Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Purpose of Document:
The purpose of this document is to provide help advice and implementation guidel
ines to
Local Authorities that are planning to implement a Contact Centre.
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................
....................................................... 5
1.1 OVERVIEW ...................................................................
............................................................. 5
1.2 READER......................................................................
.............................................................. 6
1.3 RELATED PRODUCTS & ADDITIONAL READING ......................................
....................................... 6
2 BACKGROUND....................................................................
...................................................... 8
2.1 THE PURPOSE AND ORIGINS OF THIS DOCUMENT ...................................
....................................... 8
2.2 DEFINITION OF A CONTACT CENTRE .............................................
............................................... 8
2.3 THE LINK BETWEEN CONTACT CENTRES AND CRM....................................
.................................. 9
2.4 CALL CENTRES IN LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT................................
................................. 9
2.4.1 Walk-in shops and telephone Contact Centres...............................
................................ 9
3 A HISTORY OF LOCAL AUTHORITY CONTACT CENTRES .................................
................ 11
3.1 WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN T WORK .............................................
...................................... 11
3.1.1 Outsourcing ..............................................................
..................................................... 13
3.1.2 Partnering................................................................
..................................................... 13
4 CURRENT CONTACT CENTRE TECHNOLOGY.............................................
........................ 14
4.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................
........................................................ 14
4.2 KEY COMPONENTS OF A CONTACT CENTRE..........................................
..................................... 14
4.2.1 Overview .................................................................
...................................................... 14
4.2.2 The Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) .....................................
...................................... 15
4.2.3 The Management System ....................................................
......................................... 16
4.2.4 Business Application .....................................................
................................................ 17
4.3 ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS ......................................................
................................................. 17
4.4 OVERVIEW ...................................................................
............................................................ 18
4.4.1 Interactive Voice Response (IVR) .........................................
........................................ 18
4.4.2 Voice Recording ..........................................................
.................................................. 18
4.4.3 Workforce Management......................................................
.......................................... 19
4.4.4 E-mail Server.............................................................
.................................................... 19
4.4.5 Web Chat Server/SMS Server ...............................................
....................................... 19
4.4.6 CTI Computer Telephone Integration........................................
................................. 19
4.4.7 Outbound Dialler to Automate the Placing of Outbound Calls................
...................... 20
5 EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES.........................................................
.......................................... 21
5.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................
........................................................ 21
5.2 PC SERVER BASED CONTACT CENTRES.............................................
...................................... 21
5.3 VOICE OVER IP OR IP TELEPHONY ..............................................
.............................................. 23
5.4 HOSTED CONTACT CENTRE ......................................................
................................................ 24
6 IMPACT ON CRM.................................................................
..................................................... 26
6.1 OVERVIEW ...................................................................
............................................................ 26
6.2 MULTI-CHANNEL CONTACT HANDLING .............................................
......................................... 26
7 FUTURE PROOFING...............................................................
.................................................. 27
7.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................
