Description
Listen to our latest podcast as we talk to the award-winning Walsall Council about their transformation in resident experience - increasing accessibility and customer satisfaction by utilising existing functionality and AI - no budget increases needed! Featuring Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager and an interesting chat about AI.
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Customer Engagement Examples of Excellence podcast. This is an Engage Customer podcast. Find out more at engagecustomer.com. In this episode, our host Stacey O'Donnell, Customer Success Manager at Kerv, chats with Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager at Walsall Council, about their recent transformation journey with Kerv.
Hi everyone, just a quick introduction of myself. I'm Stacey O'Donnell and I've been helping Walsall on their transformation journey for the last sort of two years and we've had a relationship with Walsall Council for much longer than that, I would say probably about five years now. We've done loads of good projects for them but for the sake of today's discussion I think it's good to note that we have recently been on the transformation over the past 12 months implementing digital and AI. I'm going to hand over to Kiran to do a quick introduction and then we can move on to questions.
Thank you, Stacey. So, good morning. My name is Kiran Grewal-Lehal. I'm Customer Delivery Manager for Walsall Council. I've been with Walsall Council for coming up to just over two years and we've had Genesys implemented approximately five years. However, over the last two and a half years, we've been working very closely with Kerv to see how we can utilise Genesys to the best possible, and all the functionality, to give the best possible resident experience.
Great. Thanks, Kiran. I think we have some questions that we'll go through. So I'll sort of crack on with those and then we can just have an open discussion around your transformation project. So Walsall Council have gone through a huge transformation over the past 12 to 18 months, implementing digital and AI into your contact centre to help you better serve your citizens. Please could you tell everyone about this major transformation?
Of course. So as I said in the introduction, it's been the key thing for myself has been to have to make sure that we offer the best resident experience. Initially our telephony platform was brilliant, however it is restricted to standard working hours and there are a lot of people who want to contact us and need support out of these working hours, and it's not feasible for us to stay open, so it was really, for me it's really important, to have a solution for those. Over the 18 months or so we've been working with Kerv, just to see how we can actually be accessible to everybody pretty much 24 hours a day. For me, and for Walsall Council, it's important to keep people at the heart of everything that we do, so the digital and AI solution quite simply was the way forward. And I think that it's clear that we've got the, we're on the right track as, as you may, some people may be aware, that Walsall actually won most improved council of the year this year so whilst it's been a lot of hard work, the decisions that we've made and the the work that we've put in, there's clearly a value and it is actually helping everybody achieve our goals; to be accessible, and to be able to serve every customer, every resident, every business, whenever they want to, in whichever mode that they want to that works best for them.
Yeah we've seen that obviously with working with you how well you've managed to implement the technology and how well that's that's worked in servicing your citizens. I think that feeds quite nicely into if we could highlight the top priority of your customer experience goals when starting your transformation journey that would be helpful.
So quite simply it was to have the best possible experience and that can be, that's not just about how quickly we answer a telephone call, or how you know if we resolve at first point of contact, it's about being accessible. So for myself it was to firstly standardise our basic services i.e. the telephony side, make sure that people are, when they're waiting to speak to us via email, telephone, or now through web chats as well, that we answer that contact as quickly as possible, that the service that we give is the best possible service, and that's monitored by ourselves and we're constantly enhancing that experience. And also that the knowledge that the team have to answer those queries is readily available, it's clear, it's accessible and most importantly we are, things change a lot, that we have the ability to be able to quickly go in and make any changes, which the Genesys solution has allowed us to kind of hit all of those marks and we can demonstrate that, from day one. So currently at Walsall, our customer contact, so web chats and telephone calls are answered within less than a minute, which I think is absolutely fabulous. Our abandonment rates are much lower than industry. So we don't abandon any more than on average 3% of our customer contact. Our knowledge system, that's been built in with our web chat and chatbot is constantly the functionality that Genesys offer allows us to be able to each advisor and customers to give us feedback on the knowledge articles that we've got, and we've got a team of officers who are on hand straight away to make any amends so we know that our knowledge, all of our information, is accurate, up to date, so that we answer every query correctly.
And that really helps with the auto-surface to agents, right. With agent assist and really helping them with that knowledge so they have it to hand. And then also in the chatbot, so, you know, you're deflecting in the sense that not everyone's needing to come through, because your level of knowledge is at such a high level now, that you're able to deflect from bot point before even getting to an agent, but you obviously have the agent there to help citizens where needed.
Exactly. And our data shows that actually that is happening because a lot of our queries, 'cause having the functionality to give a thumbs up that the query has been answered, that demonstrates that it works. So we are able to actually, particularly out of hours, we're not having to, because we don't have live advisors of an evening and early hours of the morning. But the customers are contacting and giving us the feedback that actually the articles are working for them and if for any reason they're not correct we pick them up straight away. Because they've got the opportunity to give us the feedback.
I think that flows quite nicely into the next question around business outcomes, I know that you've spoken a little bit around answer time deflection, is there any sort of business outcomes that have improved that you can highlight other than those?
So our customer, our telephony contact, has started to come down, so it's falling, which is a positive because people aren't having to wait. Now with our web chat and chatbot, they can go on, more so chatbot, they are able to service, self-serve themselves. The biggest thing for us is channel shift. So as a local authority, we are challenged financially, as every other local authority, and to be fair, most businesses at the moment, but by each interaction on the telephone, there is still a cost element to it. But if people are able to self-serve on the chatbot, we then save that telephone call and that resource. So we're finding our call volumes are dropping, which is then enabling us to kind of support our financial goals. And also it's working for the residents, the businesses that are using that chatbot because they're not having to take time out of their busy day the next day waiting to speak to an advisor. So it's less frustrating. So our customer satisfaction is improving because they're not having to wait for an answer. They've got the ability to get their answer themselves.
And I also think it's a generational thing, isn't it? I mean, you've got a younger generation now coming into, you know, living in their own homes, buying their own homes, having to contact the council for certain reasons. And, you know, they sometimes prefer the digital approach to getting on the telephone and having to ring in outside of, you know, being out of hours or anything like that. And I think also, you'll probably see more and more of that as we move forward into the future.
