“The number’s ten five, yeah it’s ten five.”
The centrepiece of the new non-emergency number campaign is clearly succeeding as an earworm. A tracking survey just three weeks in showed almost three of every four (73 percent) people taking part knew there was a new non-emergency number. And nearly half (45 percent) knew what it was.
Not only that, respondents - when asked what the new number is - are saying and typing: “The number’s ten five, yeah it’s ten five.”
That’s exactly as it’s sung by Police's choir, suggesting that the intention that the promotional jingle be memorable and catchy has been well realised.
“These are awesome results, given that we’re only a month out from launch,” says Deputy Chief Executive Service Delivery Mark Evans.
“We’re very pleased with how we are tracking, especially given that 95 percent of respondents say they would call 105 again. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
The 400 or so respondents also reported high satisfaction with staff (91.9 percent) and quality of service (89.8 percent) in the month since launch on 10 May.
Respondents generally reported a smooth process, a feeling of being listened to by empathetic and responsive call-takers, and prompt follow-up action.
“The person I talked to was very good and the overall response was far better than I thought," said one caller reporting property damage. "I expected to hear within days, but they turned up in the hour - and that’s only because he got held up! The patience and the questioning made it easy for me to tell the story. I never felt hassled and there was no impatience from the call taker at all."
Mark said it was too early to give exact figures on overall demand, but he hoped that the public education campaign would eventually see all non-emergencies reported to Police through 105 or online.
Surveys also showed satisfaction with online reporting was slightly lower than that for 105, but still positive. Eighty-two percent of 600-odd respondents said they were likely to report online again, while 77.8 percent were very satisfied or satisfied with their experience.
And here's the 105 jingle, just to make sure it's well and truly lodged in your head...