One new contact centre. Thousands of happy citizens.

Overview

Falkirk Council gets a lot of calls. Everything from bin collection questions to planning requests.

The organisation looks after 160,000 residents, so the phones ring hundreds of thousands of calls every year. They needed a phone system that could keep up.

The challenge

The Council’s ageing PBX wasn’t giving anyone what they wanted. More than 60,000 citizen calls every month were getting the engaged tone. Agents didn’t have the information they needed when they picked up. And with no call management data, nobody could see how the teams were performing – or how many more agents they needed.  The team already used our technology, so they came to us for help. They needed a system that could help agents out by taking callers’ details before an agent even picked up a call. One that gave agents all the tools they needed when they picked up. And one that helped the team manage and plan more easily. We knew we could help. 

The solution

The answer’s in the cloud

The new system, Cloud Contact next generation (NGCC), uses cloud apps and management tools to give the team more control over their calls. Falkirk citizens now only have to call one number to access council services. CRM integration speeds up call handling – so callers reach the right person, faster. It even prioritises based on urgency, with emergency calls going through before bin collection queries. And it includes call recording, which helps with training and resolving disputes.   A new menu queue system takes callers’ information the moment they dial and tells them when they’ll be connected. That means no more engaged tones. It’s more reliable so agents know they’ll always have the tools they need, when they need them. Plus, because the system is cloud-based, they can add more devices from anywhere – as long as it has an internet connection. So they can flex everything up when they get busy.  And with real-time reporting, they can see exactly when that is.

The result 

NGCC is putting smiles on people’s faces. Citizens get through faster. Agents can do their jobs more easily, boosting their morale. While Falkirk Council has a solution it can rely on, giving it the confidence to invest in improving the service further.  The call centre teams can now see call data for different departments, making it easier to dial resources up and down when they’re needed. And they were able to use this data to show councillors the real challenges of handling such a wide range of questions and requests.   This helped Falkirk Council hone its strategy. The data showed that the team needed more people picking up phones for specific areas. Fortunately, bringing in 40 extra agents was a breeze thanks to the system’s flexibility. And if things change in the future the local authority is ready to react.