1. Contact Centre
23rd November 2010

2. The opportunities in relation to Housing Benefit
Why a Contact Centre
The story so far
The opportunities in relation to Housing Benefit
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3. Why A Contact Centre To improve our ability to serve the public:
Improved and consistent response to telephone and direct enquiries
Right answer first time
Less repeat visits
Corporate “Hastings Council” approach
Our Issues:
Poor telephone response in some areas
Inconsistent standards for fact to face customers
No consistent customer service approach
High costs in not dealing with enquiries immediately
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4. Objectives
Improve customer services through the introduction of an integrated contact centre that answers 80% of queries at the first point of contact.
Establish a centre of excellence where people really want to work, where they can see a career with room for progression and where customer skills are appreciated for the valuable resource they are.
Cost effective service delivery
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5. The story so far Informing our Approach: Learn from others:
Visits to Brent, Thanet and Swale.
Prior visits to Ashford.
Identify common success factors.
Consistent message – This is happening successfully in many councils.
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6. Deliverables (1) Consistent contact handling.
Consistent opening times.
Improved understanding of nature and volume of customer interactions.
Improved customer satisfaction.
More calls resolved at first point of contact.
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7. Deliverables (2) Reduced avoidable contact.
Better communication with the public.
A gateway to a wider set of public services.
Reductions in expenditure.
Greater resilience across the organisation.
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8. Deliverables (3)
A single point for all customer contact in Hastings town centre.
An additional single point for all customer contact in St Leonards.
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9. Current Position A phased approach to adding services – No Big Bang
Telephone Contact Centre being created in the Town Hall.
HIC face-to-face facilities being extended into Committee Room 2.
Handling of General Enquiries, Planning Services and Waste Services to be piloted from 24th January.
Seeking a continued presence in St. Leonards
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10. Housing benefit opportunities
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11. Housing benefit opportunities
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12. Housing Benefits Opportunity
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13. Housing Benefits Opportunity
Even more customer friendly service – like our other customers
Improve call handling through a wider pool of staff.
Recognise customer services as a valuable skill.
Smooth the peaks and troughs of demand.
Improve resilience to sickness.
A presence in St Leonards where 55% of customers live.
More variation in tasks and location – job enrichment.
A chance to re-think how we work.
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14. Questions ?
One of our biggest challenges has been how to get from where we are now to where we ultimately want to be without, quite frankly, creating a dogs dinner in between.
Problems have included, if we recruit into a final structure in too smaller increments we will not have critical mass, we will end up in even more fragmented service delivery, and staff will only look after one channel at a time.
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