Brent Council - Kilburn One Stop Shop
Date: 7th September 2006
Established in 1996 the Kilburn One Stop Shop has progressively grown in the number of service users it caters for. The department moved to larger offices in 2003 to accommodate the ever growing number of customers.
The Situation
The Kilburn One Stop Shop is one of a family of 6 that serve the population within the London borough of Brent. The decentralisation of such services grew popular in the early 1990’s and appealed to constituents due to their accessibility within the community.
At first, members of the community traveled to the central offices of Brent town hall, but as the years progressed they soon understood that their enquiries could be dealt with much closer to home. Such trends were evident within the Kilburn One Stop Shop.
When decentalisation was introduced Brent Council opted to create its Kilburn One Stop Shop within Kilburn Library, evidence that large visitor numbers were not greatly anticipated.
Slowly, as the One Stop Shop grew in popularity its location within the library did not compliment its surroundings and thus moved to larger offices nearby.
Prior to the implementation of Lonsto’s® queuing technology there was high demand for a queuing system as the ‘deli style’ ticketing system in operation was not as efficient and productive as hoped for. The ‘old system’ where members of staff would be responsible for recording waiting and serving times proved to be largely inaccurate and could no longer continue as an efficient data collection tool.
“When a member of staff inquired as to the length of time customers had been waiting they would often reply with an exaggerated estimation to get across the point that they had been waiting too long,” notes Manager Mr. Haralambous, “What felt like an hour to the customers waiting would in fact have only have been 20 minutes, further adding to the inaccuracy of our performance targets.”
With an ever growing volume of customers disorganisation and frustrations were becoming all too familiar, a queuing system with statistics were highly desired to resolve the issue.
Why Lonsto?
Following its establishment in 1993 the Kilburn One Stop Shop saw a rapid increase in the demand for the services that it provided.
Lonsto (International) Limited® with its vast experience within Local Authorities was a natural first port of call and the initial enquiries were made.
With statistics being a vital element at the Kilburn One Stop Shop in conjunction with the importance of the effective queue management of customers, management could ascertain that Lonsto® could tailor the ideal solution for the scenario at hand and ensure that the requirements on behalf of Brent Council were fully met.
“Brent Council has a very strong focus upon customer service and we continually strive to reduce waiting times and increase the satisfaction levels of those customers who come to our One Stop Shops,” explains Mr. Haralambous, “After liaising with Lonsto® we could see that their statistical Queue Management Systems (Q.M.S)™ would be a tremendous benefit to what we required. CRM is of tremendous importance to us and we could easily see that Lonsto’s® systems would assist us in building upon this.”
13 years on and the system within the Kilburn One Stop Shop is still going strong cementing our philosophy for providing long term solutions at a cost effective price.
Implementation
Utilising Lonsto’s® 36 years of experience the streamlining of the visitor queuing process was put into place.
Reception was to provide a pivotal role in filtering out those customers who needed to see a member of staff or could have their enquiry easily answered there and then without having to proceed onto the next stage of the queuing process.
The receptionist would now issue the visitor with a ticket instructing them as to which service desk they would have to attend to solve their enquiry.
Once issued with a ticket, displaying accurate waiting times, the customers could now sit down in the waiting area and read some literature provided, safe in the knowledge that their position within the queue was secure.
The new system that was implemented ensured the smooth flow of those visiting, with statistics playing a vital role in the process. Interview and waiting times could now be accurately analysed with resources allocated when demand dictated.
Manager Mr. Haralambous explains, “The statistics provided a wealth of information with the data being utilised to the benefit of the department and customers. If benefits were to receive a large influx of enquiries with streetcare receiving relatively little we could allocate are resources appropriately. The data had a wealth of uses which were very happy to explore.”
Going Live
Though Lonsto’s® queuing system was implemented over 13 years ago manager Barry Haralambous can still remember the transition of when Kilburn One Stop Shop adopted Lonsto’s® Queue Management System (Q.M.S)™, he notes, “it immediately provided a tremendous amount of efficiency and the organisation it provided created a waiting experience that the customers could now enjoy.”
Those customers who were coming to the One Stop Shop to make brief enquiries no longer had to wait in a queue with everybody else as it was dealt with at the reception desk, easing the pressure and waiting times on other customers who would be waiting for the main queue.
With the statistical element to the system, management and staff dedicated a week to getting to know it in further depth so as to maximize the benefits that it offered, soon it was generating results.
The old ‘deli style’ system was now forgotten about and management looked to capitalize on the immediate benefits that had been generated upon ‘going live.’
Immediate Benefits
Once service users and staff had become accustomed to the new queuing system that had been employed the elevation in visitor and staff satisfaction levels soon became evident.
Though comment cards were available to assist customers in voicing their opinions and complaints very few were related to the queuing process, Mr. Haralambous notes “No one has complained as queuing in our department is now a lot less painful.”
He continues, “Today people expect a queuing system to be present in environments like ours, you have to have one. Without it there can only be disorganisation, low productivity and frustration. We have had our system now for 13 years and we are still happy with it, without there would be anarchy.”
Customers could anticipate as to the amount of time that they would have to wait and if desired they could go outside and get some fresh air or do whatever they wished to fill the time that they would previously have spent protecting their position within a standing line queue. The majority of customers however chose to spend their time within the waiting area reading magazines or if accompanying children occupying them with games and toys provided by the One Stop Shop.
The statistics provided a wealth of information with the data being utilised to the benefit of the department and customers. Mr. Haralambous explains, “If benefits were to receive a large influx of enquiries with streetcare receiving relatively little we could allocate are resources appropriately. The data had a wealth of uses which were very happy to explore.”
The London Borough of Brent is a brilliant example of how to produce enhanced customer satisfaction levels through simple measures such as implementing Lonsto’s® queuing technology. Today 200 local authorities from across the country visit Brent’s One Stop Shops, looking towards it as a perfect example of ‘best practice.’
Analysing the successful methods employed by Brent, these local authorities can bring back to their departments the success stories and inspiration in implementing such proven measures to increase their own customer service.
The Kilburn One Stop Service has been awarded many major external awards for its successful approach in CRM, they include:
- Charter Mark for Excellence in the Provision of Public Service in 1994 & re-accreditation in 1997 and 2000
- Investors in People in 1996 and 1999
- Government Computing Award for Innovation in Electronic Government - for 'LASER' the - --Customer Tracking in Lotus Notes in 1997
- BT Award for Innovation in Electronic Commerce Finalist 1997
- Shortlisted for Customer Services Team of the Year in the Local Government Chronicle Awards 2001 and highly commended.
- Investors in People (IIP) 2002
- Chartermark 2004
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Case
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Brent Council - Willesden One Stop Shop
The Willesden One Stop Shop was re-located to new premises within the Willesden Library Center in May of 2001 after experiencing visitor congestion at its previous location.
Amber Valley Borough Council
The Queue Management Systems® Implemented in 2004 and have reaped immediate benefits derived from streamlining operations processes. Amber Valley have now fully utilised Queuing technology to provide excellent customer services and time managment.
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