Preston City Council

Outcome of Expression of Interest: Not shortlisted

Preston City Councils offer a wide range of services, many of which can be accessed online.

Following research we have identified the main reasons why customers call the council and do not self-serve, these are:

  • They don’t want to search the website looking for information
  • They don’t want to fill in a series of forms online
  • They cannot find the information due to the large volume of dataThe proposed solution,

This causes people to use multiple channels of communication to try and find information or resolve their issues.

The proposed solution, Ami, is a self-learning, conversational A.I. She can act as a 24/7 responsive point of contact on the website who can answer a wide range of queries and find information in real time.

She also has the ability to complete and process forms through conversation, meaning people can request services, all through the use of Ami. She can also connect residents straight to the department they need.

This will result in a more streamlined resident journey when using council services.

Also freeing up the council staffs time for more complex, enquiries.

Overall this will reduce the cost of the service for the council by improving communication through digital, automated channels.

Discovery evidence

Following a 12 week research project of trying to identify why our customers call us or visit the contact centre, we were able to identify the 3 main reasons above.

Currently 52% of our customers are unable to self-serve or find the information they require online and end calling the contact centre, increasing the costs on the council.

We have already invested in an Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) which is assisting with nudging customers to self-serve but to dramatically reduce this percentage we need something to run alongside it.

The contact centre is now running at a 57% reduction since 2016, following staff either leaving or changing departments. This putting major pressure on advisors and with the support and assistance of Ami this would relieve some of the pressure and improve customer service.

Investigating other products we felt Ami integrates already with some of our back office systems and is compatible with our current IVR system.

Ami will give us the key driver to start working towards becoming a fully digital organisation and reducing the 52% of customers that are not self-serving.

  • Digital leadership training (for council leaders, service managers or senior executives)
  • Introduction to service design
  • Introduction to delivery management
  • Introduction to product management

Other training requests

Britannic Technology will provide additional training for staff, required to fully implement this technology.