Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Tom O’Neill Technology Department March 13, 2013 Discussion Regarding the Customer Service Call Center

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center The Past (through 2010) In-house Customer Call Center including Customer Relations 15 Total Employees (11 Clerks, 3 Sr. Clerks and 1 Supervisor) Multi-lingual Staff included Chinese, Tagalog and Spanish TTY Service available for the hearing impaired Average monthly call volume –More than 35,000 calls offered –More than 25,000 answered (Mar thru Oct 2010) –High Abandoned rates (ranged from 25% in Apr, 2010 to high of 39% in Sep, 2010) Average Call Length: 2 minutes, primarily due to well-trained, knowledgeable clerks - large majority of calls were ‘next bus’ Annual cost > $1.2 million

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center The Present – Part 1 Contracted Customer Call Center –Operated by American Customer Care (ACC); call center located in Iowa; no other transit-related customers Calls handled by a ‘blended’ pool of agents with four “dedicated” staff who handle other calls between ACT calls Service for hearing impaired is provided Translation services available March 2013 Hours of Operation –Same as AC Transit’s former internal call center (7-7 weekdays, 9-5 weekends) Call Center responds to telephone trip planning and travel planning calls; and transcribes complaints, commendations and comments then routes to appropriate departments District staff investigates and responds to customers

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center The Present – Part 2 The ACC call center’s performance continues to meet contract requirements Call statistics continue to improve in all areas –Monthly call volume averaging < 9,000 (2012) 9000 calls/month / 30 days/month = 300 calls/day or 27/hour on average 84% are Trip Planning or “where’s my bus?” questions 14% are Complaints/Commendations or other –Low abandoned call rates < 3.8% (2012) –Good average speed of answer at 20.6 seconds (July-Dec 2012) –Average call length is 3.5 minutes (2012) Shorter than 2011 but still almost twice as long as in 2010

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center The Future – Part 1 Three year contract with ACC expires in September 2013 –Fixed cost is $20.4k monthly, $245k annually –Two one-year option years are available Bringing these jobs back to our Service Area’s economy makes sense –Local call center staff should be more familiar with local landmarks, events and impacts on our system Call center to focus on travel information, trip planning, and logging customer complaints, comments & commendations Have staff dedicated to ACT but increase as needed based on monthly and seasonal norms Expand hours of operation to better match service peaks (e.g., start at 6 a.m. on weekdays instead of 7 a.m.)

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center The Future – Part 2 In-house Customer Services team: –Add one-two internal staff to work with OCC and Transportation on complaint & commendation investigations, responses to customers, and communication to Call Center of service delays & interruptions –Provide feedback loop to Planning staff based on complaint patterns Make customer service more effective and efficient in keeping with the way people get their information today: –511 IVR system (encourage MTC to add a multi-lingual capability) –Websites: actransit.org, NextBus.com and 511.org –511 and other mobile apps, Twitter and other Social Media – lists via GovDelivery –Printed information for distribution –User information at bus stops and transit centers –Real-time information with respect to delays, cancellations & detours via 511.org, NextBus, and more

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center Trade Offs A CTION Locating the Call Center within the East Bay Locating the Call Center in the East Bay Increasing the size of the AC Transit Customer Relations Staff Enhancing use of Social Media to deliver rider information I MPACT Possible higher cost per call Greater potential for collaboration and cooperation with OCC Higher cost for complaint resolution Can reduce ACT’s cost of providing user information and allows for delivery of real time information using Twitter and Facebook T RADE O FF CSRs who are more familiar with the AC Transit Service Area who can provide higher quality information Providing real time information and solutions for riders Quicker resolution of rider complaints results in increased rider loyalty Establishes AC Transit as a leader in the use of Social Media to deliver rider information

Click to edit Master text styles 12/17/ Customer Service Call Center Next Steps Balance traditional and emerging information tools, expanding new technologies, especially mobile solutions Develop Request for Proposals for a call center located in the East Bay to answer rider information calls with multilingual capabilities –Staff report to Board March 27, 2013 –RFP to be issued in April, 2013 New/improved portal to include real time data so agents can provide immediate responses to some customers Formalize the Customer Relations capability including adopting and implementing standards for complaint resolution and response