Technology is continuing to transform contact centre service provision, but it is not a panacea for public sector organisations. Nikki Powell and Becca Garside emphasise that operational priorities must always be the guiding light for maximising performance and delivering a smooth, efficient and positive contact centre experience.
It is the same for service providers and service users alike. Quick, easy and effective interactions are essential for achieving prompt and complete resolutions to enquiries or requirements. If everyone agrees with the goal, then why do significant shortfalls often persist in the contact centre experiences of service users and the organisations responsible for delivering important - and often critical - public services?
Delivering a diverse range of public services is quite unlike any commercial undertaking. It is not a case of carefully targeted product promotion, sales conversion or maintaining a competitive edge. The breadth of interactions with service users is considerable, covering a multitude of topics, service areas and requirements, from the routine and mundane to specific issues of a highly personal or emotive nature. Indeed, the diversity of interactions has continued to grow exponentially in the wake of Covid and the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis. It’s a very challenging operational landscape for any public sector service provider and in recent decades, favourable conditions have been scarce.
There’s service diversity and complexity to consider, not to mention severe financial limitations, political variables, the shackles of legacy, the need to minimise risk, misaligned skillsets and cultural resistance. Then there’s the dilemma of constantly evolving user needs, fluctuating demand and the ever-rising expectations of the general public. Amid these pressures, it remains crucial to provide prompt, personal and empathetic responses – especially for critical issues, complex cases and the most vulnerable members of the community.
We are all too aware of the many reins constraining the ability of public service providers to move from the long grass onto the bowling green in order to deliver faster, smoother and more effective contact centre interactions with service users. However, no matter how daunting the task may seem, these challenges have accelerated the need for a systematic reassessment of contact centre service provision, taking into account the different processes, types of interaction, technologies and, most importantly, the people. A closer look at the challenges and available options reveals plenty of scope for confident progression and optimism without resorting to risky or radical service overhauls.
Deeper understanding
Being market-leading or pioneering isn’t the key priority of public sector organisations, and not just because of the cost of innovation and the risks associated with new ‘learn as you go’ technologies. More critically, there’s a need to keep the ‘cost-to-serve’ manageable and to prioritise reliable, accessible solutions that meet the real needs of all service users. The diversity of service points and enquiries demands a much higher level of personalisation and a much deeper understanding of user needs than is the case for most private sector contact centres that are driven far more by functionality and technology. Meeting the needs and demands of vulnerable members of the public is not, for example, an optional consideration – it’s an absolute necessity.
Given the challenges and despite the risks, some public sector organisations – whether local authorities, healthcare service providers and central government or organisations within defence, education, justice or emergency services – may feel drawn to adopting the latest technological advancements. However, as any responsible senior manager will know, true and sustainable service transformation must put operational imperatives front of mind for any public sector service provider.
It’s essential to maintain service inclusion and accessibility for all, while providing the right interactions at the right time, especially for more vulnerable members of the local community, those who are digitally disengaged, individuals with hearing impairments and those for whom English is not a first language. It is really a case of shifting the emphasis and finding the right balance between established practices and skills, and embracing new digital capabilities, such as text-based tools that cater for different languages.
A more dynamic approach
This should not be a revolution. Quite the opposite. It should be an evolutionary process founded on informed decision-making, less complexity and the real-life needs and constantly evolving expectations of different service users. Using proven technology to deliver 24/7 service interactions for those who expect ‘out-of-hours’ digital engagement for routine enquiries, for example, can free up existing personnel to offer more focused one-to-one support for complex or sensitive cases. It’s important, however, that staff have the right skills and knowledge to provide flexibility and ensure that first time resolution becomes the norm, regardless of a user’s preferred type of interaction.
It's a tall order to expect staff to be fully trained, motivated and able to provide full enquiry resolution across all channels and service lines, but such agility is essential to make people’s lives safer, easier and simpler. This all points to the need for a multi-layered and more dynamic approach to upskilling and multi-skilling of staff, both in terms of the types of service user interactions and the range of new contact centre functionalities. Put simply, taking a considered standpoint that truly empowers people, simplifies processes and harnesses technology will support the move towards multi-disciplinary and multi-channel service provision – prerequisites for aligning operational efficiency with the best possible user experience.
Another unavoidable consequence of public sector service provision is the fluctuating demand for contact centre services and the disparate types of enquiries across different departments and service areas. Historically, efforts to address such demands have often been pursued on a departmental basis. Even today, there is the temptation to adopt niche or bespoke technologies to reflect specific characteristics of different service areas - Revenues and benefits being a good case in point. However, such piecemeal and add-on solutions can never provide truly sustainable or reliable outcomes as, by their very nature, they have limited application within an organisation. They also pose challenges related to resilience and integration, given the multitude of legacy host systems and processes in the public sector.
The need for agility and scalability
This is where flexibility by default and a collaborative approach to service delivery can make a significant difference. Using the resources and capabilities of an experienced partner will enable any organisation to maintain continuity and service standards by seamlessly absorbing peak periods without any disruption to critical service areas. This will help to minimise the risk of service bottlenecks, enquiry delays and user frustrations. Importantly, such a collaboration delivers ongoing scalability and ensures public trust and efficiencies are not compromised even during the most severe periods of operational pressure.
It also provides organisations with access to secure and advanced capabilities and new levels of automation, including chatbots, interactive voice response systems and cognitive computing. These technologies are largely data-driven and are well-established in even the most regulated sectors of industry – such as banking and finance – where they continue to transform and enrich the experiences of service users and contact centre staff alike.
In this digital age, it’s of no surprise that data management and utilisation are central to many core contact centre operations. This trend is only expected to grow in significance. For any public sector organisation, the exponential growth in data has always posed challenges – not just in terms of security, but also in the way it is used. It’s not the breadth and depth of data we need to worry about, but the way that data can be used to deliver invaluable insights, inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement. That’s why appropriate analytics and easy to view dashboards are so important.
Looking ahead
In subsequent articles we’ll take a closer look at the techniques, approaches and emerging practices that can help public sector organisations transform and enhance their contact centre operations by ensuring that operational cost-effectiveness is closely aligned with the best possible user experience.
Find out more about enhancing your content centre operations
Becca Garside
Transformation Director
Becca brings over eight years of experience in transformation change and bid solution management & design. Most recently, she has been leading a multi-disciplinary Transformation team that designs and delivers transformed Contact Centre services for Capita Public Services clients. Becca is passionate about delivering positive change and continuously strives to connect the dots between people, processes, and technology, creating simplicity in complex environments.
Nikki Powell
Director of Public Service Customer Contact
With over two decades in customer experience (CX) management, Nikki oversees front line contact centre operations for Capita’s UK public sector clients, including Local and Central Government, Ministry of Justice, TFL, Department for Work and Pensions, and NHS England. She designs and implements digital strategies for all contact centres touchpoints, overseeing customer service and complaints management. Nikki focuses on revenue growth, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction, while engaging with clients, stakeholders, regulators, and technology partners.
