Service Tasmania - supports surging customer demand with QPC
Service Tasmania is a one-stop access point to a wide range of government services for residents of the island state.
Created in 2012, the organisation operates through a network of shopfronts, a website and a contact centre.
Services offered include everything from driver licence and vehicle registrations to business registrations, government grants and fishing permits.
The Challenge
During the past four years, Service Tasmania has grown quickly as the organisation increased the number of different services it offers to residents. Rather than individual government departments and agencies dealing directly with customers, increasingly they are making use of the Service Tasmania organisation.
“Essentially we are working towards becoming a one-stop shop for all State Government-related services.
As each new service is added, it makes it simpler for residents to find information and access the services that they require.”
When initially established, Service Tasmania’s contact centre comprised little more than a basic switchboard. Staff had to manage incoming phone calls and access needed information from a variety of databases.
“While this had worked well initially, as call volumes began to increase we realised we would have to find a more flexible and scalable platform,” said Hinkley. “We needed to find a way to ensure our service levels could be maintained even as more agencies came on board.”
Service Tasmania was also faced with challenges in its shopfront locations. There was no mechanism in place to manage customer queues or collect data on wait times, transaction types and the length of visits. This information was needed to better manage the allocation of staff and ensure effective customer service levels were maintained at all times.
The Solution
In late 2014, a decision was taken to issue a tender for a new contact centre platform. A number of alternaves were examined before the selecon panel decided to adopt PureConnect by Genesys.
“We had looked at a number of options however the PureConnect by Genesys solution, which was offered to us by technology partner QPC, was clearly the best fit for our requirements,” he says. “We undertook a series of reference checks and looked at existing PureConnect by Genesys deployments in other places which helped to confirm our choice.”
After a six-month implementation process, the platform went live in June 2015 within the primary Service Tasmania contact centre in Hobart. Links were also established to 9 Service Tasmania shopfronts to give staff there the ability to also take customer calls. The PureConnect by Genesys platform is hosted within a State Government data centre to ensure reliability and security.
A decision was also made to install a QMatic customer journey management solution within selected Service Tasmania shopfronts. It was anticipated that this solution would help to manage queues as well as collect data about customer interactions.
“Our overall strategy was to improve customer and staff experiences by implementing platforms in both the contact centre and shopfront environments that could ensure a seamless experience via all channels,”
The Benefits
Once staff had been trained in using the new PureConnect by Genesys plaorm and the QMatic solution, significant benefits were quickly realised. In the contact centre, incoming calls could be better managed with a queuing system and agents could readily access information to process requests via the same screen. In the shopfront locations, busy periods could be more easily managed and data collected from each customer interaction.
“QPC helped to get us operational quickly and contact centre staff were supported as they transitioned from the existing switchboard system.
It was a big leap in terms of the technology being used but they were soon operating efficiently.”
Deployment of the QMatic solution allowed an omni-channel approach to be adopted for customer service. Data is collected and shared between the PureConnect by Genesys and QMatic platforms, ensuring customers enjoy a similar level of service regardless of the channel they choose to use.
“When customers arrive at a shopfront, they can make a selection from a range of services and then receive a ticket holding their place in the waiting queue,” said Hinkley. “The QMatic platform lets us quickly see how many people are waiting to be served at any time.
“When the centre is busy, we can free up agents to deal with customers by diverting calls to agents in other locations. QMatic also gathers considerable data and can provide reports on traffic levels through the centres and average wait times for customers.”
Hinkley says Service Tasmania is continuing to experience increasing demand and the PureConnect by Genesys and QMatic platforms together provide a solid foundation to support this growth.
“We are probably only using around 5 per cent of the functionality of the PureConnect by Genesys platform so far, but we know it has capabilities that can support us for years to come,” he says. “Our call volumes are increasing at the rate of 11 per cent each year and so having the ability to efficiently scale is very important.”
“We are probably only using around 5 per cent of the functionality of the PureConnect by Genesys platform so far, but we know it has capabilities that can support us for years to come. Our call volumes are increasing at the rate of 11 per cent each year and so having the ability to efficiently scale is very important.”
Future plans include using the PureConnect by Genesys platform to support other communication channels such as email and chat. Call recording will also be introduced and there are plans to implement skills-based routing to ensure calls are put through to the most appropriate agent.
“QPC continues to provide us with considerable support and guidance,” he says. “We have a regular monthly meeting where any issues that have arisen can be resolved and plans put in place for future expansion.
“With assistance from QPC, together with our PureConnect by Genesys and QMatic platforms, I believe we now have the infrastructure in place that will allow Service Tasmania to truly become a one-stop shop for all government services. As well as making government more efficient, it ensures all Tasmanians receive the best possible levels of customer service.” APAC | Melbourne AU | +61 (3)9239 5600 | sales-ap@qpc.com | better data, better decisions For