........................................................ 27
7.2 GENERAL GUIDANCE ...........................................................
..................................................... 27
8 CONTACT CENTRE PROCUREMENT....................................................
................................. 29
8.1 PURCHASING THE TECHNOLOGY ..................................................
............................................. 29
8.2 SUPPLIERS...................................................................
........................................................... 29
8.3 CONTRACTS...................................................................
......................................................... 29
8.4 COSTINGS....................................................................
........................................................... 30
8.5 EXAMPLE FIGURES ............................................................
....................................................... 32
9 HOW TO GET STARTED............................................................
.............................................. 35
9.1 RESEARCH ...................................................................
............................................................ 35
9.2 BENCHMARKING ...............................................................
........................................................ 35
9.3 STRATEGY ...................................................................
............................................................ 35
9.4 ACCOMMODATION ..............................................................
...................................................... 35
9.5 PEOPLE .....................................................................
............................................................. 36
9.6 TECHNOLOGY .................................................................
.......................................................... 36
9.7 PLANNING ...................................................................
............................................................ 37
9.8 IMPLEMENTATION..............................................................
....................................................... 37
10 CASE STUDIES.................................................................
....................................................... 38
10.1 LONDON BOROUGH OF BRENT ...................................................
........................................... 38
10.1.1 Origins of the LB Brent Contact Centre...................................
...................................... 38
10.1.2 Staff ...................................................................
............................................................ 38
10.1.3 Technology...............................................................
..................................................... 39
10.1.4 Service .................................................................
......................................................... 39
10.1.5 Customer Satisfaction ...................................................
................................................ 40
10.1.6 Hindsight ...............................................................
........................................................ 40
10.2 LONDON BOROUGH OF TOWER HAMLETS............................................
................................... 41
10.2.1 Origins of the LBTH - Housing Repairs Contact Centre ....................
........................... 41
10.2.2 Staff ...................................................................
............................................................ 41
10.2.3 Technology...............................................................
..................................................... 42
10.2.4 Service .................................................................
......................................................... 42
10.2.5 Customer Satisfaction ...................................................
................................................ 43
10.2.6 Hindsight ...............................................................
........................................................ 43
10.3 EAST RIDING DISTRICT COUNCIL...............................................
............................................ 43
10.3.1 Origins of the East Riding of Yorkshire Contact Centre...................
............................. 44
10.3.2 Staff ...................................................................
............................................................ 44
10.3.3 Technology...............................................................
..................................................... 44
10.3.4 Service .................................................................
......................................................... 45
10.3.5 Customer Satisfaction ...................................................
................................................ 46
10.3.6 Hindsight ...............................................................
........................................................ 46
10.4 WEST LANCS DISTRICT COUNCIL ...............................................
........................................... 46
10.4.1 Origins of the West Lancs. Contact Centre................................
................................... 47
10.4.2 Staff ...................................................................
............................................................ 48
10.4.3 Technology...............................................................
..................................................... 48
10.4.4 Service .................................................................
......................................................... 48
10.4.5 Customer Satisfaction ...................................................
................................................ 49
10.4.6 Hindsight ...............................................................
........................................................ 49
10.5 HULL CITY COUNCIL..........................................................
................................................... 50
10.5.1 Origins of the Hull City Council (Hull CC) Hull Connect Call Centre......
.................... 50
10.5.2 Staff - Kingston Communications (KC) ....................................
..................................... 51
10.5.3 Staff Hull CC............................................................
................................................... 52
10.5.4 Technology...............................................................
..................................................... 52
10.5.5 Service .................................................................
......................................................... 52
10.5.6 Customer Satisfaction ...................................................
................................................ 53
10.5.7 Hindsight ...............................................................
........................................................ 53
11 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................
...................................................... 54
11.1 RECOMMENDED READING........................................................
............................................. 54
11.1.1 Central Office of Information (COI) .....................................
.......................................... 54
11.1.2 FITLOG ..................................................................
....................................................... 54
ANNEXE 1. AUTHORS, CONTRIBUTORS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................
......... 55
APPENDIX A. KEY CONTRIBUTORS ...................................................
................................................ 55
APPENDIX B. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................
............................................. 55
ANNEXE 2. GLOSSARY OF TERMS.....................................................
.......................................... 56
ANNEXE 3. CONTRACTING A MYSTERY SHOPPER.........................................
.......................... 58
APPENDIX C. ISSUES TO CONSIDER..................................................
................................................. 58
APPENDIX D. ISSUES FOR TRAINING ................................................
................................................. 60
ANNEXE 4. METADATA .............................................................
..................................................... 62
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) established an £80 million progra
mme of
National Projects whose aim is to bring together councils, central government, t
he private
sector and others to define and deliver projects and national Local e-Government
solutions.
The CRM National Project has the following objective: To enable councils to explo
it CRM
in order to transform customer service, by providing a comprehensive toolkit by
mid-2004 .
