Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council hasimproved access to council serviceswith a newcontact centre.
The new centre has 27 trained customer service agents to handle
the calls.
The council hopes that by opening earlier and closing later, as
well as introducing a new Saturday service, it will make it easier
for people to get in touch.
The new centre uses Macfarlane CallPlus technology integrated
with Lagan enterprise case management and Cisco Call Manager
software to drive service improvements.
The centre handles council tax, housing benefit and care
enquiries from the public.
The centre is the first phase of the council's Access to
Services programme, a long-term initiative that aims to make it as
easy as possible for customers to get in touch with the services
they require.
Later phases of the project will see the opening of three
face-to-face multi-services centres, one in each of the major towns
in the borough, including Stockton, Billingham and Thornaby.
The council expects to answer about 180,000 incoming calls per
year for the three services of council tax, housing benefit and
care.
