2. Who is
Inform Communications Plc
20 years Over 150 8.5 million
experience local authority enquiries
clients
3. Inbound
Contact
Queue
Environmental
Benefits Council Tax Planning Parking
Services
Council call centre
4. Increasing
Demand
Queue
Queue
ABANDONED ABANDONED
CALLS CALLS
Council call centre
Need more Resources
5. Non Urgent Simple
Some examples:
Initial Benefit enquiries
5%
Discounts & Exemptions
15% Form Requests
Moving in and Moving out
Ordering a new bin
Location and opening hours of recycling centres
20% 60% Bulky Collections
Parking Appeals
Planning Guidelines
Births and Marriages
Housing Repairs
Non Urgent Simple
Choice Based Lettings
Urgent Simple
Non Urgent Complex/Vulnerable School Admissions
Urgent Complex/Vulnerable Signposting to Website
6. Urgent Simple
5% Some examples:
15% Making payments
Most recovery calls
Report changes in circumstances
20% 60%
Missed bin collections
Graffiti and Syringes
Non Urgent Simple
Emergency Repairs
Urgent Simple
Non Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
7. Non Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
5%
Some examples:
15%
Request for account breakdown
Transferring payments
20% 60% Statement of Discounts and Exemptions
Real time appointment bookings
Planning – Specific cases
Non Urgent Simple
Urgent Simple
Non Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
8. Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
5%
15%
Some examples:
Emergencies
20% 60%
Bereavements
Benefit claim outstanding and received
Housing Eviction notice
Non Urgent Simple
Urgent Simple
Non Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
Urgent Complex/Vulnerable
9. Enquiries resolved
8000 calls per month by Self Service
Non urgent Non urgent Urgent
Urgent Simple
simple complex complex
1,600 calls 1,200 calls
4,800 calls 400 calls
60% 20% 15% 5%
60% to 80%
of calls
resolved by
Self Service
SELF-SERVICE
Filter
Council call centre 5
£125k FTE’s
released
10. Medway Council Calls
Total Calls
Annual Revenue & Benefits Calls
Calls to Payment Line
Total Calls 297,945
Calls to Agent
35000 Transfer to Payment Line 41,458 (13%)
Transfer to Agent 57,983 (19%)
30000 Calls Resolved by Self Service 239,962
25000
20000
15000 16.66 £399,840
10000
FTE Equivalent Value/Savings
5000
0
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
11. The Customer’s
Choice
Given the
choice, the majority
of callers choose
NOT to speak to
a live agent
Total Received
Calls To Agent To Payment line Average duration
32.106 5,582 (17%) 5,582 (9%) 0:03:38
13. Can you tell me if Self Service was
easy to understand?
96%
1% 3%
NO YES NO REPLY
14. Did you have to speak to an officer
to resolve your enquiry?
May 2009
83%
Apr 2010
66%
30%
15%
4% 2%
NO YES NO REPLY
15. Overall were you satisfied with the length of
time it took for your enquiry to be handled by
the automated information system?
