EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe this project and what it has achieved.
We will use this in any future publicity material.
Argyll and Bute Council is a very rural authority providing services across a wide geographic area of 2765 sq miles with 6 main towns and 26 inhabited islands. The Customer Services Centre aims to provide consistent high quality service for all citizens irrespective of the channel used for contact – telephone, face-to-face, email or self service. The ultimate aim of the project was to deal with enquiries “one and done” at first point of contact and to increase the level of self serve functionality.
The project is a vital element of the Council’s Improvement Plan, Corporate Plan and SOA, and has ensured that business improvement and process change is given clear focus within the organisation and has allowed the achievement of efficiency savings. Most importantly though, customer service has been improved.
PLANNING / · a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs
· contributes to organisation’s goals, community plan and SOA, and national policy context
Argyll and Bute Council required to address the challenge of 21st Century Government and in doing so seek to use Information Communication Technology as an enabler to improve the quality of access to and the cost of the Council’s Services. This in turn would benefit the customer, employees of the Council and all external partners with which the Council are involved. Argyll and Bute Council agreed in November 2006 to progress the development of a dispersed customer service centre which would provide multi channel access to Council Services for customers, both centrally via the Customer Service Centre itself and locally at local Customer Service Points in each of our main towns.
A key driver in our implementation of a Customer Service Centre (CSC) was the announcement by the Scottish Executive in March 2000 that all government services in Scotland which can feasibly be delivered electronically should be. Also Council’s Best Value Improvement and Development Plan by Audit Scotland in 2005 highlighted the need to develop a modern customer strategy and improve customer contact. Argyll and Bute as a Council were not achieving in terms of integrated customer relationship management and electronic service delivery, thus it was vital that the Customer Services Centre project was progressed, particularly given our rural geography.
The chosen solution had to be flexible, responsive to future changes in business processes, sustainable and easy to implement. A common Customer Relationship Management (CRM) infrastructure across the whole Council area would ensure that the Council benefited from common practices, not each department re-inventing the wheel, provide consistent access to information and customers and staff alike. Deep integration to back office systems was seen as key so that customer queries could be satisfied at the first point of contact, minimising the need to transfer contacts to the back office.
In addition to an extensive business review undertaken in order to justify the project, Argyll and Bute issued a Citizens Panel questionnaire entitled ‘Improved Access to Public Services’. This survey revealed that the most popular method of contacting the Council was by telephone (59%), followed by face-to-face (17%) with 13% preferring letter. The survey also found that the aspects of public service most in need of improvement were ‘responding quickly to enquiries’ and ‘getting it right first time’. Two of the most common reasons for contacting the Council were concerning roads and lighting faults, and council tax enquiries / payments. Staff were also consulted, and 81% of them felt that their service would benefit from being involved in a Customer Service Centre; 82% envisaged that routine calls could be dealt with at first point of contact, thus freeing up back office staff to concentrate on more specialist tasks.
A rigorous tender and review process – including a full functional evaluation, site visits and demonstrations – resulted in the Council selecting Lagan to work in partnership with Steria, integrating with the CallPlus system from MacFarlane. The initial system was selected via an OJEU tender using the Most Economically Advantageous Tender evaluation approach. Phase one of the project commenced in February 2007 and encompassed: council tax, FAQs, leisure bookings, online payments, library catalogues, and roads and lighting faults. This included the creation of a single distributed telephony system servicing the whole of the council area and which has moved the council towards joined up contact with the public for a number of areas.
DELIVERING / · implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders
· carried out in a structured and logical way , using robust and sustainable methods
Implementing the Customer Strategy / Service Centre involved challenging existing organisational structures and working practices to enable these to be customer focussed. A new unit was established to work on behalf of all Council Services under Service Level Agreements to deliver high quality, consistent and affective services to the customer.
The Prince2 Project Management methodology was followed throughout the project. Project responsibilities were clearly identified within the Project Initiation Document (PID). Project Managers were appointed by Steria and the Council as well as an IT Project Leader to cover the technical aspects of the implementation process. The PID set out the project team membership and defined their roles and responsibilities. An implementation project plan was devised using Microsoft Project, which defined all stages including system installation, integration, client preparation, consultancy, data synchronisation, systems configuration, business process reengineering, system training and acceptance testing. A monthly review process ensured that all stages of the Project remained on track, within budget and also that any outstanding issues were resolved. A rolling task / issues list and up-to-date risk register were maintained and considered at all Project Board meetings. Highlight reports to the Project Board flagged up any problem areas. This approach minimised the risks to both the organisation and customers themselves, and has contributed to the adoption of Prince 2 as the corporate project management methodology within the council.
Lagan Frontline was installed and fully integrated with the Council’s Northgate Council Tax and Benefits system along with a basic integration to Civica’s Electronic Document Management and Workflow System. This was closely followed by installation of CISCO IP voice infrastructure along with the MacFarlane Call Plus Tele-system for skills based routing of telephone calls.
An extensive business process re-engineering (BPR) programme was undertaken, which involved a transfer of skills to staff through experiential learning. BPR saw existing processes reviewed and improved to reduce unnecessary stages, contacts and workload. These improved processes were then incorporated into the Customer Service Centre approach and ensured a seamless interaction between front office and back office processes and systems.