The Contact Centre Guide (CCG) is designed to assist Local Authorities to plan,
procure,
and implement Contact Centres.
local authorities can use it as a checkpoint guideline document to assess their
own
internal work
local Authorities can use it as a kick-off document to plan for their implementa
tion
the product will enable more efficient management of resources through the
guideline document being available and Local authorities not having to reinvent
the
wheel
by providing an established framework in which to work, LA s will be aware of the
requirements and constraints of a contact Centre
the product will evolve as it is used, and it will be under version control and
release
The product is primarily aimed at LA s that are involved in:
planning to implement a CRM system
developing a Contact Centre for the first time
upgrading or merging existing Contact Centres
providing both walk-in shops and telephone Contact Centres as customer access
points
This product has been developed from existing best practices that have been deve
loped by
the COI and LA Pathfinders, including:
key technology suppliers in the UK local Authority market place
local Authority case studies
the LA Contact Centre benchmark group
information provided by the COI and FITLOG
information supplied by partners within the CRM National Programme
READER
This Product is intended to be used by teams and individuals involved in the imp
lementation
of customer Contact Centres, including:
Senior Business Managers
IT Managers
Programme Managers
Project Managers
Business Analysts
Change Support Managers
Contact Centre Managers
RELATED PRODUCTS & ADDITIONAL READING
This document should be read in conjunction with the documents listed below. Ful
l
references are in section 12 of this document.
FITLOG calling Local Government
Making Contact
And the following documents from the National CRM Programme library:
P1.0 CRM Vision
K1.0 CRM Business Case
TS3.2 CRM Customer Care Standards
TS3.1 CRM Interaction Standards
B3.0 CRM Support and Operation Guidelines
B4.0 CRM User Requirements Specification
BACKGROUND
THE PURPOSE AND ORIGINS OF THIS DOCUMENT
The inspiration for this document came from a number of Local Authorities that p
articipated
in the Proofs of Concept (POC) process when the CRM User Requirements Specificat
ion B
4.0 and the CRM System Functional Specification B2.0 products were being develop
ed.
DEFINITION OF A CONTACT CENTRE
A Contact Centre is a managed group of people (agents) who handle enquiries that
are
delivered to them, over the phone, or electronically. These enquiries are passed
to them by
some form of queuing system, that can prioritise which enquiries are to be handl
ed first, and
can also prioritise the order in which agents are chosen to handle the enquiries
. The
effectiveness with which the queuing system and the agents handle these enquirie
s is
monitored, both in real time and historically, so that the performance of the Co
ntact Centre
can be checked against specific targets, and can be improved over time. In addit
ion the
agents are provided with some form of business application (i.e. CRM) to allow t
hem to
record, manage and track the enquiry.
There are no particular size constraints on Contact Centres. They can be as smal
l as 4 or 5
agents up to many hundreds. There is also no reason for all the agents to be in
the same
room or building. Modern technology means that the agents can be in geographical
ly
dispersed locations, as long as they can still be managed as a group.
This definition is important as it differentiates a Contact Centre from an offic
e, which may
have a number of people handling calls as well, but where there are no queuing o
r
monitoring systems, and no overall management of the activities of the people in
the office.
Historically, Contact Centres only handled phone calls (call centres) but nowada
ys they
may also handle e-mails, web chats, and text messaging.
THE LINK BETWEEN CONTACT CENTRES AND CRM
During the development of the technical specifications products, within the Nati
onal CRM
Programme, Local Authorities made the point very strongly that introducing CRM i
nto a
local authority would, in practice, go hand in hand with the introduction and us
e of Contact
Centres and Walk-in Shops. It was therefore appropriate for the National CRM Pro
gramme
to develop a guide that sought to clarify the process for setting up a successfu
l Contact
Centre. The central theme of the National CRM Programme is to introduce the conc
ept of
delivering a coherent and consistent level of service across all customer access
channels
whether that access be via the Internet, a telephone Contact Centre or face to f
ace in a
walk-in shop. The technology, and many of the processes used in a telephone Cont
act
Centre are the same as those that are used in a walk-in shop. Indeed, several Lo
cal
Authorities make use of spare capacity in the walk-in shop as overflow for the t
elephone
Contact Centre and vice versa; i.e. they share the same CRM application, telepho
ny
system, data network and desktop infrastructure.
