Tamworth Council

Sector:
Public
Requirement:
A digital communication channel to ease the load on resident enquiries
Solution:
Chat implementation that met complex procurement and government regulations
We’ve already seen a positive impact on our capabilities as a team. The feedback we’ve received from customers who have used WhosOn is first-rate.
Tamworth Council's digital transition

Tamworth Borough Council provides local council services and facilities to over 77,100 residents across 6,500 square miles.  30 members of staff form the busy customer service team supporting residents on a range of diverse topics. To ease the load on resident enquiries, Tamworth Council needed to digitise its services.

 

The challenge

One of Tamworth Council's key aims was to encourage residents to use the website to find solutions. Over 19,000 unique users visit Tamworth Council’s website every month, using it as a first port of call when seeking answers.

Typically, people would look online for the information they needed, but would then be directed to call or arrange a meeting. To remove these bottlenecks, Tamworth Council wanted to connect residents to immediate online help. To do that, they needed live chat. But not just any solution — a secure, cost-effective chat tool that complied with strict regulations.

 

The solution

After trialling WhosOn, Tamworth Council chose it as the chat solution that best met its needs. WhosOn met all stringent government security protocols, as well as the range of features needed to engage residents successfully online.

The customer service team took advantage of recorded training sessions, which are now used to train any new service agents hired. As well as keeping agents happy, WhosOn was fully customised to maximise customer satisfaction. The chat window was tailored to include the council’s logo and branding — meeting user expectations and creating cross-channel consistency.

Implementation has been so successful that Tamworth Council is now looking to tap into further WhosOn features, such as chat transcripts and dynamic invites.

 

The results

With WhosOn, Tamworth Council has found the tool it needed to keep up with resident demands and modern technology developments. Results include:

 

  • • 83% user satisfaction score
  • • Seamless integration with Tamworth's management system and CRM
  • • Reduced costs and time spent on traditional communication channels
  • • A superior online experience for web visitors, with immediate assistance
  • • Digitised information and transactions that meet transformation goals

 

The feedback

"We have initially set up WhosOn with just the basic features, but we’ve already seen a positive impact on our capabilities as a team. Our agents can respond to customer queries without having to transfer people from department to department, and customers feel that they are getting an overall improved service.

Despite live chat still being one of our smallest channels of communication for customers, with approximately 110 enquiries per month, the feedback we’ve received from customers who have used it is first-rate. We did a review of user’s satisfaction levels and live chat came out on top, with 83 per cent rating the service as excellent."

 

Joanne Shaw, Customer Services Operations Manager, Tamworth Borough Council