Yes, and I completely agree that it is, you know, there is the younger generation. However, at Walsall, our model is 'Walsall Connected'. So we work with lots of other partnerships and our key focus is to help support all residents to become digitally able. So when they go to our the 'Walsall Connected' sites they are supported so that then allows them, with that support in using digital technology, they can then themselves serve self-serve themselves. So actually whilst it is the young we are actually working very closely with other demographics as well within the community to support them. One of the other things that we've implemented is with Genesys is CX Translate. Within Walsall we've got a large range of communities and our CX Translate functionality allows residents or businesses to communicate with us in their language of choice and that then allows them to be more digitally able because it's hard for them to come on the phone when they don't, when English is not their first language and they're struggling, but with the cx translation it's been a game changer for them. And we've been able to help so many customers with queries that actually even with an interpreter they would have struggled, because it feels a bit awkward when you're using a third party, but they're able to communicate with our agents in their own language and we can communicate back within their language without actually really realising we're doing it.
Yeah and the time to help them then is reduced isn't it? Because you're not then having to engage translation services and and all of those things, it's sort of immediate instead of having to go around the houses on it. And cost as well, yes both time and cost. Yeah and cost. That's great, implementing technology to support agents is going to be an interesting one. It's great in the long run. So let me just start that question again. Implementing technology to support agents is great in the long run, but people often find change stressful. And I know, you know, with a team, it can be really stressful, especially if they're already at capacity. How did the team react to the new technology and how did you encourage them to adopt it?
So this is a very interesting question because with local authorities, what you will find is that people have been here for a very long time, and historically local authorities haven't been the best at embracing new technology for various reasons. So my team is very mixed so I have a lot of my team are have been here for 25-30 years, pretty much their whole working career. And then I've got see we do have some newer staff who've been coming in of recent. And what I found is that from past experiences if you talk to people and you let them know what we're doing, why we're doing, involve them, you will get that buy-in. So buy-in is really really important. If you enforce anything on anyone there'll always be, it's human nature to have, some form of resistance. So with the whole project, and I suppose testament to the great relationship that we have with Kerv, what we've been able to do is actually involve the team. So we've we've had working groups and we've got people in my team involved from day one in what's happening so they can understand. So it's not scary. 'Cause change is scary right for anyone. So we've had we've involved them in testing, we've involved them with their input with the knowledge assist articles, we've got them to understand what's going to be, how it's going to benefit them, and how it's going to benefit their customer contact. And what they found is that now people people that are coming through to them are a lot happier because they haven't been forced to wait etc, even with the web chat that the person wants to be, you know, using the web chat. So therefore there's that that tone and that interaction is a lot better. So by involving them in every kind of step point, that's allowed us to quite for them to embrace it, and even when we went live, what we did was we arranged for the team to be the whole team to come into the office, because we do actually work mainly we work from home. Yeah. But we had we made it into a bit of a, for want of a better word, a bit of a team day fun day. So we had everybody in. We had floor workers. We had a floor worker per each bank of desks so that that the first time they get their first web chat they've got someone there, just for that bit of confidence. And we arranged for this to happen for a week. After the second day they were all, no one, they were all surprised at how easy it was to actually switch from voice to web chat, and they were all like we didn't have a single technical issue. Everyone was comfortable, they love it.
Yeah I know there was some resistance there in the beginning on you know you know new technology, new web chat, you know a bit scary. But when, even when I was down to visit you guys a couple of weeks ago now, I spoke to one of your agents and they were explaining, you know, how easy they found it to make the switch.
But the key, like I say, it's communication. And having, you know, if your product is right and, you know, it's going to work, you talk to them, they see it works, you get that buy-in automatically.
Yeah, that's completely true. One of the most critical areas of the agents projects was designing and authorising the knowledge articles. Can you tell us a bit about how you went about this and what advice you might give to anyone considering implementing knowledge? Because I know this was a big topic for you guys for a long time.
Yes, it's that I have. That's definitely an understatement, Stacey. So the knowledge articles is something that even before we even started, we were aware we needed a knowledge bank. With Walsall, and maybe lots of other organisations, when you have people who work, our attention rates are amazing. People don't leave. We don't lose staff. So we've got staff who've got 20, 30 years experience. And it's all in in their heads. Yeah the knowledge and in their brains. Exactly and we are also we have got an aging workforce so for myself, when i first joined, it was really key that how do we extract that knowledge? So even before we started this project it was always there, how do we get this information, where do we keep it? Especially when we're very, very busy as well, doing our day jobs. So when we started this project for the knowledge articles. It was key for us to firstly agree, we had to decide what our agents needed. Now, the best way to do that is actually speak to the agents because they're the ones that are using it. So I suppose it was really kind of understanding what it's going to look like, who's got that knowledge, how is it going to be easily accessible? We want to keep it concise because we don't want the advisors when they're pulling an article up for it to be, you know, a 10-page document on a simple process because they're actually with, they need to be able to get the information. So we had, what we did was, we have a team of people whose role was to actually work with our service areas and our advisors to capture that knowledge. And then work with the advisor more so to understand how it needs to look like for them to. You know what they need to see. Testing what it looks like when it's in front of them because it's great having that article on on you know in your initial document but actually how does it look when you're using the system? So the key thing for myself is, you know, any advice I would give is - involve the agents. And also do some testing yourself on the chatbot side of things because it's the agents have still got.. it's great that, you know, the agent articles have the information, but those agents have got an understanding, but if somebody's using the chat bot they're pulling up an article, if you didn't know anything about it, how would that read to you? So testing and using the right people to test is the key thing for myself and that's the biggest piece of advice I can give and also planning, and you've got to give it the time.
Yeah and it's interesting you say that I think because you want agents to be able to service different areas so like you said if you know if someone's in schooling and they need something around cleaning green or bin collection and they're generally in one or the other queue, how do you serve this knowledge to them to make them understand a different area well?
Exactly.
Yeah that's great. Thanks. And the very crucial question is what's next for Walsall? I know what's next. It's quite exciting stuff. But what's next for Walsall?
