UK local authority to use new self-service knowledge solution to improve online customer service

Peterborough City Council, has appointed Transversal, a provider of enterprise knowledge solutions for the cloud, to deliver a brand new self-service knowledge solution for the council website that will improve internal communication for the City’s 1,400 staff and accessibility of information for 180,000 community members.

“With citizens approaching local authorities for information on multiple devices from multiple locations, it is becoming more important than ever to enhance the citizen’s digital experience by reducing customer effort and providing an exceptional customer experience,” said Marc Quantrill, Chief Sales Officer at Transversal. “We know only too well the amount of pressure on council staff to deliver information quickly and as efficiently as possible. Transversal is delighted to have been chosen by Peterborough City Council to help their officers become more efficient.”

The dual solution which is the result of a joint offering between Transversal and G-Cloud Provider Arcus Global, will allow employees and residents of Peterborough City Council to use the search facility on the website to find the information they need quickly and easily, without the need for escalation. Whether contacting the council through a desktop, tablet or mobile device, the responsive solution will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

With the council’s call centre staff receiving an average of 300,000 calls from residents each year the external capability will help Peterborough’s citizens to ‘self-serve’ for general enquiries while freeing up the contact centre staff to deal with more complex community issues, thus dramatically reducing call volumes.

“Another benefit of implementing a self-service functionality across all customer service touch points is that we will be able to monitor and predict seasonal trends in our resident’s queries,” said Richard Godfrey, ICT Manager at Peterborough City Council. “Public sector organisations are continually being compared to private sector companies when it comes to customer service so it’s more important than ever that we remain one step ahead of the needs of our residents.”

Staff, Councillors and other stakeholders will also benefit from the internal capabilities of the Transversal Knowledge solution. Rather than having to try and route customer queries to other council departments, as has previously been the case, all knowledge will be housed on a central system.

The contact centre staff will be able to search the knowledge base to answer specialist questions on topics ranging from housing benefit, social care and council tax, thus reducing the need for escalation and therefore improving Peterborough’s City Council’s responsiveness to the citizen.