Background
Bromley Council experienced increased customer demand, with more customers experiencing financial difficulty. The council tasked Liberata with effectively managing the increase in customer demand.
A strategic decision was made to manage as much demand as possible via digital services and technology while ensuring the needs of vulnerable customers were met and continuing to deliver the excellent service standards Bromley Council residents expect.
The Solution
Liberata caters to a diverse customer base, and we adapt our services to meet the unique needs of each Local Authority we serve. Together with Bromley Council, we conducted customer insight through surveys and feedback to ascertain how customers would like to transact with the council and their expectations.
The results showed us that they expected to access services 24/7 and wanted the ability to contact the council using different channels. These included telephony services, web chat, and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.
We worked with our partners IPI and Genesys to develop our customer service solution. The Genesys platform ensured we could implement the technology and processes to match customer needs and expectations detailed in the customer survey results. Catering to vulnerable customers was an essential part of the development.
Using Genesys technology, we have implemented self-service functionality, using voice and web bots, to streamline the customer experience and empower our staff to focus on more complex tasks and assist vulnerable customers.
Deployment
Liberata and Bromley Council collaborated closely to implement impactful changes. The service rollout occurred in the following phases.
Phase one
In January 2023, we introduced our first self-service voice bots to enhance Bromley Council’s Registrar services. Implementing these voice bots resulted in an immediate and significant improvement in the services provided. In the first month of going live, the resolution rate was 19%, far exceeding predictions of 9%.
We continued to track customer satisfaction to analyse feedback on the new technology and customer journey. Our results were high, with 96% of customers rating our service as good or better, and the feedback regarding the new technology was overall positive.
Ongoing analysis and continuous customer feedback on our voice bot results allowed us to ascertain how we could improve the resolution rates and customer journeys. Throughout the following 18 months, our resolution rates have increased to 26% and our customer journeys have continued to improve.
Phase two
We used all the customer insight and lessons learned from the council’s Registrar services voice bot implementation and moved to phase two deployment. Phase two involved rolling out Genesys across all other Bromley Council services, starting in January 2024 and completing within two months.
The next phase of Bromley Council’s technology transformation involves examining future innovations, such as web bots, web chat, our automated ID and Verification voice bot, and data capture voice bots.
The results
Our voice bots continue to succeed across all our Bromley Council services. Our overall call resolution rates across all services, including Revenues and Benefits and National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR), is currently 12%. The feedback we continuously receive indicates a high customer satisfaction rate of 95%. This feedback is invaluable as we carefully assess and incorporate the comments, recommendations, and improvements into our development roadmaps.
Genesys voice bot technology has improved customer journeys and expanded customer access channels. Our staff now focus on more complex tasks and have more time to assist vulnerable customers. Since implementing our voice bots, we’ve seen significant improvements in call handling between January–September 2023 and the same period in 2024. We now answer 97% of incoming calls across services, up from 96%. The average speed to answer has improved from 67 seconds to 60 seconds. Calls handled by advisors have reduced by 8%, while the service level performance for answered calls has increased from 68.6% to 71.6%.
In the current climate councils need to find innovate ways to meet customer expectations whilst managing growing service demand and increasing budgetary pressures. This project and our ongoing partnership with Liberata have delivered on all fronts and is just part of the exciting innovation journey that we on together.
Stephen McGinnes, Assistant Direct Exchequer, London Borough of Bromley
Results in numbers
An award-winning partnership
Liberata has been recognised within Bromley Council. In July 2024, we received the Team of the Year award for our service improvements through technology and innovation.
Also, in 2024, we have received recognition and awards across the globe for our technology implementation, including:
- CCA Global Accreditation for Customer Experience – Silver award
- CCA Best Technology Partnership
- European Contact Centre Awards finalists for Best Approach to Supporting Vulnerable Customers
- Genesys Innovation Awards finalist