I'm going to be honest, we still have work to do with with the knowledge articles. So my ultimate aim is to actually have every advisor can answer every customer inquiry at first point of contact. So if, as Stacey you mentioned, if they rang about their bin but then had a question about their child's primary school place, currently we are moving that call, but with the development of the knowledge articles, it would be that actually that one advisor can answer every query they've got, for any customer contact within Walsall. We're also currently working with Kerv at the moment to look at implementing a voice bot. And the next thing that's high priority for me, so these are all pretty much for the for the next year these projects, is working on integrating our emails into the Genesys platform as well. So that we can monitor those and improve our efficiencies in answering those emails and then start. So all of these three things is what's going to help our channel shift basically so those are our three key things for 2025.
Looking forward to it. You know that chat bot it seems like a gradual next step after, sorry the voice bot, seems like a gradual next step after implementing the chat bot because you've got a lot of that great knowledge there already and you continue to keep it updated and improve it so yeah looking forward to it. I know email has been on the list for a while now and it makes sense to bring that last sort of piece of the puzzle in to, so you have the same experience for all your residents. Why is prioritising agents with the right support important to you?
In a nutshell without the agents there is no customer experience centre, so it's really important to it's those agents that are talking to our residents, to our businesses, so if they're not supported and they don't have the right tools to do their job then we're never going to move forward at all. And we're never going to get it right. So they are fundamentally the key I, Walsall, we can't function without them, so if we don't support them, they're not engaged, they're not happy, they're not confident, then we may as well stop right now kind of thing. So they are the backbone and they are the most important people to me, in making sure that I can deliver the outcomes that I'm here to deliver.
That's a great answer. And I'm sure they're going to love hearing this when they listen to your podcast. What are your thoughts on AI and how it's transforming both the CX and local government industries?
So AI is the way forward. Currently, local authorities, CX, all of us are in some ways in the same boat. We're all facing... economic, social, environmental and financial challenges. AI is the tool that's going to allow us to carry on delivering an exceptional customer experience, delivering the best possible service, mitigating any risks and key, supporting our advisors and agents to ensure that they are, they have the knowledge, they have the tools to actually support people in difficult times. Be it a resident, be it a customer, to deliver. So they'll be delivering the best service, giving them the correct information, to ensure that actually we are doing the right thing by them.
So what do you think will be the biggest challenge in the local government industry around digital and AI in terms of the contact centre? What is that currently and how can councils overcome it?
So if I'm going to be honest with you, there's two things really, one is the cost okay. Yeah. And the second thing is change, the fear of change. Okay, so at first count, there are systems out there that are a lot cheaper. And, you know, but you've got to think of the bigger picture. So for local, whilst the solution may be a little bit more expensive than others out there, what Genesys allows us to do is promote channel shift, so whilst, and also give a better experience, so whilst it looks expensive actually it's not. So the amount of savings that we've actually delivered on the back of using Genesys is phenomenal. And you wouldn't think it but you've got to, it's about what we've been able to do is maximise our frequency. So I have, Walsall is we're an expanding council, so my customer contact centre is expanding. So in the last, I would say 18 months, I've actually taken on probably five services, customer contact, but actually by using Genesys Solutions, I've not had to recruit any additional staffing. Because what we've been able to do is actually utilise the tools to make sure that we've got the highest possible productivity. So while something can look expensive, you've got to... it's really important to appreciate actually what we're going to get at the end of it and actually you'll find it'll actually be cheaper in the long run it's that bigger picture. Yeah the return on investment piece yeah. Exactly return return on investment and also, like I say, it's that push on and what Genesys allows us to do is encourage channel shift and self-serve. And also the better experience because we are now accessible 24/7 rather than 9 to 5, well in our case 8.45-5.15 Monday to Friday. But so and the other thing is, like the biggest challenge is that fear of change. "We can't do it." "It can't be done." "People won't take, the staff won't take to it." "The customers don't want it." You've got to understand it and actually embrace it. And we've got to, it's really important for local authorities now, we've got to be working in line with our private sector colleagues and offering the same kind of contact as they do.
Yeah, because that's what residents really want, don't they?
Exactly. What they need as well, not what they want, what they need as well.
And what they deserve. Yeah. What key trends do you think will emerge over the next 12 months with the contact centre and CX space?
I think what we will find is there's going to be more and more channel shift. So as you know people, as CX and contact centres are now embedding the technology, you know using, I mean I remember a couple of years ago, I can't remember who it was actually, and it was the first time I saw a web chat. I was like, what's this? Now, actually, I'm seeing day in, day out that more and more organisations, contact centres are actually having more digital solutions, rather than just the traditional telephony platforms and email platforms. And what I think is over the next 12 months, we're going to see more and more of that across CX and contact centres. And I think that what you're also going to see is actually the quality of information through chatbots. I think that's going to be improving because I think everyone across CX, it's key that that is the way forward. That's what people need. That's what people want. And there's got to be some time, dedication and effort in making sure that actually it's not just a case of, right, we've written this article and that's it. Forget about it. They've got to be live. So I think what we're going to find is quality is going to be improving. And I think we're going to kind of see what I think we'll see is more consistency over the next 12 months and more and more usage of digital solutions and AI.
Yeah, I think definitely that AI piece and, you know, the Agent Assist, the knowledge, the Copilot. We, you know, we all know that Genesys is constantly evolving and there is so much research and development in those spaces. So we'll probably see a lot of new features, but I know that we're already looking at a few features that have just dropped or just come out that we'll be looking into with yourselves to help improve that AI experience for yourselves, your agents and the citizens.
I definitely can't wait for 2025. It's going to be amazing.
Yeah, I know. It's going to be really interesting. But I mean, 2024 has been a huge transformation for you guys. And, you know, just being along for the ride has been incredible. It's been great to see you guys, you know, win awards and do great things in your space. And like you said, you're not just, you know, in a council circle. You're with much bigger businesses and you're doing more than... than a lot of people in this space at the moment. So you'll be leading that, I'm sure, going into 2025 in the future.
Bring it on. Can't wait.
Great. Thanks so much for your time, Kiran. It's been great. I mean, we speak about this stuff all the time, but you're so passionate about it and I love to hear it. So I really appreciate you doing this with Kerv and with me.
And anybody, if anybody ever wants to reach out please feel free to do so. More than happy to talk you through our experiences in more depth, what you were looking forward to, our challenges, so invitations out there. Thanks Kiran thanks
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Description
Listen to our latest podcast as we talk to the award-winning Walsall Council about their transformation in resident experience - increasing accessibility and customer satisfaction by utilising existing functionality and AI - no budget increases needed! Featuring Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager and an interesting chat about AI.
