Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Time for a change
Leveraging Efficiency Gains by Transforming a Customer Services Strategy
Paul TaylorHead of Customer Services
Maidstone Borough Council – “an excellent authority”
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The story of a journey from
chaos to contact centre
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Maidstone
• Heart of Kent• 58,000 homes,
population of 143,000
• Politically hung council
• CPA excellent authority
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Why make the journey?
• Drivers for change (pre-CPA)– Telephone contact – BV Reviews– Lack of customer care & poor customer
satisfaction ratings– Capacity– Performance management– E-government– CPA!
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Why make the journey?
• Drivers for change (post-CPA)– Gershon– Transformation– Competitiveness– Partnership– CPA!
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Oh yes and this…..
• Front line staff the key indicator– Sceptical about the future– Unclear of ownership– Lack of collaboration– Inconsistent approach
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The Journey• Review of Corporate Plan
• Improving customer care one of seven corporate priorities• Officer & member review of structure
• Cabinet Member, Director & Assistant Director responsible for Customer Services
• Assistant Director of Change Management• Our Map - 3 year Customer Care Programme
• Manage change• IEG funding• Within existing capacity• Contact centre programme
– Year 1– Street scene & Benefits– Year 2– Revenues & Planning– Year 3– All other services
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Provisions
• High level commitment• Bag full of technology
– Northgate Front Office (CRM)– Anite Images@Work– SwiftMap GIS
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Provisions
• BPR– “is the fundamental rethinking and radical
redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service,
and speed.”
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples
• Toyota – Kaizen & Jidoka
– The day-to-day improvements that Members and their Team Leaders make to their working practices and equipment are known as kaizen. But the term also has a wider meaning: it means a continual striving for improvement in every sphere of the Company’s activities
– In Japanese ‘jidoka’ means automation. At Toyota it means ‘automation with a human touch’.
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples• Complaints
– Paper system– Inaccessible– Inefficient– Not hitting targets– No learning/feed back loop
• CRM & DIP to– Improve performance 40% to circa 90%– Increase access
• Visibility, sharing information, reducing “dead time”– Learn
• Feedback into process
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples1 2
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples3 4
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR ExamplesWOCAS – “What Our Customers Are Saying”
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples
• Planning– Restricted “duty desk service”– >30% of calls answered– Shortage of “professional staff”– Not hitting targets (not getting PDG!)
• CRM & Parsol to– Improve performance to circa 90%– Keep Planners Planning– Add capacity
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Will display constraintsAnd populate CRM
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples• Fly tipping – avoiding duplication
– Key issues– Where is it - duplicates?– Land in council ownership – wild goose chases!
• CRM with GIS integration to & improved the service for customer & back office– Getting it right first time– Empowering staff– Cost savings – 3,000 incidents per year, average duration of call
reduced by 30 secs, cost of call handing reduced, calls answered improved, improved pick up rate of hit squad (cost per visit of hit squad -circa £40)
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The CRM form is completed for the flytipping incidentand this button is then selected to invoke the GIS browser based system
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The link from the CRM process displays an initial map including toolsto capture information
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
A point is plotted on the mapshowing the location of the flytipping incident
The CRM system reference and date are passed to themap
The contact centre operativewill press this button if satisfiedthat the details are correct
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The information relating to the map is showntextually and can be linked to a non-GIS database in order to display, for example,what action was taken by a contractor
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples (To do list!)
Original Receipt to Customer Copy of receipt
1st copy 2nd Copy 3rd Copy
Customer TakesReceipt
Pay in Person
The member of publicreceives the 1st copy
Cashiers Match UpTicket
Customer MakesPayment
Payment made at Cashiers
Post Received by SecAsst
Take Payment toCashiers
Pay by Post
Returned to SecAssistant
Log on Spreadsheet
A photocopy is sentto Cashiers
The 2nd copy is givento SecretarialAssistant
Fixed Penalty Noticeis Issued
Details logged tospreadsheet
3rd Copy of the noticeis kept in the originalbook
How Payments Can Go Missing – Environmental Health
When a Fixed Penalty Notice is issued (1), a photocopy of the ticket is sent to the Cashiers via the internal mail (2). When the customer arrives to pay with the original ticket (3), the cashier must match up the payment with the photocopied ticket (4), attach a receipt and send it back, via the internal mail, to the Secretarial Assistant who keeps track of who has and hasn’t paid (5).
Sometimes tickets returned by cashiers, with a receipt attached, get lost in the internal mail. A record of payment was not made by the Secretarial Assistant and the customer subsequently received reminders about the unpaid ticket.
Proposal: Improve issuing and tracking of all types of payments by using workflow
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
BPR Examples (To do list!)Forms Issued In Triplicate – Parking Services
The temporary parking permit is provided to residents whilst they await the issue of their full permit. The temporary permit is a triplicate carbon form. The white copy (1) is given to the customer to display in the vehicle. The yellow copy (2) is sent to parking services along with a list of the permits that have been issued during the day. Parking services keep an archive of these forms. The blue copy (3) is also placed in an archive and kept in the basement at Tonbridge Road.
Proposal: The proposal is to use CRM technology to electronically hold the details of those residents who have been issued temporary permits. Savings would be made through eliminating;
•the need to store copies of issued permits•sending copies of permits through internal mail•printing books of temporary permits
White copy of form isgiven to customer
Yellow copy of form issent to parkingservices
Cashiers issue atemporary permit
Cashiers takepayment for theapplication
Copy proofs andcheck form
Photocopied proofsare stapled to form
Customer atreception withresident's parking
The blue copy of theform is kept atcashiers
The copies are keptin an archive atTonbridge Road
Hand original proofsback to customer
The Proofs and Formare sent to ParkingServices
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The Lessons• We’d forgotten our business• Customer forgotten in the process• Little or no learning• Need to think corporate• Need to act corporate – the wider change
agenda• The importance of information• ICT as an enabler• The need to measure
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The Destination
• Competitiveness– Increased efficiency– Brand
• Radical change?– System think
• Public Relations– Meeting Expectations– Building trust
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Tesco.com• Over 4 m delivers per year
– half customers weren’t previous Tesco patrons
• Started small in 1996• Quick picks
– 6 zones– Pickers have wireless touch pad fitted to rolling cart– Optimal route, 30 secs per pick, working on 6 orders at a time,
assembled in back room, cost about £4 (offset against checkout costs)
– Average order 64 items, more profitable lines (higher margins)– Charge for delivery
• Radical change?
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
Time for a change?
Oct 2005 www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
The End