Contact Handling Shared
Service
In-hours & Out-of-Hours
Customer service transformation. Savings-show-us-the-money
Michelle Bernard
Mina Mistry
Neil Darroch
Customer Services Project
& Contract Manager
Ealing Council
Support and Service
Development Officer
Haringey Council
Client Director
General Dynamics
Information Technology
Ealing Council – Lead Client
Michelle Bernard
What we will cover today?
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The 2nd Generation of joint Out-of-Hours service
Implementation
Live operations
General Dynamics IT – Behind the scenes
How to join?
The future
The Nature of the contract
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EU compliant 6 year Framework Contract
Expires end September 2018 – then retendered
Organisations sign detailed Access Agreement
Local service requirements are appended
Available to members of London Contracts & Supplies Group
Housing Associations, ALMO’s, Association of Greater
Manchester and Public Sector Bodies in the South-East of
England
• Joining LCSG/AGMA is simple & free for public sector orgs.
• Each organisation retains its own identity.
• Robust contract T&Cs
Service Standards
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Speed of call answering Gold/Silver options
Minimising abandoned calls
Speed of passing requests to duty staff/contractors
Meeting customer service standards
Ensuring full service availability
Compliance with escalation procedures
Effective contract management
Hours of operation to suit
New Features
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Gold & Silver service standards
Gold – 80% in 20 secs & > 5% abandoned
Silver– 80% in 60 secs & >10% abandoned
Monthly management fee capped at £1k
Optional daytime call handling including
Taking payments
Direct use of back office systems
Support for the use of self-service solutions
Lone worker support service
Pricing
• Full schedule of rates
• No fee in comparison to the previous contract (agreed prior
to entering the contract)
• Price per call handled £2.55 Gold - £2.10 Silver
• Monthly management fee £1000 (sliding scale)
• Outgoing calls £1.20 per minute
• No charge for emails, £0.05 for SMS or Pager
• Value Money Review in 2015
• Agreed formula for TUPE costs
What’s in it for your
organisation?
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Significant financial savings
Raising service standards
Process documentation & improvement
Increased service clarity
Audit trails
Comprehensive service monitoring
Avoid expensive procurement
TUPE
• TUPE regulations
– 1981 and 2006 regulations
• Duty to inform and consult staff
representatives
• Provide employee information
(General Dynamics IT)
• Pensions
– GAD certificate of comparability
Current Organisations
Over 300,00 out-of-hours
calls handled per annum
Central Client Role
• Support
• Guidance
• Escalation
• Fortnightly Operational Conference Call
• Sharing Best Practice
Joint operational management
board
• Quarterly Contracts Board Meeting
• Partnership Working
• Sharing of Best Practice
• Identifying new requirements
• Suggestions & Innovating Ideas
Benefits & Achievements
• Collective savings of over a million pounds
• Quality and standards improvement
• Partnership working
• Best practice
• Aiming for affordable excellence in customer service provision
A users experience – Haringey
Mina Mistry
Haringay Overview
• Joined in August 2009
• 25 Service Descriptions
• Top 3 enquiry areas – General, Noise, Social Services
• Average 2,500 – 3,000 calls per month
• £133,771 savings in first year (including set up costs)
Implementation Experience
• 3 – 6 months preparations needed
• Service descriptions
• Development of scripts
• Back office ownership is critical
• Accurate information from the back offices
Service Operations (1)
• Service management and liaison
• Escalation arrangements
• Complaint handling
• Rota changes
• Amendments to services
Know your own business
• Call volumes
• Incoming and outgoing
• Data transfer methods
• Telephony diverts
• User acceptance testing
Service operations (2)
• Bad weather
• Major emergencies
• Special announcements
• Business continuity plans
• Performance reports
– Daily, weekly and monthly
Benefits
• Seamless transition to out of hours services
• Measure of performance output communicated regularly
• Maintaining customer service standards at all times
• Excellent tracking system for non-conformance, change requests
and queries
• Call recordings available for quality management
• Ultimate professional touch for your business!
Contact Handling Shared
Service
In-hours & Out-of-Hours
Neil Darroch
Client Director
Customer service transformation. Savings-show-us-the-money
About the Service
Resilient operation centres
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24 x 7 Call Centre since 2005
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Managed services for multiple local government / social housing
landlords
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Dual operation centres located in London and Yorkshire
 Contingency capability/crisis management
 Business continuity
Contact Handling
Shared Service
Agile service
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Service level choice Silver/Gold
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Select standard or bespoke call handling processes
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Services can be added or removed at any time
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Clear evolutionary path to channel shift
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Example Out-of-Hours Services
Abandoned car removal
Anti-social behaviour
Building security/alarms
Media Enquires
Members Enquiries
Noise patrol
CCTV
Complaints (all Council services)
Parking
Dangerous structures
Play equipment
Data Protection
Registrars Emergencies
Environmental Health/Trading Standards
Rubbish Collection & waste
Freedom of Information
General information about Borough services
Hall hire
Highways emergencies
Social services emergencies
Stray Dogs
Street Cleansing
Street lighting
Homeless families
Suicide Calls
Housing repairs & Estates Services
Terror Threats
Lone Worker Support
Travellers
Major emergencies
Trees
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Technology-enabled contact handling
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Integration potential e.g. Northgate
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Complete & consistent quality interactions
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Processes fully scripted and interactive
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Rules for hand-offs, rotas & escalation
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Call recording audit & traceability
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Easy to add, change or remove services
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Client portal: reports, change requests, audit trails
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Service Delivery
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Calls regular
service number
Call presented to
Shared Service
Centre
Call answered
as Authority
Service
Fulfillment
Call Handling
Customer View
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Identifies
authority
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Repeat caller
identified
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Call purpose
validated
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Interactive
script guides
agent through
agreed process
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Action identified
& confirmed to
caller
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Immediate
transfer to
fulfilment
Shift Handover
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SMS, Email,
Phone or back
office handoff
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Critical Services
Confirm
recipient,
handover &
incident
coordination.
All incidents
handed over,
highlighting
major,
contentious &
open issues
Daily download
of data file
made available
Governance
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Account Director
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Account
Management
team
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Framework board
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Operational
board
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Reviews and
reporting
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Continuous
improvement
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“Show me the money”
Avoidance of expensive procurement
Free to join the contract (wide range of service
descriptions and procedures available as standard)
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Economies of scale provide growing financial savings
Savings of up to 70% - significant savings when compared with the
costs of running an in-house service
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Free Support for interested organisations
• Full contract documentation
• Set of detailed guidance notes
• Sample feasibility study
• Advice and support from early
adopters
• Ready Reckoner
• General Dynamics IT
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The Future
• Interested Parties – including
Authorities
• Housing organisations and other
government bodies
• Partnering outside London
• Better & larger Service
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Contact Handling Shared
Service
In-hours & Out-of-Hours
Michelle Bernard
Neil Darroch
Customer Services Project
Client Director
& Contract Manager
General Dynamics Information Technology
Tel: 02088256522
Tel: 020 7939 3623
Mobile: 07961200022
Mobile: 07585 964715
Email: bernardm@ealing.gov.uk
Email: neil.darroch@gdit.com