East Renfrewshire Council in Western Scotland
has improved public access to pest control services, freed up
resources and cut costs through the implementation of
Oracle customer relationship management (CRM) and business
intelligence software.
Following a review of the council's pest control service, it was
mapped and re-engineered to use Oracle CRM software. The council is
also using
Oracle's Discoverer reporting tool to provide non-technical
business intelligence.
The local authority previously used a time-consuming paper-based
system to fulfil, manage and record pest control requests from
initial call for service to the concluding report. The old method
used a system of notes which began when the first service request
was made.
As well as costly invoicing procedures, typical problems were
names and addresses not being taken down accurately, paper records
being difficult to retrieve, and reports on the service having to
be created manually.
The Oracle roll-out was part of a wider council project to use
CRM to manage customer service requests. Customer details are
logged in the system when the initial call is made and a pest
control officer is automatically e-mailed a request for service by
the CRM system. Payments are taken automatically and reports are
produced electronically.
The council said, "Customers receive a better service for
extended hours via the contact centre. Frontline staff in pest
control no longer have their telephones constantly ringing with
council service requests.
"In addition, customer information recorded electronically via
CRM is clearer to read and more accurate, allowing the pest control
contractor to visit the right property and customer."
The main efficiency gains for the council are due to charges
being paid electronically. The previous system cost £4 per invoice
- an expense that has been removed completely. Savings in
back-office time and capital costs were also made through the
removal of paper invoicing.
However, there were challenges for the council to overcome. The
main difficulty was associated with getting the council workers and
pest controllers to use the system.
"From opening discussions with internal pest control section
management and the external pest control service providers to
implementation of process was about four weeks, with contact centre
staff training taking up the majority of that time. Agreement to
work this new way was reached quite swiftly," said Stuart
McMinigal, development manager at East Renfrewshire Council.
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