Brisbane City Council

1. Brisbane City Council Customer Focussed Technology

2. About BCC • Technology Drivers • Pilots and Trials • MMS / SMS • CLI Routing • Speech Recognition • Neighbourhood Mapping • Virtual Parks

3. Brisbane City Council • 1,000,000 Residents • 1367 square kilometres • Largest in Southern Hemisphere • Third largest in World • $1.7 Billion Budget • $1.9 Billion Revenue • 7500 Staff across 1000’s of sites

5. Technology Drivers in Customer Service • Process changes • Business Alignment • Simple easy systems • New and emerging contact channels • Channel Migration • Best fit for Customer and Council

6. SMS / MMS • How / Where do we use it? • How successful is it? • What does it cost?

8. 0429 2 fix it

10. Success • 120 messages per month from customers • 30% – 40% include photo’s • Extra benefits from e-mail to sms capability • Internal communications • Plumbing inspection bookings • Job number notifications

11. Less than $2000 set up costs MMS to Council is charged to mobile Council to mobile is $0.15 per 160 characters Cost savings with higher volumes 2,000 per month – 14.9 cents 40,000 per month – 13.5 cents 100,000 per month – 13 cents Billing can be divided by department, or whole of Council Minimal rollout costs - user guide/corporate guidelines, support contact info but no ‘IT’ infrastructure Staff could abuse the service and send SMS all day long from their e-mail SMS may be an out of date technology soon What if we get SMS in the next telecommunications contract Costs and Risks

12. CLICustomer Focus Improvement Concept Streamlined Phone Access for Plumbing Services Customers

13. Issue Background • Key business segments identified as having significant dissatisfaction with direct phone access to Council • These segments include: • Developers • Building Certifiers • Hydraulic Consultants • Plumbers • Plumbers were chosen segment for this pilot due to customer willingness to participate

14. Customer Focused Proposal • To pilot a seamless service within Council where callers from identified specialist segments (eg Plumbers) were routed automatically • Engagement - Council required to work with industry groups to identify pilot participants and their calling numbers • Simplicity - Removal of double-handling increasing productivity and assisting in meeting GOS in the Contact Centre. • Integrity - Remove client frustration with Contact Centre (as un-necessary intermediary)

15. The Customer • These segments were characterised by:- Frequent contact with Council- Need to talk to Specialist areas within Council • Causes of dissatisfaction are: • Inability to directly reach Specialist areas (no value add from Contact Centre) • Often calling from mobiles • Strong desire to have ‘own’ contact number • Often “on site” so contact must be via phone

16. What the customers said “ ” Ernie Kretschmer Master Plumbers Association of Queensland

17. Constraints Options were constrained by; • No IVR in Contact Centre • One number policy - a one size fits all approach which customers advised was not appropriate for their circumstance.

18. CLI Routing • Approximately 75 % of phone services present calling line identification (ie their telephone number) • These details can be used to identify the caller and direct their call automatically to a specific area • In order to achieve this Council needed to collect phone number details from the specific business segment (and keep details up to date)

19. Technology & Costs • Cost for the service is set regardless of call volume. • Costs • $30,000 Cap ex • $ 2200 ongoing p/month regardless of call volumes • This equates to $1.00 per call compared to around $2.70 + customer dissatisfaction.

20. What does it look like • Service is seamless • Plumbers call 3403 9999 and will reach Plumbing group only if their details are listed with Council • If another customer dials 3403 9999 they are transferred direct to the Contact Centre • BCC maintains full control to turn on and off at will

21. Usage

22. Usage

23. Benefits being realised • Customer Satisfaction has increased significantly– they asked for it and we delivered it. • Productivity benefits to PSG management as no longer fielding complaints from customers about phone service • Productivity benefits in the Contact Centre as a result of reduced calls where no value can be added • Overall productivity benefit to Council as a result of reduced double-handling

24. CitySpeak Speech Recognition • How do we use it? • Do the customers like it? • Does it work for us? • Benefits • Options

25. Background • Pilot chosen to evaluate Speech Recognition capabilities within Council • Pilot criteria of:- Low Cost- Ability to measure user satisfaction- Ability to demonstrate cost / benefit- Low customer risk • Internal named person calls through Contact Centre switchboard selected. 20,000 calls p.a. Development cost of $35K. Projected benefits of $38K p.a.

26. CitySpeak Application • Speech Recognition service for staff to access CitySearch functionality and have call connected to specific person in Council • Service available by dialling 37777 from Council fixed and mobile phones or 34037777 from external line • Fast-track capability (eg Sandie Lewis, Mobile) • High recognition rates through pre-recording of all names (including self-recording of difficult pronunciations)

27. CitySpeak Application • Errors being logged in Contact Centre with feedback to callers. • Lord Mayor, Councillors, CEO and Divisional Manager entries directed to Contact Centre. • Ability to re-direct other sensitive entries as required.

28. Project Success • Overall recognition rates of > 80% • 35,000 + calls per year • Clear success, now looking to expand. • Potential external facing • E-mail messages through CitySpeak

29. My Neighbourhood • What is it? • Who uses it? • Why did we do it?

31. Virtual Parks • What are they? • Do they get used? • What did it cost?

32. From mud maps and photos…

34. Brisbane City Council Customer Focussed Technology