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Customer Engagement Examples of Excellence podcast. This is an Engage Customer podcast. Find out more at engagecustomer.com. In this episode, our host Stacey O'Donnell, Customer Success Manager at Kerv, chats with Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager at Walsall Council, about their recent transformation journey with Kerv.
Hi everyone, just a quick introduction of myself. I'm Stacey O'Donnell and I've been helping Walsall on their transformation journey for the last sort of two years and we've had a relationship with Walsall Council for much longer than that, I would say probably about five years now. We've done loads of good projects for them but for the sake of today's discussion I think it's good to note that we have recently been on the transformation over the past 12 months implementing digital and AI. I'm going to hand over to Kiran to do a quick introduction and then we can move on to questions.
Thank you, Stacey. So, good morning. My name is Kiran Grewal-Lehal. I'm Customer Delivery Manager for Walsall Council. I've been with Walsall Council for coming up to just over two years and we've had Genesys implemented approximately five years. However, over the last two and a half years, we've been working very closely with Kerv to see how we can utilise Genesys to the best possible, and all the functionality, to give the best possible resident experience.
Great. Thanks, Kiran. I think we have some questions that we'll go through. So I'll sort of crack on with those and then we can just have an open discussion around your transformation project. So Walsall Council have gone through a huge transformation over the past 12 to 18 months, implementing digital and AI into your contact centre to help you better serve your citizens. Please could you tell everyone about this major transformation?
Of course. So as I said in the introduction, it's been the key thing for myself has been to have to make sure that we offer the best resident experience. Initially our telephony platform was brilliant, however it is restricted to standard working hours and there are a lot of people who want to contact us and need support out of these working hours, and it's not feasible for us to stay open, so it was really, for me it's really important, to have a solution for those. Over the 18 months or so we've been working with Kerv, just to see how we can actually be accessible to everybody pretty much 24 hours a day. For me, and for Walsall Council, it's important to keep people at the heart of everything that we do, so the digital and AI solution quite simply was the way forward. And I think that it's clear that we've got the, we're on the right track as, as you may, some people may be aware, that Walsall actually won most improved council of the year this year so whilst it's been a lot of hard work, the decisions that we've made and the the work that we've put in, there's clearly a value and it is actually helping everybody achieve our goals; to be accessible, and to be able to serve every customer, every resident, every business, whenever they want to, in whichever mode that they want to that works best for them.
Yeah we've seen that obviously with working with you how well you've managed to implement the technology and how well that's that's worked in servicing your citizens. I think that feeds quite nicely into if we could highlight the top priority of your customer experience goals when starting your transformation journey that would be helpful.
So quite simply it was to have the best possible experience and that can be, that's not just about how quickly we answer a telephone call, or how you know if we resolve at first point of contact, it's about being accessible. So for myself it was to firstly standardise our basic services i.e. the telephony side, make sure that people are, when they're waiting to speak to us via email, telephone, or now through web chats as well, that we answer that contact as quickly as possible, that the service that we give is the best possible service, and that's monitored by ourselves and we're constantly enhancing that experience. And also that the knowledge that the team have to answer those queries is readily available, it's clear, it's accessible and most importantly we are, things change a lot, that we have the ability to be able to quickly go in and make any changes, which the Genesys solution has allowed us to kind of hit all of those marks and we can demonstrate that, from day one. So currently at Walsall, our customer contact, so web chats and telephone calls are answered within less than a minute, which I think is absolutely fabulous. Our abandonment rates are much lower than industry. So we don't abandon any more than on average 3% of our customer contact. Our knowledge system, that's been built in with our web chat and chatbot is constantly the functionality that Genesys offer allows us to be able to each advisor and customers to give us feedback on the knowledge articles that we've got, and we've got a team of officers who are on hand straight away to make any amends so we know that our knowledge, all of our information, is accurate, up to date, so that we answer every query correctly.
And that really helps with the auto-surface to agents, right. With agent assist and really helping them with that knowledge so they have it to hand. And then also in the chatbot, so, you know, you're deflecting in the sense that not everyone's needing to come through, because your level of knowledge is at such a high level now, that you're able to deflect from bot point before even getting to an agent, but you obviously have the agent there to help citizens where needed.
Exactly. And our data shows that actually that is happening because a lot of our queries, 'cause having the functionality to give a thumbs up that the query has been answered, that demonstrates that it works. So we are able to actually, particularly out of hours, we're not having to, because we don't have live advisors of an evening and early hours of the morning. But the customers are contacting and giving us the feedback that actually the articles are working for them and if for any reason they're not correct we pick them up straight away. Because they've got the opportunity to give us the feedback.
I think that flows quite nicely into the next question around business outcomes, I know that you've spoken a little bit around answer time deflection, is there any sort of business outcomes that have improved that you can highlight other than those?
So our customer, our telephony contact, has started to come down, so it's falling, which is a positive because people aren't having to wait. Now with our web chat and chatbot, they can go on, more so chatbot, they are able to service, self-serve themselves. The biggest thing for us is channel shift. So as a local authority, we are challenged financially, as every other local authority, and to be fair, most businesses at the moment, but by each interaction on the telephone, there is still a cost element to it. But if people are able to self-serve on the chatbot, we then save that telephone call and that resource. So we're finding our call volumes are dropping, which is then enabling us to kind of support our financial goals. And also it's working for the residents, the businesses that are using that chatbot because they're not having to take time out of their busy day the next day waiting to speak to an advisor. So it's less frustrating. So our customer satisfaction is improving because they're not having to wait for an answer. They've got the ability to get their answer themselves.
And I also think it's a generational thing, isn't it? I mean, you've got a younger generation now coming into, you know, living in their own homes, buying their own homes, having to contact the council for certain reasons. And, you know, they sometimes prefer the digital approach to getting on the telephone and having to ring in outside of, you know, being out of hours or anything like that. And I think also, you'll probably see more and more of that as we move forward into the future.
