performance of brands based on the interaction with users who made complaints. The score varies between 0 and 100.
In this case, EMEL, in March 2018, was assigned a "Satisfaction Index" of 1,4. A shocking figure for an organization that provides a public service!
However, we returned to the Complaint Portal in January 2022 and the rating improves to 12.3.
In the ranking of the “Transport Category, Car Parks Sub-Category” other companies in this activity appear and, among them, the company Loures Parque, which ranks with a Satisfaction Index of 59,5.
Although there was an improvement between 2018 and 2022, EMEL should build an evaluation process, not only of the quality of its work processes and an analysis of the complaints made to EMEL, but also to obtain a global view of the satisfaction of its customers and citizens.
There is another way to file complaints, using the electronic Complaints Book of General Consumer Directorate (DGC) which you will address to EMEL.
This is a procedure that you can also use through the DGC website to make complaints to EMEL.
See also other features
- Follow App application to take password online
- Well-being and quality of life index
- How to know the identification of the vehicle owner by registration number
- See how you can find out about a third party's car insurance situation
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