CALL CENTRES IN LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
There appear to be as many different types of call centres operating in the publ
ic sector as
there are different organisations and departments. Central government, almost by
definition,
tends to have very large centres that deal with customers nationwide. However, t
hese
centres generally provide a comparatively narrow range of services to both incom
ing callers
and when making outgoing calls to customers. Local government call centres, by c
ontrast,
tend by their nature to cater for the local community and when centralised can o
ffer a very
wide range of services but mainly to incoming callers. Traditionally, in local g
overnment, call
centres tend to have been tacked on to individual service areas in an attempt to h
andle the
incoming enquiries. These centres range in size from a few people sat round a de
sk with a
number of phones, to fairly large set-ups with telephony routed via ACD systems.
CRM is
key to the creation of a centralised Contact Centre operation.
Walk-in shops and telephone Contact Centres
The push from Government to e-enable access to service provision, together with
the
National CRM Programme, is focussing attention on access routes into Local Autho
rities.
The disparate access provision whereby customers were given long lists of teleph
one
numbers and had to try and decide which service they required, is giving way to
more
coherent access routes via Walk-in Shops and centralised telephone Contact Centr
es, plus,
of course, access via the internet, e-mail and text messaging.
Many Local Authorities still seem to view these routes as totally separate. Howe
ver, a more
coherent approach is possible with the assistance of good data networks, well de
signed
telephony links, plus CRM. This is especially true of walk-in shops and telephon
e Contact
Centres. To operate effectively they must share the same technology. All advisor
s in a
Local Authority should access the same CRM system to record and access customer
records and case histories, telephone calls should be routed via the same teleph
ony system
and they should all have access to the same backend applications. Only in this w
ay can
service delivery become fully coordinated and the customer receive the same qual
ity of
service, whether it is face to face, over the telephone, or via any of the other
electronic
access methods provided.
The case histories contained in this document outline some of the different ways
Local
Authorities have addressed these issues. Many of them, in essence, treat the pro
vision of
service through walk-in shops or via the telephone as one. In the East Riding, f
or instance,
the Contact Centres are distributed around the authority s area but they are linke
d so as to
provide one large virtual centre. Thus staff can be moved between the walk-in sh
op and the
telephone Contact Centre, to meet demand.
In this document we will treat either access route as if it were one whilst reco
gnising that the
customer care skills required for each may differ, but the technology used shoul
d be the
same.
A HISTORY OF LOCAL AUTHORITY CONTACT CENTRES
The move towards centralised contact points where customers can gain access to t
he
whole range of Local Authority provided services can be traced back to 1993 when
the
London Borough of Brent established the first (recorded) walk-in shop under the
banner of
the One Stop Shop. This experiment was deemed successful and was repeated at a
number of other locations in the borough and has now been replicated in many oth
er
Authorities. It is more difficult to pinpoint the beginnings of telephone Contac
t Centres in
Local Government but certainly by the mid 1990 s several authorities had recognise
d that
many customers could not get to the walk-in shops, either because of the opening
times or
the geographical distances were too great. It was also recognised that many peop
le prefer
to make enquiries via the phone, and by doing so greatly reducing the cost of se
rvice
provision. The emergence of CRM in local government, over the past three to four
years,
has enabled local authorities to provide a much greater level of coordination an
d coherence
between the access methods.
WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN T WORK
The research undertaken for this product shows quite clearly that there is no on
e right way
to implement a Contact Centre. Several different approaches have been tried and
often a
particular approach has been used because it was a good fit with the needs and
requirements of that authority at that time. Local Authorities embarking on a pr
oject to
establish a Contact Centre should examine both the short term and the likely lon
g term
needs for the centre since the two may not be directly compatible. For instance,
it may
seem to be a very attractive short-term solution to outsource the Contact Centre
in order
that it is up and running very quickly. However, if the long-term aim is to impr
ove flexibility
and reduce costs, outsourcing may not prove to be the best long-term solution.