Yes, and I completely agree that it is, you know, there is the younger generation. However, at Walsall, our model is 'Walsall Connected'. So we work with lots of other partnerships and our key focus is to help support all residents to become digitally able. So when they go to our the 'Walsall Connected' sites they are supported so that then allows them, with that support in using digital technology, they can then themselves serve self-serve themselves. So actually whilst it is the young we are actually working very closely with other demographics as well within the community to support them. One of the other things that we've implemented is with Genesys is CX Translate. Within Walsall we've got a large range of communities and our CX Translate functionality allows residents or businesses to communicate with us in their language of choice and that then allows them to be more digitally able because it's hard for them to come on the phone when they don't, when English is not their first language and they're struggling, but with the cx translation it's been a game changer for them. And we've been able to help so many customers with queries that actually even with an interpreter they would have struggled, because it feels a bit awkward when you're using a third party, but they're able to communicate with our agents in their own language and we can communicate back within their language without actually really realising we're doing it.
Yeah and the time to help them then is reduced isn't it? Because you're not then having to engage translation services and and all of those things, it's sort of immediate instead of having to go around the houses on it. And cost as well, yes both time and cost. Yeah and cost. That's great, implementing technology to support agents is going to be an interesting one. It's great in the long run. So let me just start that question again. Implementing technology to support agents is great in the long run, but people often find change stressful. And I know, you know, with a team, it can be really stressful, especially if they're already at capacity. How did the team react to the new technology and how did you encourage them to adopt it?
So this is a very interesting question because with local authorities, what you will find is that people have been here for a very long time, and historically local authorities haven't been the best at embracing new technology for various reasons. So my team is very mixed so I have a lot of my team are have been here for 25-30 years, pretty much their whole working career. And then I've got see we do have some newer staff who've been coming in of recent. And what I found is that from past experiences if you talk to people and you let them know what we're doing, why we're doing, involve them, you will get that buy-in. So buy-in is really really important. If you enforce anything on anyone there'll always be, it's human nature to have, some form of resistance. So with the whole project, and I suppose testament to the great relationship that we have with Kerv, what we've been able to do is actually involve the team. So we've we've had working groups and we've got people in my team involved from day one in what's happening so they can understand. So it's not scary. 'Cause change is scary right for anyone. So we've had we've involved them in testing, we've involved them with their input with the knowledge assist articles, we've got them to understand what's going to be, how it's going to benefit them, and how it's going to benefit their customer contact. And what they found is that now people people that are coming through to them are a lot happier because they haven't been forced to wait etc, even with the web chat that the person wants to be, you know, using the web chat. So therefore there's that that tone and that interaction is a lot better. So by involving them in every kind of step point, that's allowed us to quite for them to embrace it, and even when we went live, what we did was we arranged for the team to be the whole team to come into the office, because we do actually work mainly we work from home. Yeah. But we had we made it into a bit of a, for want of a better word, a bit of a team day fun day. So we had everybody in. We had floor workers. We had a floor worker per each bank of desks so that that the first time they get their first web chat they've got someone there, just for that bit of confidence. And we arranged for this to happen for a week. After the second day they were all, no one, they were all surprised at how easy it was to actually switch from voice to web chat, and they were all like we didn't have a single technical issue. Everyone was comfortable, they love it.
Yeah I know there was some resistance there in the beginning on you know you know new technology, new web chat, you know a bit scary. But when, even when I was down to visit you guys a couple of weeks ago now, I spoke to one of your agents and they were explaining, you know, how easy they found it to make the switch.
But the key, like I say, it's communication. And having, you know, if your product is right and, you know, it's going to work, you talk to them, they see it works, you get that buy-in automatically.
Yeah, that's completely true. One of the most critical areas of the agents projects was designing and authorising the knowledge articles. Can you tell us a bit about how you went about this and what advice you might give to anyone considering implementing knowledge? Because I know this was a big topic for you guys for a long time.
Yes, it's that I have. That's definitely an understatement, Stacey. So the knowledge articles is something that even before we even started, we were aware we needed a knowledge bank. With Walsall, and maybe lots of other organisations, when you have people who work, our attention rates are amazing. People don't leave. We don't lose staff. So we've got staff who've got 20, 30 years experience. And it's all in in their heads. Yeah the knowledge and in their brains. Exactly and we are also we have got an aging workforce so for myself, when i first joined, it was really key that how do we extract that knowledge? So even before we started this project it was always there, how do we get this information, where do we keep it? Especially when we're very, very busy as well, doing our day jobs. So when we started this project for the knowledge articles. It was key for us to firstly agree, we had to decide what our agents needed. Now, the best way to do that is actually speak to the agents because they're the ones that are using it. So I suppose it was really kind of understanding what it's going to look like, who's got that knowledge, how is it going to be easily accessible? We want to keep it concise because we don't want the advisors when they're pulling an article up for it to be, you know, a 10-page document on a simple process because they're actually with, they need to be able to get the information. So we had, what we did was, we have a team of people whose role was to actually work with our service areas and our advisors to capture that knowledge. And then work with the advisor more so to understand how it needs to look like for them to. You know what they need to see. Testing what it looks like when it's in front of them because it's great having that article on on you know in your initial document but actually how does it look when you're using the system? So the key thing for myself is, you know, any advice I would give is - involve the agents. And also do some testing yourself on the chatbot side of things because it's the agents have still got.. it's great that, you know, the agent articles have the information, but those agents have got an understanding, but if somebody's using the chat bot they're pulling up an article, if you didn't know anything about it, how would that read to you? So testing and using the right people to test is the key thing for myself and that's the biggest piece of advice I can give and also planning, and you've got to give it the time.
Yeah and it's interesting you say that I think because you want agents to be able to service different areas so like you said if you know if someone's in schooling and they need something around cleaning green or bin collection and they're generally in one or the other queue, how do you serve this knowledge to them to make them understand a different area well?
Exactly.
Yeah that's great. Thanks. And the very crucial question is what's next for Walsall? I know what's next. It's quite exciting stuff. But what's next for Walsall?
I'm going to be honest, we still have work to do with with the knowledge articles. So my ultimate aim is to actually have every advisor can answer every customer inquiry at first point of contact. So if, as Stacey you mentioned, if they rang about their bin but then had a question about their child's primary school place, currently we are moving that call, but with the development of the knowledge articles, it would be that actually that one advisor can answer every query they've got, for any customer contact within Walsall. We're also currently working with Kerv at the moment to look at implementing a voice bot. And the next thing that's high priority for me, so these are all pretty much for the for the next year these projects, is working on integrating our emails into the Genesys platform as well. So that we can monitor those and improve our efficiencies in answering those emails and then start. So all of these three things is what's going to help our channel shift basically so those are our three key things for 2025.
