“We have a power failure because of an inductioncooker and we are hungry. Could you fixthe problem?” “Please tell me the exact addressof your house, and we will contact the nearestservice company to your house to provide therepair service.” Mr. Xu was still concerned ifthere will be anyone coming since it is so late,although he had got a positive answer.

Two minutes later, his phone rang and it wasthe repair company calling to inquire aboutthe problem. Fifteen minutes after the call, theelectrician knocked on his door. Almost at thesame time, the phone rang again, which wasfrom the 8890 operator to confirm the arrivalof the electrician.

About ten minutes later, Mr. Xu’s house was litagain. The electrician charged 10 yuan for thematerial after carefully examining the switches.The next morning, 8890 called again: “Are yousatisfied with the service? Would you be kindlyto give us some feedback?”

In the past, on one hand, the residents couldnot have proper household service; on theother hand, companies able to provide goodservices had difficulty accessing clients. Thisdilemma ended on May 12th, 2005 with ahotline 8890 opened by the Tianjin MunicipalGovernment.

The 8890 hotline works through two approaches.One is through phone calls. Local residentsin need of household service or help can ring24-hour hotline “88908890 ( “Ba ba jiu ling baba jiu ling” meaning “effective once called” inChinese). The hotline operator will contact relevantcontract service providers, who will offertimely service for those in need. The secondapproach is through surfing the “Tianjin 8890family service website” (www.tj8890.gov.cn). Localresident can search the service they needthrough the searching engine on the website.They have to submit relevant information suchas their location and demand, and get in touchwith relevant service providers.

The 8890 hotline services involve housekeeping,maintenance, shopping, transportation,culture and so on. It promises to provide 25major services, covering 316 sub-categories,ranging from fixing clothes rack and locks tomaintaining houses, from copying keys to providingchartered tourist buses.

Since its opening, the 8890 hotline handles approximately6,000 cases per day, and has dealtwith 3 million cases in the past three years.The 8890 hotline is described as an intersection,serving as an information bridge betweenlocal residents and service providers. Thebridge is sponsored and set up by the government.

Till now, there are more than 22,000service-oriented enterprises joining the hotline,compared with over 10,000 before. The 8890website has recorded a visiting volume of morethan 5.4 million. The feedback from those whoseek service through 8890 demonstrates thatall customers are satisfied with 8890’s service,and 99 percent of those investigated are contentwith service providers’ job.

One appeal of the hotline is that there is nohotline service fee charged either for servicereceivers or service providers.

One would be amazed at countless seeminglyimpossible problems 8890 has solved.

“My colleague was gored by a potamotrygonmotoro tropical fish when cleaning the fishtank. The wound is dark and he suffers numbnessof the feet and dizziness. He has triedseveral hospitals but nothing works. Please,help him! ”

Operator No. 026 immediately submitted thecase to the Operations Home Office soon afterhe received the call. “We first contacted allmajor hospitals, but they could not deal with it.Next, we contacted medium- and small-sizedhospitals and clinics and it still didn’t work.And none of the quarantine stations couldhelp,” recalled the operations division staff responsiblefor rare illnesses.

“We extended our research range and surgedthe Internet. Finally, we found out that Beijing304 Hospital able to deal with it. The patientwas saved.”

According to Mr. Pan Yunkang, director ofSocial Sciences Institute of Tianjin Academyof Social Sciences, 8890 Household ServiceNetwork is a good try of the Government tochange its role to a service-oriented government.It solves the residents’ problem whileearning the Government reputations.