A Consultative Technology Partner
Plus Dane appointed a consultant to assist in finding the perfect strategic technology partner. They wanted someone with experience in the communications industry who could translate business needs into a digital design.
The consultant recommended the Crown Commercial Services framework that ensures public sector organisations are presented with compliant, trustworthy partners for telephony and contact centre solutions.
“We ran a competitive tender process and chose Britannic as they had the most industry experience and knowledge. They had responded to the brief on a deeper level than the other suppliers and their demo using the 8x8 solution was very impressive. They had taken the time to produce a tailored demo that aligned with our vision and goals, and delivered on costs, which is critical for a not-for-profit organisation,” states Kelly.
Plus Dane was impressed with Britannic’s vast ecosystem of vendors and the wide array of solutions available to them.
Changing Communications with Customers
Britannic recommended the 8x8 IP telephony and contact centre solution hosted in the cloud. This solution provides an omnichannel experience, presenting customers with different channels of communications. The solution also leverages AI-driven insights for reporting and seamless integration with other technologies.
The telephony was deployed across Plus Dane’s multiple sites (offices, schemes and colleague homes). And was deployed across the following multiple teams (customer access, repairs, income, lettings and welfare). The customer access team handles the first point of contact with customers while the repairs team provides additional support for appointments, scheduling and repair queries. The income and welfare team assists with income collection, that provides customers with support on benefits and providing other services. The lettings team helps customers with queries about new homes, transfers and mutual exchanges.
Plus Dane was able to flex its approach to licensing with some teams receiving contact centre level capabilities, and other teams receiving more cost-effective options that met their needs while ensuring costs with managed effectively.
The Voice of the Customer
They incorporated WhatsApp into the contact centre so customers can easily make queries at a time that suits them, such as reporting a repair. This frees up colleagues to focus on higher priority and complex tasks.
The housing association recently conducted a survey to understand how customers are using Whatsapp.
Natalie Rose, Plus Dane Contact Centre Manager commented, “We had some positive feedback from customers and have seen an increase in usage. It has been insightful learning what they use WhatsApp for and how it has grown organically. We are informing customers of the channel to make them aware and increase usage.”
The results from Plus Dane’s survey highlighted that 60% of customers felt that being able to contact Plus Dane at a suitable time was what they liked the best about Plus Dane WhatsApp. Customers could share their non-urgent enquiries, even if the office was closed, and knew that they would receive a response the next working day.
Driving Innovation with AI and Automation
Plus Dane is always looking to drive innovation into the organisation to improve the customer experience and transform business processes, making them more efficient and effective.
They are considering using AI in the contact centre to enhance their chatbot, further support customers, and free up colleagues as they transition to a more self-service model for customers. They have already utilised technologies such as speech analytics and quality management to help drive service improvements.
Plus Dane has also implemented email automation, which has increased efficiencies and customer service by prioritising and triaging emails using keywords such as ‘suicide’, ‘complaints’, ‘damp’, and ‘mould’. This escalates the emails to urgent status, which can be handled immediately.
Working with Britannic
Britannic worked closely with Plus Dane Housing to ensure the telephony and contact centre aligned with their objectives, delivering added value, improving the customer and agent experience. Providing a secure and reliable cloud solution with the flexibility to scale as required and add on new technology when needed.
"We couldn’t fault Britannic on its communication and availability, and they were always ready to help. We had regular meetings to ensure we were on track and progressing with existing and new solutions. The CEO was always available to resolve any urgent issues and the high level of service from all members of the Britannic team is exceptional.
Britannic is very good at suggesting new solutions without doing the hard sell which is commendable. So, we know that we are constantly exposed to the latest digital technologies that can improve our services...
...Britannic is excellent at bringing us innovative solutions and consistently advising on how we can improve and enhance our services. They stand out as a strategic partner because they are always ahead with the latest disruptive technologies, such as NetTranslate and Verint. This could be extremely useful in our organisation as it instantly translates calls that are accurate and at a lesser cost than external services,” states Kelly.
Workforce Management
One of the benefits of the 8x8 solution is that additional technology and solutions can be seamlessly integrated. Plus Dane uses Verint, a workplace management tool that helps managers and colleagues forecast and schedule their work accordingly.
The 8x8 solution’s real-time functionality allows colleagues to move around into different queues and areas, which has resulted in great call stats.
“A focus on managing queues in real time has increased the number of calls we can answer by over 10%, without increasing headcount, with average wait times decreasing by almost 60 seconds,” Rose commented.
Quality Management
Plus Dane Housing ensures they provide a superior customer experience and quality management. All teams are set up with quality management requirements, with a scorecard and evaluation card tailored for each team, where calls can be listened to and scores assigned.
“I now have visibility of all calls and identify key themes to be used for training. One of the key drivers from our executive management team was that they wanted to see how the solution added value and increased quality. This has been extremely useful for providing feedback for the agent about the call and asking ourselves what we could have done to improve the processes to make it slicker for the colleagues to handle faster and more efficiently,” comments Natalie Rose.
Insight Solutions
The organisation focuses on quality and not quantity, delivering the best service possible to its customers, dealing with each call and not rushing them off the phone. The Britannic contact centre solution has given them the insight to make strategic changes and transform processes. From the data insights, they can see how quickly colleagues answer and what the abandoned call rate is.
“We weren’t trying to drive the team harder by answering more calls; this was about making sure we had the right capacity in the right places to answer the calls when they came in. Delivering the quality that we need. And I think that's what's really the driver been, the turning point for us, focusing on quality,” states Natalie Rose.