Looking forward to it. You know that chat bot it seems like a gradual next step after, sorry the voice bot, seems like a gradual next step after implementing the chat bot because you've got a lot of that great knowledge there already and you continue to keep it updated and improve it so yeah looking forward to it. I know email has been on the list for a while now and it makes sense to bring that last sort of piece of the puzzle in to, so you have the same experience for all your residents. Why is prioritising agents with the right support important to you?
In a nutshell without the agents there is no customer experience centre, so it's really important to it's those agents that are talking to our residents, to our businesses, so if they're not supported and they don't have the right tools to do their job then we're never going to move forward at all. And we're never going to get it right. So they are fundamentally the key I, Walsall, we can't function without them, so if we don't support them, they're not engaged, they're not happy, they're not confident, then we may as well stop right now kind of thing. So they are the backbone and they are the most important people to me, in making sure that I can deliver the outcomes that I'm here to deliver.
That's a great answer. And I'm sure they're going to love hearing this when they listen to your podcast. What are your thoughts on AI and how it's transforming both the CX and local government industries?
So AI is the way forward. Currently, local authorities, CX, all of us are in some ways in the same boat. We're all facing... economic, social, environmental and financial challenges. AI is the tool that's going to allow us to carry on delivering an exceptional customer experience, delivering the best possible service, mitigating any risks and key, supporting our advisors and agents to ensure that they are, they have the knowledge, they have the tools to actually support people in difficult times. Be it a resident, be it a customer, to deliver. So they'll be delivering the best service, giving them the correct information, to ensure that actually we are doing the right thing by them.
So what do you think will be the biggest challenge in the local government industry around digital and AI in terms of the contact centre? What is that currently and how can councils overcome it?
So if I'm going to be honest with you, there's two things really, one is the cost okay. Yeah. And the second thing is change, the fear of change. Okay, so at first count, there are systems out there that are a lot cheaper. And, you know, but you've got to think of the bigger picture. So for local, whilst the solution may be a little bit more expensive than others out there, what Genesys allows us to do is promote channel shift, so whilst, and also give a better experience, so whilst it looks expensive actually it's not. So the amount of savings that we've actually delivered on the back of using Genesys is phenomenal. And you wouldn't think it but you've got to, it's about what we've been able to do is maximise our frequency. So I have, Walsall is we're an expanding council, so my customer contact centre is expanding. So in the last, I would say 18 months, I've actually taken on probably five services, customer contact, but actually by using Genesys Solutions, I've not had to recruit any additional staffing. Because what we've been able to do is actually utilise the tools to make sure that we've got the highest possible productivity. So while something can look expensive, you've got to... it's really important to appreciate actually what we're going to get at the end of it and actually you'll find it'll actually be cheaper in the long run it's that bigger picture. Yeah the return on investment piece yeah. Exactly return return on investment and also, like I say, it's that push on and what Genesys allows us to do is encourage channel shift and self-serve. And also the better experience because we are now accessible 24/7 rather than 9 to 5, well in our case 8.45-5.15 Monday to Friday. But so and the other thing is, like the biggest challenge is that fear of change. "We can't do it." "It can't be done." "People won't take, the staff won't take to it." "The customers don't want it." You've got to understand it and actually embrace it. And we've got to, it's really important for local authorities now, we've got to be working in line with our private sector colleagues and offering the same kind of contact as they do.
Yeah, because that's what residents really want, don't they?
Exactly. What they need as well, not what they want, what they need as well.
And what they deserve. Yeah. What key trends do you think will emerge over the next 12 months with the contact centre and CX space?
I think what we will find is there's going to be more and more channel shift. So as you know people, as CX and contact centres are now embedding the technology, you know using, I mean I remember a couple of years ago, I can't remember who it was actually, and it was the first time I saw a web chat. I was like, what's this? Now, actually, I'm seeing day in, day out that more and more organisations, contact centres are actually having more digital solutions, rather than just the traditional telephony platforms and email platforms. And what I think is over the next 12 months, we're going to see more and more of that across CX and contact centres. And I think that what you're also going to see is actually the quality of information through chatbots. I think that's going to be improving because I think everyone across CX, it's key that that is the way forward. That's what people need. That's what people want. And there's got to be some time, dedication and effort in making sure that actually it's not just a case of, right, we've written this article and that's it. Forget about it. They've got to be live. So I think what we're going to find is quality is going to be improving. And I think we're going to kind of see what I think we'll see is more consistency over the next 12 months and more and more usage of digital solutions and AI.
Yeah, I think definitely that AI piece and, you know, the Agent Assist, the knowledge, the Copilot. We, you know, we all know that Genesys is constantly evolving and there is so much research and development in those spaces. So we'll probably see a lot of new features, but I know that we're already looking at a few features that have just dropped or just come out that we'll be looking into with yourselves to help improve that AI experience for yourselves, your agents and the citizens.
I definitely can't wait for 2025. It's going to be amazing.
Yeah, I know. It's going to be really interesting. But I mean, 2024 has been a huge transformation for you guys. And, you know, just being along for the ride has been incredible. It's been great to see you guys, you know, win awards and do great things in your space. And like you said, you're not just, you know, in a council circle. You're with much bigger businesses and you're doing more than... than a lot of people in this space at the moment. So you'll be leading that, I'm sure, going into 2025 in the future.
Bring it on. Can't wait.
Great. Thanks so much for your time, Kiran. It's been great. I mean, we speak about this stuff all the time, but you're so passionate about it and I love to hear it. So I really appreciate you doing this with Kerv and with me.
And anybody, if anybody ever wants to reach out please feel free to do so. More than happy to talk you through our experiences in more depth, what you were looking forward to, our challenges, so invitations out there. Thanks Kiran thanks
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Listen to our latest podcast as we talk to the award-winning Walsall Council about their transformation in resident experience - increasing accessibility and customer satisfaction by utilising existing functionality and AI - no budget increases needed! Featuring Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager and an interesting chat about AI.
