New Telephony Infrastructure dramatically improves Customer satisfaction levels at Winchester City Council The existing legacy phone system had reached end-oflife, was being phased out by the manufacturer and there was no way to upgrade licenses or features. DV02 installed a brand new feature-rich and far more efficient solution, which has reaped many benefits.
Winchester City Council provides a range of services for 112,000 residents, hundreds of businesses and up to four million visitors every year. The City Council’s customer service centre is the first port of call for individuals and local businesses and currently handles between 14,000 and 15,000 calls per month.
THE SOLUTION
DV02 recommended the Aastra Solidus eCare Lite solution. Solidus eCare Lite includes voice agent functionality for up to 50 agents and importantly, to support future expansion, it seamlessly allows migration to the full Solidus eCare Multimedia Contact Centre with just a licence upgrade.
The solution facilitates internal messaging communications, enabling agents to locate colleagues for online or customer query confirmation support. In addition, the integrated auto-attendant offers dialled-number routing and greets customers with a specific message. Simply by dialling one number, customers can select one of several services to ensure they are directed to the right department.
Plus, flexible queue messages with queue position, wait times and a call back option, are also key features.
THE CHALLENGE
Winchester City Council first opened its customer service centre six years ago. The legacy phone system installed at that time had reached end-of-life, the product was being phased out by the manufacturer and would soon be unsupported.
The council wanted to add value in the customer service centre, to improve on deliverables and enhance the customer experience, but the in-situ telephone system was not capable of supporting these objectives.
The product was limited and they were unable to change it in any way, for example by adding licences to support new users, or mending/increasing the feature set.
DV02 was invited to review the existing infrastructure and to recommend a new solution. Initially the requirement was to support customer service centre staff and the council tax team, but future plans included the possible adoption of the system by other customer facing departments.
The council was looking for a totally new, innovative solution, one that was feature-rich and would enable them to handle calls in a more efficient and streamlined fashion.
“We selected Aastra Solidus eCare Lite because of its ability to route calls to agents far more efficiently, on-hook queuing and the in-built call back system.”
DV02 is an independent company. It was founded in 2002 by experienced telecoms people who recognise that businesses today need to do ‘more for less’, and get better value from their business telecoms investments.
Our strength is understanding the solutions available in the market and how they can best be used within businesses. Just as important, we have a close relationship with telecoms providers, so we understand their future strategic direction, and can look ahead for your future needs.
We focus on technologies that enable organisations to streamline their systems and get better operational efficiency and cost savings. We use software tools designed to deliver clear benefits in areas like business efficiency and control, cost of ownership, regulatory compliance, and meeting ‘green’ targets.
THE OUTCOME
Customer satisfaction levels have dramatically improved.
Aastra Solidus eCare Lite has an advanced feature set that has enabled the customer service centre to route calls far more effiently.
Two key features include on-hook queuing and an in-built call back system. The switchboard has been incorporated into the Solidus system and a menu installed on the front end. Customers calling a single number are greeted with a message with a list of options to reach specific services.
So for example, if the caller knows who they want to speak to, pressing 1 is a fast track option to get through to an individual contact. Callers enquiring information on a number of areas (all clearly listed) are instructed to press 2. This in particular, has helped the City Council to seamlessly re-direct calls meant for the County Council and has in fact resulted in an overall 20 percent reduction on total call volumes.
Ease of use and user-friendliness.
First line enquiries can be received on all media streams such as email, web, chat etc. Operators can place and receive calls using their PC, view presence status management, conduct corporate directory searches etc. Agents also now have the ability to directly transfer calls out, making life easier while simultaneously delivering a more efficient and professional customer experience.
Management
Aastra Solidus eCare Lite has advanced reporting which makes for easy administration and management of the customer service centre. This has helped in terms of managing staff and resources.
The information provided has enabled the council to identify peaks and troughs and to set staff levels as appropriate, ensuring that first class service levels are maintained at all times.
Management applications include the ability to configure users and media now, view real-time information and historical data and reports. A wallboard displays information such as the number of calls waiting, time taken to answer, number of agents available etc. This greatly assists the operators and helps them to respond in a much more timely fashion.
Key Benefits:
• Improved customer satisfaction levels
• Ability to route calls more efficiently
• Seamlessly re-direct/transfer calls
• Reduction in call volumes
• Ease of use
• Advanced reporting
• Potential to extend to other departments
THE FUTURE
The City Council hopes to further leverage the investment by extending the customer service centre’s remit. Staff will shortly handle incoming calls for a joint waste service with neighbouring East Hants Council and there is the potential to extend the Aastra system into other customer facing council departments such as the parking team, following the success enjoyed by the council tax team who previously had no call queuing functionality.
