Transforming Local Government Customer Service

Above All - Service

City of Canning Jay Ellis

• Case Study • Creating and implementing a centralised customer service centre

• Planning and implementation to provide for a sustainable 'Centre' including design and construction of a new call centre

• Recruitment, Training, relocating and up-skilling all existing staff to become Customer Service Officers and deliver effective customer service

• Using customer led feedback to drive customer service improvements.

• Above All - Service City of Canning

City of Canning Customer Service Journey Above All - Service

City of Canning, Western Australia Above All - Service

• Located 10kms from CBD in Perth’s south – eastern suburbs

• Largest multicultural population in Perth 32.9% of residents are from non English speaking country

• Employees: FTE 687- approx. 1200 staff members

• 7,900 registered businesses

• Gross Regional Product - $10 B = 4%WA

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• 33,562 Dwellings • 18,323 Under the age of 18 • Over 60s - 17% of population • 21 Schools and 12 Child Care Centres • Growing residential market

Living in Canning Above All - Service

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80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

Estimated Resident Population

• Over the last 3 years – Difficult time

• Authorised Inquiry instigated by Department of Local Government & Communities, March 2012

• Council suspended in November 2012, one Commissioner appointed November 2012 to oversea Council

• Inquiry Panel appointed by Minister, April 2013

• Organisational climate of fear and repression with high staff turnover

• Local Government Reform – City of Canning went from amalgamation to complete Abolishment. Fight for Canning

• September 2014 Inquiry finalised Council dismissed,

• September 2014 Commissioner dismissed, three Commissioners appointed to oversea Statewide Local Government Reform process

• February 2015 Local Government Reform collapsed

Recent History Above All - Service

The Process of Transition Above All - Service

Customer Service Improvement Plan Above All - Service

BACKGROUND – NEW BEGGINING

― Chief Executive Officer appointed June 2013

― CEO developed the organisation’s Top 10 priorities.

― Customer Service one of the top priorities

― June 2013 audit Canning’s Service Delivery and Customer Service

― Systems, processes, organisational structure audited

― Findings: didn't exist, distinctly old, not in line with high performing councils

Your Mission Should You Choose to Accept It Find-buy-implement state of art systems

Attract amazing people to your team Measure efficiency and satisfaction: improve it massively

Organisation-wide customer improvement strategy You have 12 months to create magic.

Customer Contact Centre Above All - Service

DECENTRALISED SUPPORT MODEL

― ‘Switch board function’

― Calls simply forwarded to business units for response and action

― No visibility of customer interaction

― Outcomes are not measured, inconsistent customer experience

― Driver of repeat contacts *

― Driver of customer dissatisfaction*

Customer Verbatim

42% of customers had significant concerns with

• Prince 2 Methodology

• Project Board

• Business Case

• Project Team

• Budget Tracking

• Project Stages

• Risks and Controls

Project Lifecycle – Above All Service Above All - Service

• Refurbishment – 9 week process – Planning (Site selection, design, quote submissions, Building permit,

certificate of design, Seating plan - 12 seats (future proof for 18 FTE – Reform)

– Logistics & OSH (heating, lighting, PC’s, power supply, ergonomics)

– Quotes /Award contract

– Commence work

– Budget 80K

• 1st week – front counter. 26 – 27 April or 3rd 4th May.

• 2nd week – demolition and partitions – relocate 3 staff temporarily.

• Paint and patch during week. Run sheet to roof.

• 3rd week – implement the glazing and furniture basic structure, painting and aesthetics to be completed during week

• 4th week – snag list, professional clean.

• 5th week for contingency. June 1 - 16th

Customer Contact Centre Above All - Service

Refurbishment – Customer Centre Above All - Service

Before

Customer Contact Centre Above All - Service

After

• Telephony – Vendor selection and Platform

– Managed Service by Telstra to enable requirements (build, configure, testing, reporting)

– Mock contact centre built.

– Contact Centre Applications - Business Units, Wall boards, Call Recording, IVR and phone redirect.