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Customer Engagement Examples of Excellence podcast. This is an Engage Customer podcast. Find out more at engagecustomer.com. In this episode, our host Stacey O'Donnell, Customer Success Manager at Kerv, chats with Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager at Walsall Council, about their recent transformation journey with Kerv.
Hi everyone, just a quick introduction of myself. I'm Stacey O'Donnell and I've been helping Walsall on their transformation journey for the last sort of two years and we've had a relationship with Walsall Council for much longer than that, I would say probably about five years now. We've done loads of good projects for them but for the sake of today's discussion I think it's good to note that we have recently been on the transformation over the past 12 months implementing digital and AI. I'm going to hand over to Kiran to do a quick introduction and then we can move on to questions.
Thank you, Stacey. So, good morning. My name is Kiran Grewal-Lehal. I'm Customer Delivery Manager for Walsall Council. I've been with Walsall Council for coming up to just over two years and we've had Genesys implemented approximately five years. However, over the last two and a half years, we've been working very closely with Kerv to see how we can utilise Genesys to the best possible, and all the functionality, to give the best possible resident experience.
Great. Thanks, Kiran. I think we have some questions that we'll go through. So I'll sort of crack on with those and then we can just have an open discussion around your transformation project. So Walsall Council have gone through a huge transformation over the past 12 to 18 months, implementing digital and AI into your contact centre to help you better serve your citizens. Please could you tell everyone about this major transformation?
Of course. So as I said in the introduction, it's been the key thing for myself has been to have to make sure that we offer the best resident experience. Initially our telephony platform was brilliant, however it is restricted to standard working hours and there are a lot of people who want to contact us and need support out of these working hours, and it's not feasible for us to stay open, so it was really, for me it's really important, to have a solution for those. Over the 18 months or so we've been working with Kerv, just to see how we can actually be accessible to everybody pretty much 24 hours a day. For me, and for Walsall Council, it's important to keep people at the heart of everything that we do, so the digital and AI solution quite simply was the way forward. And I think that it's clear that we've got the, we're on the right track as, as you may, some people may be aware, that Walsall actually won most improved council of the year this year so whilst it's been a lot of hard work, the decisions that we've made and the the work that we've put in, there's clearly a value and it is actually helping everybody achieve our goals; to be accessible, and to be able to serve every customer, every resident, every business, whenever they want to, in whichever mode that they want to that works best for them.
Yeah we've seen that obviously with working with you how well you've managed to implement the technology and how well that's that's worked in servicing your citizens. I think that feeds quite nicely into if we could highlight the top priority of your customer experience goals when starting your transformation journey that would be helpful.
So quite simply it was to have the best possible experience and that can be, that's not just about how quickly we answer a telephone call, or how you know if we resolve at first point of contact, it's about being accessible. So for myself it was to firstly standardise our basic services i.e. the telephony side, make sure that people are, when they're waiting to speak to us via email, telephone, or now through web chats as well, that we answer that contact as quickly as possible, that the service that we give is the best possible service, and that's monitored by ourselves and we're constantly enhancing that experience. And also that the knowledge that the team have to answer those queries is readily available, it's clear, it's accessible and most importantly we are, things change a lot, that we have the ability to be able to quickly go in and make any changes, which the Genesys solution has allowed us to kind of hit all of those marks and we can demonstrate that, from day one. So currently at Walsall, our customer contact, so web chats and telephone calls are answered within less than a minute, which I think is absolutely fabulous. Our abandonment rates are much lower than industry. So we don't abandon any more than on average 3% of our customer contact. Our knowledge system, that's been built in with our web chat and chatbot is constantly the functionality that Genesys offer allows us to be able to each advisor and customers to give us feedback on the knowledge articles that we've got, and we've got a team of officers who are on hand straight away to make any amends so we know that our knowledge, all of our information, is accurate, up to date, so that we answer every query correctly.
And that really helps with the auto-surface to agents, right. With agent assist and really helping them with that knowledge so they have it to hand. And then also in the chatbot, so, you know, you're deflecting in the sense that not everyone's needing to come through, because your level of knowledge is at such a high level now, that you're able to deflect from bot point before even getting to an agent, but you obviously have the agent there to help citizens where needed.
Exactly. And our data shows that actually that is happening because a lot of our queries, 'cause having the functionality to give a thumbs up that the query has been answered, that demonstrates that it works. So we are able to actually, particularly out of hours, we're not having to, because we don't have live advisors of an evening and early hours of the morning. But the customers are contacting and giving us the feedback that actually the articles are working for them and if for any reason they're not correct we pick them up straight away. Because they've got the opportunity to give us the feedback.
I think that flows quite nicely into the next question around business outcomes, I know that you've spoken a little bit around answer time deflection, is there any sort of business outcomes that have improved that you can highlight other than those?
So our customer, our telephony contact, has started to come down, so it's falling, which is a positive because people aren't having to wait. Now with our web chat and chatbot, they can go on, more so chatbot, they are able to service, self-serve themselves. The biggest thing for us is channel shift. So as a local authority, we are challenged financially, as every other local authority, and to be fair, most businesses at the moment, but by each interaction on the telephone, there is still a cost element to it. But if people are able to self-serve on the chatbot, we then save that telephone call and that resource. So we're finding our call volumes are dropping, which is then enabling us to kind of support our financial goals. And also it's working for the residents, the businesses that are using that chatbot because they're not having to take time out of their busy day the next day waiting to speak to an advisor. So it's less frustrating. So our customer satisfaction is improving because they're not having to wait for an answer. They've got the ability to get their answer themselves.
And I also think it's a generational thing, isn't it? I mean, you've got a younger generation now coming into, you know, living in their own homes, buying their own homes, having to contact the council for certain reasons. And, you know, they sometimes prefer the digital approach to getting on the telephone and having to ring in outside of, you know, being out of hours or anything like that. And I think also, you'll probably see more and more of that as we move forward into the future.