Developing an in-house solution
Many authorities have developed their own in-house solution, designed to meet th
eir own
needs and budget. These Contact Centres vary from the very small, four-person ce
ntre, up
to a large centre with 200 or more seats . All these, regardless of size, faced the
same
basic problems regarding staff, technology and accommodation.
Staff
Please refer to the FITLOG Calling Local Government and Making Contact documents for
further information. (References are in section 11.1.2 of this document).
The research via our case studies highlights many common themes. Invariably and
especially at start-up Contact Centre staff are recruited internally from within
the authority.
The key selection criteria used tends towards knowledge of one or more service a
reas and
a willingness to work in a Contact Centre. This is the opposite to the approach
taken in
commercial centres where the key selection criteria is experience in customer ca
re
techniques with on the job product training coming later.
Initial training appears to take around two weeks but with ongoing training and
coaching to
ensure progression, consistency and that the information provided is up to date.
Local authority Contact Centres, generally have a very low turnover of staff, us
ually much
less than 10% pa. This compares well with commercial centres that often have tur
nover
rates nearer 50% pa. This high level of staff retention has been put down to a c
ombination
of:
varied and interesting work staff are often involved in developing services
good ongoing training schemes
good working conditions
much higher levels of pay compared with commercial centres
good Local Authority conditions of employment; hours, pension, holidays, flexibl
e
working, etc.
Technology is covered more fully in section 4.
Home workers
A few Local Authorities are experimenting with home workers to augment the main
Contact
Centre staff. This adds flexibility when planning for extended opening hours and
for
potentially busy periods. It also enables authorities to employ groups such as d
isabled
people who would find it difficult to travel and single mothers who cannot affor
d child care.
Modern technology, especially the use of IP based systems and broadband telephon
y,
enables home workers to have access to the same systems at similar speeds as if
they
were based in the main Contact Centre.
Outsourcing
From the research we have done it would appear that it is the larger authorities
that favour
outsourcing. The clear advantages to outsourcing are:
speed of start up
freedom from staffing issues other than those relating to potential loss of jobs
within
the authority
independence from many of the technology issues other than those relating to
networking back into the authority.
clearly defined and known costs.
Partnering
Liverpool City Council is a good example of partnering. The council has partnere
d with BT
and has established a range of programmes including the setting up of Liverpool
Direct
Limited which is an independent company, jointly owned by Liverpool City Council
and BT.
Liverpool Direct operates the city s telephone and walk-in Contact Centres on beha
lf of the
council. The advantages of this type of relationship are:
the sharing of costs
access to BT s technology and technical know how
access to BT s knowledge of operating large call centres
access to the council for staff recruitment
CURRENT CONTACT CENTRE TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
This section looks at the most common forms of Contact Centre technology. Howeve
r, it
should be noted that there has been a great deal of change in Contact Centre tec
hnology
over the last two years. This has resulted in a variety of alternatives to the t
raditional
technology used. The definition of current Contact Centre technology is therefor
e taken to
mean the technology that is in place in the majority of call centres. This is pr
imarily the
handling of calls delivered over the public telephone network, although there ma
y also be
the handling of web chats, e-mails and text messaging.
The alternative ways of implementing a Contact Centre are discussed in section 6
.
KEY COMPONENTS OF A CONTACT CENTRE
Overview
A Contact Centre requires three main components:
a queuing system (an ACD or Automatic Call Distributor)
a management system
a business application to allow agents to handle the enquiry
In addition to these components, the Contact Centre may include:
an IVR (Interactive Voice Response unit) to automate the handling of calls
Voice Recording Equipment to record calls
Workforce Management
CTI computer telephone integration to allow computer systems to control calls
Outbound Dialler to automate the placing of outbound calls
e-mail server
web chat server/SMS Server
Ordinary
Phones
PSTN
Network
Link
Business
Application
Hosts
Agents
PABX ACD
Management
System
Simple Contact Centre
The Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
The ACD is the core of any Contact Centre. It is responsible for taking outside
calls,
placing them in a queue and then delivering each call to the next available agen
t. This
means that there are more telephone lines coming into an ACD than there are agen
ts
available to handle the calls. (As opposed to a conventional telephone system (P
ABX)
where there are usually fewer incoming lines than there are phones on desks.) Ty
pically,
the ratio of inbound calls to agents is of the order 5 : 1. There are a number o
f ways in
which an ACD can be implemented, but typically it is a dedicated piece of hardwa
re.