– Call Reporting

Contact Centre - Telephony Above All - Service

Contact Centre - Telephony Above All - Service

Contact Centre – Telephony Reporting Above All - Service

• Waste May 2015

• 233 Service requests (missed, repair/replace)

• 42 New Service requests

• 345 Enquiries – 138 repair / replace

– 77 Waste collection items

– 82 Waste collection dates

– 22 hours of operation

– 15 dumped rubbish

– 7 new/additional

– 4 bin cleaning

Contact Analysis – Waste Services Above All - Service

• Contact Analysis • Inbound volumes

• Modelled councils similar size

• Call types

• 1.2 Call Ratio

• 0.7 call ratio

• Service Standards • 90% overall handling rate

• 90% in 30 seconds

• 90% CSAT

Contact Centre – Recruitment Above All - Service

Contact Centre – Recruitment Above All - Service

Manager Customer Service

Jay Ellis

Team Leader Knowledge/Process

Team Leader Coaching/Training

Team Leader Service Quality

CSO - FT

CSO – FT

CSO FT

CSO - PT CSO – FT

CSO - PT

CSO - FT

CSO – FT CSO – FT

VOC/Complaints VACANT – Not Filled

CSO – FT

CSO – PT CSO – FT

CSO - FT VACANT Not Filled

CSO FT 10.5 FTE

• Cost Neutral

• Recruitment Plan • March 2014 ( 1 Team Leader 1 Customer Service Officer)

• July 2014 (4 Customer Service Officers)

• August/September 2014 (2 Customer Service Officers)

• November 2014 (1 Quality Coach, 1 Team Leader)

• Upskill existing front counter staff

• Multi skilled staff - Counter, CCC, Corro, Processing

• Multi skilled team leaders - trainer, knowledge author, Telephony administrator

• Training / Learning and Development

• Many Challenges!

Contact Centre – Recruitment Above All - Service

Customer Contact Centre Above All - Service

― Business Units supported by the Customer contact centre

― Waste, Patrol & Security, Parks & Street scapes, Road & Construction Services, Property, Environmental Health, Compliance, Planning Services, Building services, Rates

― Customer Interaction consistent (Script flow and knowledge base)

― 82% of contacts effectively handled through Contact Centre

― 35% call reduction through increased efficiencies

Total Calls 60 809 Total Answered 58 460 Service Level 96.10% Abandons 2236 % Ans 30 seconds 89.17% Average Wait time 7 seconds

CRM – Workflows / Knowledge Base Above All - Service

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CRM) • Kana / Lagan Application

• Contact centre specific modules, allows for agent scripting, utilises workflows

• Stand alone solution (operating independently from Authority, Tech one, Pathways)

• Employee Mobile application for field staff

• Critical contact centre capability

1. Scripting, workflows for enquiries, service requests

work orders

1. Integrated knowledge base

Customer Relationship Management Above All - Service

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

• 3 months Technical implementation (server installation, configuration, modules) • 8 Week Cycle from no processes to full support in a contact centre • Workshop (processes) Design, Develop, Deploy, UAT, Train, Release • Project team 3 Contact centre leaders, 2 Business Analysts, 4-5 representatives from

each business unit

Service Quality -Continuous Service Improvement Above All - Service

• Phone Fox • VOC - Voice of the Customer • CSI – Continuous Service Improvement

Quality of Service – PhoneFox Above All - Service

INITIATIVES IMPLEMENTED

― Cultural change programme

― City-wide mystery shop survey measuring phone answering standards

― Fun !!

Voice of the Customer – Sample Survey Above All - Service

Measuring Success – VoC Above All - Service

Measuring Success Above All - Service

BENEFITS REALISATION

― Logging and tracking of customer interactions

― Simplified service delivery

― Improved customer satisfaction via rapid and

focused response to queries/requests

― First call resolution at (82%)

― Customer Satisfaction increase from 68% to 97%

― Call Reduction of 35%

Measuring Success Above All - Service

• Clear vision and Executive endorsement • Clear problem identification

• Clear strategy

• Clear planning

• Build and Strengthen relationships • Internal Business Units

• Preferred partners and Suppliers

• Prepare for Change • Agents of Change

Top 3 takeaways Above All - Service