May 2009
Apr 2010
62%
35% 33%
21%
16% 17%
3% 4% 4% 5%
0% 0%
VERY VERY
NO REPLY SATISFIED SATISFIED NEITHER DISATISFIED DISATISFIED
16. What is Self-Service?
Accurate +
Consistent
Accurate +
Information
Consistent
Information
Managed and Comprehensive
Comprehensive
Hosted Service
Managed and capture of
capture of
Hosted Service Transactional
Transactional
Enquiries
Enquiries
Self-Service
Customers
Accessible via
telephone, email
Customers
have access to live
Accessible via operators when to
and website links have access live
telephone, email and required
operators when
website links
required
24 hour
Access
24 hour
Access
17. Choose how you
use Self-Service
Front End 24/7
SELF-SERVICE
Filter
Council call centre
5
£125k FTE’s
released
18. Choose how you
use Self-Service
Queue Busting
Queue
SELF-SERVICE
Filter
Council call centre
19. Choose how you
use Self-Service
Out of Hours
SELF-SERVICE
Filter
Council call centre
Office closed
20. Where can I use
Self-Service
Revenues Environmental Planning and
Parking
and Benefits Services Building Control
Housing
School
Housing Repairs Advice & Choice Registrars
Admissions
Based Lettings
SELF-SERVICE
Filter
Council call centre
21. Self-Service
Implementation
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6
Provision of
Generic Script
Service Customisation
Bespoke Service
Construction
Testing, Promotion
and Launch
22. Dashboard
This is a genuine, client, in-house business case / costs analysis results dashboard for Inform 360 Self Service
Council Tax Planning
FTE FTE FTE FTE
Total Total
Handled by equivalent *Est *Est Cost
equivalent Cost Handled by equivalent *Est *Est Cost
equivalent Cost
Cost Number of Total Live Cost Number of Total Live
Self handled by equivalent per Self handled by equivalent per
Analysis Calls Transfers
handledSelf equivalent Analysis Calls Transfers
handledSelf equivalent
Service annum Service annum
Received Received
by Self per annum
Service by Self per annum
Service
PERIOD Service PERIOD Service
Apr 09 to Apr 09 to
105,459 96,349 9,110 6.7 £167,272.57
Mar 10 Mar 10
Apr 10 to Dec 10 to
Mar 11
95,620 87,649 6.7
7,971 6.1 £167,272.57
£152,168.40
Mar 11
18,016 8,618 9,398 0.6 £14,961.81
6.1 £152,168.40 0.6 £14,961.81
All service Totals Apr 09 to Mar 10 14.1 £ 352,677.09
Parking Registrars
All service Totals Apr 10 to Mar 11 21.7 £ 542,646.31
FTE FTE FTE FTE
Total Total
Handled by equivalent *Est *Est Cost
equivalent Cost Handled by equivalent *Est *Est Cost
equivalent Cost
Cost Number of Total Live Cost Number of Total Live
Self handled by equivalent per Self handled by equivalent per
Analysis Calls Transfers
handledSelf equivalent Analysis Calls Transfers
handledSelf equivalent
Service annum Service annum
Received Received
by Self Service annum
per by Self Service annum
per
PERIOD Service PERIOD Service
Jun 09 to Nov 09 to
101,347 98,013 3,334 6.8 £170,161.46 9,771 8,780 991 0.6 £15,243.06
Mar 10 Mar 10
Apr 10 to Apr 10 to
Mar 11
175,409 173,181 6.8
2,228 12.0£170,161.46
£299,828.60
Mar 11
50,050 43,596 0.6
6,454 3.0 £15,243.06
£75,687.50
12.0 £299,828.60 3.0 £75,687.50
**FTE equivalent Based on 1200 calls per FTE per month
23. But don’t take our
word for it
The financial and operational case for
self-help services is truly compelling
- 18,000 calls answered in the first 2
months with zero complaints
Staff productivity is up, queue length and
processing times are down. The benefit
realised has exceeded the initial business
case, providing an improved level of service
that would have required an additional six
FTE’s - for less than the cost of two
Belinda Black
Director of Customer Services
Ealing Council
Self Service Sets your customers free
24. But don’t take our
word for it
The service has been a roaring success in
terms of providing 24/7 customer
service, answering and resolving large
volumes of calls and releasing resources. We
are now operating with less FTE’s than last
year
Having successfully answered 209,000
enquiries in the first six months, Self
Service has provided invaluable support
to our resources and has bridged the gap
between customer demand
and available resources.
Ewan Ogilvie
Assistant Head of Revenues & Benefits
Self Service Sets your customers free City of Edinburgh Council
25. But don’t take our
word for it
Self-Service has played a crucial part in our call
handling strategy for 2011, and we are pleased to
announce we will be extending our partnership with
Inform Communications for another year
Since implementing Self Service within Sandwell
Council, the service has answered approximately 25,000
calls per month and successfully retained and resolved
64% of these enquiries. Self Service has therefore
provided the equivalent of 13.3 FTE’s with an associated
annual
cost of £332,500 – for less than the cost of 2 FTE’s
Ian Hubball
Revenues and Benefits Manager
Self Service Sets your customers free
Sandwell Council