Simple Contact Centre Configuration
Figure 1:above shows a typical configuration for a Contact Centre. Calls arrive
from the
public phone network (PSTN) and are directed to the main telephone switch (PABX)
. Calls
that are destined to be handled by the Contact Centre are passed through the PAB
X and
onto the ACD. The ACD then decides which agent should handle the call. The figur
e also
shows the PC server running the management systems, and the business application
hosts.
Call Queuing
Within the ACD there are a number of queues which direct calls to agents with sp
ecific
skills, or who work in particular departments. The ACD is able to choose which q
ueue to
put a call into by looking at the number dialled by the caller, or by offering t
he caller a
number of choices. These choices are handled by a component of the ACD called th
e
Auto Attendant, which is a very simple IVR system that can be configured to supp
ort a
simple menu system.
The queuing system monitors the activity of the agents and passes calls in the q
ueue to the
most appropriate agent to handle the call. In addition the ACD will have a set o
f business
rules to say how calls held in queue will be treated. These rules will allow the
ACD to move
calls to another queue if this queue is filling up too fast, etc. Part of the ma
nagement
system of the ACD will be a programming tool to specify this behaviour.
Multi-Channel Queuing
In Contact Centres where contacts arrive via more than one channel, the ACD func
tionality
has to be able to handle different media. It would typically be extended to incl
ude e-mail,
web cat, and SMS texts. These other media would have servers (see below) that re
ceive
the messages and then request a free agent to handle the enquiry. The ACD would
use its
business rules to decide the correct agent, prevent them receiving any further p
hone calls
and then notify the server that it can pass the message to that agent to handle.
FITLOG
Document Title
Publisher
Web Site
Calling Local Government
Using call centres to improve
service delivery
FITLOG
Foundation for Information
Technology in Local
Government
www.fitlog.com
Making Contact
Developing successful call centres
in Local Government
FITLOG
Foundation for Information
Technology in Local
Government
www.fitlog.com
Developing effective telephone
contact with citizens
A Checklist for Local Government
FITLOG
Foundation for Information
Technology in Local
Government
www.fitlog.com
Electronic Government
A Framework for action
FITLOG
Foundation for Information
Technology in Local
Government
www.fitlog.com
AUTHORS, CONTRIBUTORS &
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Version:
Version 1.0 Final
Date:
March 2004
Author:
Geoff Pollock and Caroline Adesanya
Owner:
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Client:
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
This CRM Product was developed as a part of the National CRM Programme. Primary
work on this product was undertaken by Brent Council with assistance from the fo
llowing
Suppliers and Local Authorities:
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
All information details are up to date and relevant to UK LA market place
E- Government Programme for provision of resources
East Riding Council
Hull City Council
LB Brent
LB Newham Council for provision of resources
LB Tower Hamlets
Liverpool City Council
West Lancs District Council
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Reginald Surridge - Product Consultant
David Mackenzie - Product Consultant
Ian Dell - Product Consultant
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
The following terms were extracted from the CRM Glossary in January 2004. For th
e most
current definition, refer to www.crmacademy.org/glossary
Term
Definition
BPR
Business Process Reengineering
Council
Refers to District, Metropolitan, City, Unitary or London Borough
council
ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning
ICT
Information and Communications Technology
LA
Local Authority
Maturity Model
The model that was developed in the CRM Scan to help navigate
through the highly complex set of option and CRM variants open to any
council that seeks to, or is already, implementing CRM
Programme
Refers to The National CRM Programme
Citizens 1
Individuals who live in a local authority s area.
