Wokingham Borough Council Set to Save Money with New Contact Centre

Wokingham Borough Council has adopted a Hosted Contact Centre solution from Hampshire-based NewVoiceMedia that should save council tax payers £000s in the future. The new call centre infrastructure replaces the traditional expensive hardware technology with a system that is based over the Internet. It will initially route callers to eight different specialist agent groups within the council’s "Wokingham Direct" contact centre initiative.

Wokingham Direct lies at the heart of an integrated communications strategy that also integrates CRM databases and the internet. The new service will enable the council to improve public services for local citizens and businesses by resolving at least 80% of customer queries at the first point of contact. It will equip staff with instant access to all the information they need to answer multiple service enquiries as well as the management tools to help understand customer needs through continuously monitoring citizens’ requests, responses and satisfaction levels.

While cost savings are important, Wokingham also wanted a solution in place as quickly as possible. In the end the system went live just four weeks after placement of the contract. According to programme manager Andy Ralphs, "The NewVoiceMedia system was the fastest installation I’ve ever done". The new centre can quickly add new agents to meet changes in demand and can allow agents to work from home if the threatened pandemic flu strikes in order to keep services rolling.

Susan Law, Chief Executive of Wokingham Borough Council, said: "Our Wokingham Direct contact centre is very important to us as it will revolutionise the council’s customer care, whilst providing much-needed cost savings over the coming years."

NewVoiceMedia CEO, Jonathan Grant: "Many councils and health authorities are investigating innovative ways to provide call centres services and a fraction of the cost of before. I congratulate Wokingham on being one of the first to make the breakthrough!"

Image: NewVoiceMedia CEO Jonathan Grant congratulates Susan Law, CEO of Wokingham Council on the opening of  the Wokingham Direct Call centre.