Ready to Fix It, Portland?

City launches new mobile app to improve customer service;

citizens now have a quick and easy way to report quality of life issues

PORTLAND, Maine – The City of Portland today unveiled “Fix It! Portland.”, a new and easy way for Portlanders to report quality of life concerns. Fix It! Portland. is a new mobile app that allows citizens to report a variety of issues, such as potholes, streetlight outages, and snowplowing requests quickly and easily from their smartphone as well as from the City of Portland website. These concerns are submitted directly to the City where they are then routed and assigned automatically based on the location and type of the problem. In this way, Fix It! Portland. will connect citizen concerns directly with the City officials who are out in the field, working to make Portland a better place to live, work, and play.

“This app is a great example of how a responsive city can utilize technology to simplify processes and empower its residents,” said Mayor Michael Brennan. “With a few clicks on your smartphone, anyone can now photograph, map, and report issues. By making the process accessible and easy, we can work together to enhance our neighborhoods and improve the overall quality of life for our residents.”

“We want to hear from Portland’s citizens and we are working to create as many avenues as possible

to allow them to communicate with us on their terms: When they want, how they want, and with whom they want,” said Acting City Manager, Sheila Hill-Christian. “In this digital age, we must meet residents where they are – and they’re on their smart phones. Have a question about traffic lights? Encounter a pothole? It’s all right there.”

Citizens who report issues will receive an automated response letting them know that their issue has been received. Once an issue has been assigned, another email will be sent to provide a status update. It is important to note that not all issues will be able to be automatically fixed. Issues will be completed based on priority-level and budget status. As with the launch of anything new, it is expected that there will be some growing pains. The City welcomes citizen feedback and will be monitoring the application regularly in an effort to continuously improve its effectiveness.

The Fix It! Portland. platform is powered by SeeClickFix — the world’s largest provider of mobile request management applications. SeeClickFix has helped hundreds of cities and counties throughout the country to improve the quality and efficiency of service by deploying citizen reporting apps that route problems directly to back-office issue management tools.

The project has been supported by SeeClickFix Director of Operations, Tobi Wilson as well as City of Portland’s Technical & Customer Service Supervisor, Joanne Lester. Ms. Wilson mentioned that SeeClickFix is “absolutely thrilled to be working with Portland. The support from Ms. Hill-Christian and Ms. Lester as well as the rest of the City’s customer service team throughout this project has been fantastic.”

To see a video demonstration of how the service works, click here.

Fix It! Portland. can be downloaded through Apple and Android App Stores or accessed directly from the City website at www.portlandmaine.gov/fixitportland.