Local councils have to manage escalating demand and growing expectations from an ever-expanding user base. As digitalisation accelerates they’re dealing with an ever more connected public who want to be able to engage at any time, from anywhere, on any device.
According to Jeremy Payne, VP of Alliances, Enghouse Interactive, “From the council perspective, this means implementing digital self-service communications channels that enable residents to interact in a way that suits them best.
“It requires careful planning. Too many channels can result in confusion. Poorly-thought-through processes exacerbate problems by causing mistakes that increase call volumes, and time and effort spent untangling issues and concerns”
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Jeremy Payne[/caption]
So it’s essential that councils understand exactly what their customers want from any interaction, before adding new channels to the wrong process. As Payne continues, “councils should look at the top five citizen journeys within their authority, prioritise them and get them working efficiently, using technology where appropriate.
“It sounds easy but interdepartmental cultural friction can be the biggest problem. Once you start layering in technology, people start to become defensive - ‘what does this mean for my job?’”
And while self-service solutions are efficient, they might not be suitable for every user, and escalation paths can be needed at any point - with a route that captures the self-service context to avoid repetition.
“It’s a balance of how you shape the customer journey in the design process. You have got to build the escape hatches back to the contact centre. Residents need to be able to get the results they are looking for quickly and efficiently, rather than spending valuable time working through a complex process only to find that they have to abandon the interaction and start again”, Payne explains.
Building Connections
Connected customer service operations help agents resolve queries more rapidly, triaging to the right experts wherever they are located. “Agents must be able to access key information about local council services from a central knowledge base at the point of interaction with residents, a pathway, which they follow through, enabling them to provide help quickly and efficiently. Also AI-driven technologies can support this with active listening and information retrieval, effectively upscaling the agent in real time.”