A “train the trainer” approach was adopted whereby members of staff themselves assumed responsibility for training their colleagues. The benefits of this were twofold; expensive consultancy / training fees were significantly reduced, with knowledge retained within the organisation as staff themselves were the trainers. As a result of this process trainers took pride in the system and were keen to transfer knowledge to their colleagues. It also provided a skills base within the Customer Service Centre for future service implementations.
IMPROVING +EVALUATING / ·evidence of leading practice and innovation being achieved
·appropriate measurement and learning,and how this has led to continuous improvement
The MacFarlane system provides a wealth of information on call handling and on individual customer service agents’ performance. This allows for ongoing performance monitoring both of employees and the Customer Service Centre overall. This reporting also allows for detailed comparisons to be made against the anticipated time measurements prepared during the business process re-engineering phase.
Performance is monitored within the Council’s internal performance management system, Pyramid, and includes quarterly reviews of performance by the departmental management team, strategic (senior) management team, and the Council’s Executive (Cabinet) committee.
A benefits realisation model was developed as part of the project in order to identify, track and manage the efficiency savings and the re-profiling of some costs from the back office to the front office on an ongoing basis.
The validity of the choice of the Lagan software has been verified though its subsequent selection by the Improvement Service as the national system for Scotland. This also means that pioneering initiatives taken by Argyll and Bute have been readily transferable to other councils; results to date have been presented to other local authorities at seminars and an on-site workshop which demonstrated the system in action.
Customer feedback is an important element of improving customer service. Since the CRM / Customer Service Centre Project commenced the Council has commissioned several pieces of customer research, including questionnaires, telephone surveys and focus group utilising the Argyll and Bute Citizens’ Panel. Each of these, and in particular the telephone and focus group methods, highlighted the importance of strong customer service, a robust telephone contact system, and having queries / issues resolved at first point of contact. Whilst many of the participants were happy with the approach the Council had taken, all areas for improvement and recommendations have been incorporated into an action plan, with arrangements currently being put in place for acting upon these. Such qualitative methods will continue to be utilised as understanding customer wants and needs, as well as their perception of existing performance, are crucial in ensuring continuous improvement that is beneficial to both the Council and to our customers. The use of telephony technology will also allow the development of automatic customer satisfaction surveys, something which the Council is currently developing.
RESULTS + IMPACT / · a convincing mix of customer perception and internal performance measures
· clear line of sight to the delivery of the Single Outcome Agreement
· a full range of relevant results showing improvement over time
The customer service improvements which have been realised as a result of this project are helping the Council to achieve objectives in its Best Value Improvement Plan and Corporate Plan as regards electronic delivery. The implementation of the Customer Service Centre is a key initiative in our internal Process for Change improvement programme, with a contribution to National Outcome 15 ‘Our public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local people’s needs’ through SOA Outcomes VC7 and FL3.
The “Our Vision” report published by the Improvement Service states that local authorities have a 95% target for calls being answered first time and a target of 75% for service requests to be dealt with at first point of contact. Services now under the Customer Service Centre have seen the number of unanswered / lost calls fall from 25% to 5%, demonstrating a notable improvement in our drive to achieve the 95% target. 89% of enquiries are also being recorded as being fully satisfied at first point of contact, which compares favourably with the national target of 75%.
Average call times have also reduced significantly as more customers have their enquiries satisfied at first point of contact by well trained and knowledgeable staff. These times have reduced from 4.5minutes to 3 minutes.
The roll out of the CRM / Customer Service Centre model has also seen the Council achieve a cost reduction of £765,000 due to a reduction in the required number of staff and elimination of duplicate processes identified during the business process re-engineering process.
Argyll and Bute have been able to address issues highlighted in the Citizens Panel customer consultation(s). Customers not only have a better choice of how they access council services, but their enquiries are now responded to more quickly and at the first point of contact.
The business process re-engineering and the combining of functions into the Customer Service Centre have enabled several service improvements to be made and a more streamlined and efficient approach to be adopted. For the most common processes much duplication of information entry across multiple systems has been eliminated, citizens are provided with pre-populated forms for signature and return and customer service staff are now empowered to perform a wider range of transactions. This has resulted in a reduction in the number of overall calls as repeat enquiries are eliminated as all information is taken at first point of contact. Benefits thus exist for council services, citizens and staff alike.
In 2008 Argyll and Bute Council was successful in winning an IRRV (Institute of Revenues, Rating & Valuation) Performance Award for our approach to implementing the CRM / Customer Service Centre approach.
Lagan, MacFarlane, and Steria have all produced Case Studies on the successful implementation undertaken in Argyll and Bute. Presentations have been delivered to the Lagan User Group and the Improvement Service, and several site visits have been hosted by the Council in order to share experience and good practice with other authorities and potential external partners.
The Project has been very rewarding for all staff involved, the Council as a whole, and for our customers. Perhaps most importantly though it has set the tone for cultural change within the organisation as regards the way we corporately respond to our customers needs and measure and improve performance.
COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2010Page | 1
THE COSLA CHAIR’S AWARDThis category is awarded at the discretion of the Chair and is open to submissions under any of the seven categories. It is awarded to those submissions of exceptional standards or merit demonstrating achievements above the limits stipulated in the assessment/judging criteria for the relevant category. Alternatively, submissions can be considered which can demonstrate being conducted in exceptional circumstances.
Do you wish your submission to be considered for the Chair’s Award? / NO
In about 300 words, please highlight the reasons why this submission should be considered for the Chair’s Award: