Online Reporting of Septic System Malfunctions Improves Customer Response

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

In June 2021, the Wake County Water Quality Division (WQ) implemented an online form for the public to report septic system malfunctions, facilitating a 50% reduction in staff response time. Prior to this process improvement, reporting malfunctioning septic systems required that residents call the Customer Support Center (CSC) to report an issue. This initiated a multi-day, multi-division response requiring additional steps from customers and manual completion of an application that included right-of-entry authorization. The online form allows residents to submit septic complaints and repair requests 24 hours a day and includes digital authorization allowing WQ to access and investigate the septic issue. Once information is received, the request is directly entered into the county permitting system to notify technical staff to call or visit the site. This process reduced site visit response time from an average of 4 days between FY19 to FY21 to 2 days in FY22. Wake County can now provide this State-mandated service more efficiently. The development of a webform not only improves customer service by reducing processing time, it also helps protect public health and natural resources by reducing potential exposure to harmful bacteria.