Customer 2
Individuals or businesses that are dependent upon a LA s services. All
Citizens are customers.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management
Contact Centre
A Contact Centre is a managed group of people (agents) who handle
enquiries that are delivered to them face to face, over the phone, or
electronically.
One Stop Shop
Sometimes called Walk in Shop, a place where customers can walk in
off the street without an appointment and gain access or advice to
services provided by the local authority
User
For the purpose of this document, a user will be defined as the local
authority employees who will use the CRM system
Member
An elected member of the local authority
Partners
Fire service, police service, suppliers
Agencies
Housing trusts, benefits agencies, other local authorities
Suppliers
Contracted suppliers
BPR
Business Process Re-engineering
ERM
Electronic Records Management
NLPG
National Land and Property Gazetteer
LLPG
Local Land and Property Gazetteer
BVPI
Best Value Performance Indicator
CTI
Computer Telephony Integration
SLA
Service Level Agreement
iDTV
Interactive digital television
SMS
Short Message Service a technology used by mobile phone companies
to provide a TEXT Message service
PDA
Personal Data Assistant
DPA
Data Protection Act
GIS
Geographical Information System
IP
Internet Protocol
Manchester Business School Scan Document 17th June 2003
Manchester Business School Scan Document 17th June 2003
VoIP
Voice over IP
CONTRACTING A MYSTERY SHOPPER
ISSUES TO CONSIDER
determine how many checks and/or units are to be subjected to testing. Some
critical units may be subjected to annual testing whereas others may only need
assessment every two or three years
ascertain and provide any performance targets that units should currently be
working to achieve e.g. time to answer telephone, respond to letters/e-mails, et
c.
ascertain and provide any standard wording or greeting that should be given by
employees
ascertain which units can be checked by external customers and which, by their
very nature, can only be assessed internally. It is likely that some element of
internal checking will be required. Find an appropriate person or relevant
people/units to undertake this task. Internal feedback and monitoring of other
departments may be necessary
determine method of testing, choosing from a range of telephone, e-mail, face-to
face,
letter, fax, voicemail etc. Select the most appropriate method for each unit
or try two or three different approaches with each unit if preferred. A customer
querying information on a website is more likely to e-mail a query than phone it
through. Some units should have face-to-face checks e.g. Museums, Town Halls,
Tourist Information, Theatres etc. It may also be important to check out service
s for
disabled users and consider how the deaf or blind would be contacting the Counci
l
for each unit to be tested, a list of suggested questions should be established.
This
can either be provided by the Council, to assist the Mystery Shopper, or the Mys
tery
Shopper should be given free reign to investigate and research web site informat
ion
and devise their own questions. It is likely that a combination of both options
will be
the best approach, as the Mystery Shopper may have little understanding of the
roles carried out by some units/departments and will require some guidance. A
Council-provided list of questions to ask may be too restrictive. The Mystery
Shopper should have some flexibility
the level of qualitative and quantitative feedback should be addressed. It must
be
accepted that the majority of feedback will be qualitative and largely subjectiv
e.
However, an element of quantitative feedback is also required. The style of
feedback should be determined at outset. Will graphs be required? Standard
format or layout?
how will the Shopper monitor or record the contact itself. Will they have a chec
klist
of areas that need to be covered? How will that be done during a face-to-face
meeting? Can the Shopper use tape recording, Dictaphones etc? What are the
legalities of recording people without their knowledge? Is the onus on the Shopp
er
or the Council that employed them? Can conversations be paraphrased or should
they be accurately transcribed?
the Shopper needs to monitor many issues during the contact phase. Observation
and memory must be carefully combined to ensure that all aspects are covered. It
may be useful for the Shopper to have a friend with them during face-to-face visit
s
so that the friend can note key aspects such as presence of name badges,
cleanliness, leaflets, seating, other customers etc. They must listen and look
carefully
the Shopper should set up a dummy e-mail account (e.g. hotmail, msn, talk21) to
handle contact with the Council. This is critical if the Shopper is known to the
Council, or if word spreads to be wary of certain names. New e-mail accounts can
be set up quickly and easily if one is blown
if peer comparisons are required, how will this be done? Will the Mystery Shoppe
r
be expected to test neighbouring Councils, or Peer Group Councils? Will question
s
be standardised across areas to help comparisons be made? Will Council s share
their feedback with others?
