Case Study: How the public sector is using contact centre technology

Netcall provides a few examples of how councils, police departments and universities have taken small steps towards a significant improvement for citizen service.

Councils – Rewriting the book for library renewals

Worcestershire County Council is responsible for 21 static, five mobile and three village hall libraries, as well as providing library services to two HM prisons. During 2012, over 265,000 borrowers were registered with the libraries, involving an incredible 5.5 million transactions, including books, audio-visual items and music sets.

Borrowers had the option of renewing their books online, but for those without internet access, the telephone was an alternative to visiting the library in person, which for some members was a difficult task. This resulted in the libraries receiving approximately 5,000 calls a month. The Council recognised this needed a solution that would remove their dependency on customer service advisors (CSAs), extend the hours of operation and provide their customers with an enhanced choice of channels for renewing an item. To this end, the library renewals Automation Agent went live in August 2012.

Since the implementation, the automation option for library renewals has been very successful and the CSAs now have time to deal with more complex enquiries. The Council expects that the utilisation of the service will increase as CSAs are actively promoting the service when they are called and as customers become more familiar with it. In addition, an efficiency benefit equivalent to 1.5 full-time staff has been achieved, with service quality improved.

Police – Modern policing with intelligent call handling

North Yorkshire Police covers one of the safest areas in the country and they would definitely like to keep it that way. They have over 1,400 officers patrolling the UK’s largest county, with 6,000 miles of road, making it crucial to have efficient communications in place.

In 2011, the Command and Control budget was cut by nearly 30%, the two control rooms were merged into one and the switchboard was integrated within it. The instant effect of these changes was a reduced service on a temporary basis, so the Force turned to technology to assist them with bringing service levels back up to an acceptable level. The Police Authority decided to use Intelligent Call Handling with their 101 number to offer members of the public self-service options and improve contact with their officers.

Using an automated switchboard and introducing intelligent call and message routing, the control room staff can focus on the calls that really need their professional skills, and officers can make themselves more available to the public. Callers who know who they want to contact have the option to ask for individual officers and get connected directly to their Airwave Terminals – or to leave a message if the officer is unavailable. If the officer is unable to respond on the same day, then the message gets escalated to a colleague who can follow up on the enquiry, making the automated process very easy to use.

Education – Bridging the gap between student and customer

There’s no doubt that higher education has been through a period of turmoil over the past few years, leading to some crucial changes in the way institutions manage their communications with both prospective and current students. The substantial increase in tuition fees and the prevalence of mature students have led to a higher level of service expectation, making it crucial for students to be viewed and addressed as customers, a challenge that Heriot-Watt University has already started to address.

Heriot-Watt University in Scotland looked at one of the first interactions the students have with it: the contact centre. As a multi-site institution, with staff based across a number of locations, the telephone systems needed cross-site integration. Many staff work at more than one site, so they had to find a way to radically improve inbound and internal call handling.

Richard Farrell

The solution came through Smart Automation and Intelligent Call Handling working together. Staff have praised the new set-up, adapting easily to the new communications system, which has improved interaction between sites and reduced operator involvement in calls. At the Edinburgh Campus alone, over 1,200 staff are using the service.

For all of the examples above, it was definitely not an impressive budget or an undecipherable IT network that made the difference. A simple solution that started by carefully reviewing processes and resources, understanding how they could be allocated more effectively and working as a team towards a successful implementation were all the steps needed.

For more information on public sector case studies visit: https://www.netcall.com/