Amber Valley Borough Council

Date: 27th July 2006

AmberValley benefits office has 53 employees, and is based in RipleyTown Hall. Even after winning Revenues Team of the Year in 2004, there was a backlog of thousands of outstanding cases eighteen months ago.

The Situation

Having secured funding from the Department of Work and Pensions, there was a complete overhaul of services provided to the public.

Nationwide, the benefits departments of local governments have a low profile, but AmberValley defies that stereotype, as their benefits department is now setting the standards in delivering excellent services to the public.

The reception area of the town hall functions as a corporate reception desk for all enquiries for the whole building, so it can get very busy. A large majority of visitors to the town hall are for the benefits department, as people prefer face-to-face contact when discussing finances. It is an emotive subject, and many people are already anxious before they arrive, in some cases that is why they are visiting the department. There is always a risk of aggression towards employees, and even mild-mannered people can get fired up by an unfair and disorganised queuing system.

The system before was unsatisfactory. Reception staff recorded visitors for all departments on a paper-based system. Business visitors attending meetings in the secure staff area were booked in on a separate system, and collected by the relevant officer. Receptionists had to manage the benefits queue at the same time as dealing with visitors to other departments, and business visitors.

On busy days in the reception area there might be several people waiting for an interview with a benefits officer, and perhaps twenty other people waiting for an interview or to be collected for a business meeting. At busy times, benefits customers might think that other people were queue jumping, not realising that they were being seen by officers from other departments.

The customer services team are based behind reception, but closed off from visitors due to the confidential nature of their work. The customer services team also answer telephone calls from customers and so sometimes it was difficult for the reception staff to alert the customer services team that a visitor was waiting to be seen.

Reception did try to improve the situation by using a numbering system for benefits customers at busy times, but communication between reception and customer services remained manual.

Why Lonsto?

Lonsto® were approached by AmberValley’s Head of Benefits and Revenues, Kevin Stewart, for a solution to this unsatisfactory situation. After an initial survey, it was clear that a queue management system provided by Lonsto (International) Ltd® could provide a solution.

The solution was tailored to meet the exact requirements of AmberValley, so that the customer facing processes were streamlined, receptionists could return to their own workload, and the customer services team could take full control over the face to face contact with their visitors.

Implementation

Tracy Summers added that “Lonsto’s® installation was very quick and easy, cables were neatly encased to remain pleasing to the eye and Lonsto’s® installation team took time to explain the system to my team, as well as leaving us a manual for reference and contact details in case of any problems.”

Visitors, once given a ticket by reception, then take a relaxing seat. There are two ticket display screens, so that their place in the queue is controlled by Lonsto® technology, and they can see when their number is called. This makes for a much calmer waiting experience for visitors, who are free to wander around, knowing their place in the queue is secure.

Going Live

Needless to say, the system provided an immediate improvement, to visitors, to receptionists, and to the customer service team too, as they are in full control of their front of house operations. Having this control meant they could schedule operations more effectively, so team members can be allocated to either phones or face to face interviews. If it gets busy in reception, the team leader, Tracy Summers, can then allocate extra employees to interview booths.

Immediate Benefits

AmberValley benefits office decided to use Lonsto® statistics gathering system, so that all tickets that are issued then enter into the software in the form of data. Statistics are gathered for how many people are given tickets, waiting times, and interview times. This points to visitor trends, so if it gets busier at a certain time of year, like the new financial year when people take stock of their money situations, this can be prepared for.

Only basic IT skills are needed to operate the back office Lonsto® statistic system. Our technicians can set the software to record which ever statistics that are required. The statistics provided to AmberValley help measure performance of the customer services team. Services improvement has helped AmberValley benefits office to become finalists in (not one but) two categories in the Institute of Revenues Ratings and Valuation awards. AmberValley benefits offices have qualified for both ‘Excellence in Customer Care’ and for ‘Use of IT Systems’

When asked why AmberValley chose Lonsto (International) Ltd®, Kevin Stewart replied “because the systems that are offered are perfect for our needs, the systems are reasonably priced, and the after sales support is excellent.”

All in all, it seems that AmberValley benefits office are very happy with Lonsto’s® Queue Management system (QM.S)™.

An animated case study is also available on our new Interactive CD accompanied by our 1st Edition Newsletter 'The Cover Story'. So don't wait around and sign up today for a new queuing experince!

Back

Download Pdf

Case
Studies