findings should be both positive and negative. It is just as important to pick u
p and
spread good practice as it is to prevent bad practice or work on areas for
improvement. Praise should be given where due! The Shopper can make
recommendations but must remember that, in this scenario, the Council is their
customer and can use the information gathered in any way they see fit
conducting Mystery Shops can be difficult. The Shopper has to ask questions that
are not too specific and will not lead to situations whereby they have to give r
eal
names or addresses in order to assess a unit thoroughly. General enquiries are
normally carried out, or the Shopper should be phoning on behalf of a friend or
relative and will not have further details at that stage. Before starting the co
ntact
stage, the Shopper should know how far they can go with a query and how they wil
l
get out of it if things get tricky
the best Mystery Shops are based on real life cases that can be pursued fully. T
he
Shopper is also likely to be more confident in these situations. If real names a
nd
addresses can be given it makes life easier
ensure regular feedback is maintained between the Shopper and the Council. This
not only allows the Council to ensure that the type of monitoring and feedback i
s
appropriate for their needs but it also enables the Shopper to keep on top of re
ports,
close them off and be confident that they are getting things right for their cli
ent.
Feedback can also be addressed by the Council and internal problems rectified at
an earlier stage
ISSUES FOR TRAINING
it may be useful to develop workshop exercises based upon the Mystery Shop
experiences. It should be stressed that there are often no right or wrong answer
s
and each customer will have a different level of expectation and satisfaction
it is vital to remember that the internal customer is just as important as the e
xternal
customer. The internal customer/provider relationships should be considered and
employees reminded to think of their colleagues as their customers. Units provid
ing
services to fellow employees only should not see themselves as customer-free!
for training purposes, all employees should be asked to make a list of who their
customers are. They will find that they have many external and internal customer
s.
They should also look up and down the chain of command as they will have
responsibilities to both superiors and subordinates and to Officers and Members
alike. A Manager should see their staff as their clients as they will have speci
fic
needs which the Manager has to serve. Most relationships are two-way
how will findings be incorporated back into the training programme? Who will
determine which findings are critical to act upon and which are one-offs to be
ignored. Seemingly trivial criticisms within a Council may be major issues to a
customer
spelling and presentation is important. Paperwork sent to customers should be
clear, forms should be crisp and not photocopied out of recognition, websites sh
ould
be free of spelling errors or dead links. Units and departments should take far
more
ownership of their information. The Web Manager or information providers may
make mistakes in links, spelling, data, phone numbers etc. but each relevant uni
t
should check to see how their unit is represented to the customer and ensure tha
t
errors are identified and fed back to the people responsible for amending them s
o
that corrective action can be taken
websites providing e-mail addresses for units should provide unit e-mail address
es
rather than named individuals. Unit addresses are less likely to change. As staf
f
come and go, there is an added responsibility to ensure that old names are remov
ed
and new ones put on
METADATA
Coverage spatial
UK
Creator
Geoff Pollock and Caroline Adesida, London Borough of Brent
Date issued
8th March 2004
Description
A generic System Functional Specification (SFS) that can be used by
any local authority across any CRM product implementation.
Format
Text
Identifier
http://www.crmacademy.org/
Language
English
Publisher
Programme Office, National CRM Programme, 6th floor, Mulberry
Place, London E142BG
tel: 020 7364 3212 fax: 020 7364 4034
crm.pso@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Rights copyright
http://www.crmnp.org/copright.html
Source
http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
Status
Final Draft Version with Tracking
Subject category
e-Government
Subject keywords
CRM, Customer Relationship Management,
Title
B2.0- CRM System Functional Specification
Type
Standard