Yes, and I completely agree that it is, you know, there is the younger generation. However, at Walsall, our model is 'Walsall Connected'. So we work with lots of other partnerships and our key focus is to help support all residents to become digitally able. So when they go to our the 'Walsall Connected' sites they are supported so that then allows them, with that support in using digital technology, they can then themselves serve self-serve themselves. So actually whilst it is the young we are actually working very closely with other demographics as well within the community to support them. One of the other things that we've implemented is with Genesys is CX Translate. Within Walsall we've got a large range of communities and our CX Translate functionality allows residents or businesses to communicate with us in their language of choice and that then allows them to be more digitally able because it's hard for them to come on the phone when they don't, when English is not their first language and they're struggling, but with the cx translation it's been a game changer for them. And we've been able to help so many customers with queries that actually even with an interpreter they would have struggled, because it feels a bit awkward when you're using a third party, but they're able to communicate with our agents in their own language and we can communicate back within their language without actually really realising we're doing it.
Yeah and the time to help them then is reduced isn't it? Because you're not then having to engage translation services and and all of those things, it's sort of immediate instead of having to go around the houses on it. And cost as well, yes both time and cost. Yeah and cost. That's great, implementing technology to support agents is going to be an interesting one. It's great in the long run. So let me just start that question again. Implementing technology to support agents is great in the long run, but people often find change stressful. And I know, you know, with a team, it can be really stressful, especially if they're already at capacity. How did the team react to the new technology and how did you encourage them to adopt it?
So this is a very interesting question because with local authorities, what you will find is that people have been here for a very long time, and historically local authorities haven't been the best at embracing new technology for various reasons. So my team is very mixed so I have a lot of my team are have been here for 25-30 years, pretty much their whole working career. And then I've got see we do have some newer staff who've been coming in of recent. And what I found is that from past experiences if you talk to people and you let them know what we're doing, why we're doing, involve them, you will get that buy-in. So buy-in is really really important. If you enforce anything on anyone there'll always be, it's human nature to have, some form of resistance. So with the whole project, and I suppose testament to the great relationship that we have with Kerv, what we've been able to do is actually involve the team. So we've we've had working groups and we've got people in my team involved from day one in what's happening so they can understand. So it's not scary. 'Cause change is scary right for anyone. So we've had we've involved them in testing, we've involved them with their input with the knowledge assist articles, we've got them to understand what's going to be, how it's going to benefit them, and how it's going to benefit their customer contact. And what they found is that now people people that are coming through to them are a lot happier because they haven't been forced to wait etc, even with the web chat that the person wants to be, you know, using the web chat. So therefore there's that that tone and that interaction is a lot better. So by involving them in every kind of step point, that's allowed us to quite for them to embrace it, and even when we went live, what we did was we arranged for the team to be the whole team to come into the office, because we do actually work mainly we work from home. Yeah. But we had we made it into a bit of a, for want of a better word, a bit of a team day fun day. So we had everybody in. We had floor workers. We had a floor worker per each bank of desks so that that the first time they get their first web chat they've got someone there, just for that bit of confidence. And we arranged for this to happen for a week. After the second day they were all, no one, they were all surprised at how easy it was to actually switch from voice to web chat, and they were all like we didn't have a single technical issue. Everyone was comfortable, they love it.
Yeah I know there was some resistance there in the beginning on you know you know new technology, new web chat, you know a bit scary. But when, even when I was down to visit you guys a couple of weeks ago now, I spoke to one of your agents and they were explaining, you know, how easy they found it to make the switch.
But the key, like I say, it's communication. And having, you know, if your product is right and, you know, it's going to work, you talk to them, they see it works, you get that buy-in automatically.
Yeah, that's completely true. One of the most critical areas of the agents projects was designing and authorising the knowledge articles. Can you tell us a bit about how you went about this and what advice you might give to anyone considering implementing knowledge? Because I know this was a big topic for you guys for a long time.
Yes, it's that I have. That's definitely an understatement, Stacey. So the knowledge articles is something that even before we even started, we were aware we needed a knowledge bank. With Walsall, and maybe lots of other organisations, when you have people who work, our attention rates are amazing. People don't leave. We don't lose staff. So we've got staff who've got 20, 30 years experience. And it's all in in their heads. Yeah the knowledge and in their brains. Exactly and we are also we have got an aging workforce so for myself, when i first joined, it was really key that how do we extract that knowledge? So even before we started this project it was always there, how do we get this information, where do we keep it? Especially when we're very, very busy as well, doing our day jobs. So when we started this project for the knowledge articles. It was key for us to firstly agree, we had to decide what our agents needed. Now, the best way to do that is actually speak to the agents because they're the ones that are using it. So I suppose it was really kind of understanding what it's going to look like, who's got that knowledge, how is it going to be easily accessible? We want to keep it concise because we don't want the advisors when they're pulling an article up for it to be, you know, a 10-page document on a simple process because they're actually with, they need to be able to get the information. So we had, what we did was, we have a team of people whose role was to actually work with our service areas and our advisors to capture that knowledge. And then work with the advisor more so to understand how it needs to look like for them to. You know what they need to see. Testing what it looks like when it's in front of them because it's great having that article on on you know in your initial document but actually how does it look when you're using the system? So the key thing for myself is, you know, any advice I would give is - involve the agents. And also do some testing yourself on the chatbot side of things because it's the agents have still got.. it's great that, you know, the agent articles have the information, but those agents have got an understanding, but if somebody's using the chat bot they're pulling up an article, if you didn't know anything about it, how would that read to you? So testing and using the right people to test is the key thing for myself and that's the biggest piece of advice I can give and also planning, and you've got to give it the time.
Yeah and it's interesting you say that I think because you want agents to be able to service different areas so like you said if you know if someone's in schooling and they need something around cleaning green or bin collection and they're generally in one or the other queue, how do you serve this knowledge to them to make them understand a different area well?
Exactly.
Yeah that's great. Thanks. And the very crucial question is what's next for Walsall? I know what's next. It's quite exciting stuff. But what's next for Walsall?
I'm going to be honest, we still have work to do with with the knowledge articles. So my ultimate aim is to actually have every advisor can answer every customer inquiry at first point of contact. So if, as Stacey you mentioned, if they rang about their bin but then had a question about their child's primary school place, currently we are moving that call, but with the development of the knowledge articles, it would be that actually that one advisor can answer every query they've got, for any customer contact within Walsall. We're also currently working with Kerv at the moment to look at implementing a voice bot. And the next thing that's high priority for me, so these are all pretty much for the for the next year these projects, is working on integrating our emails into the Genesys platform as well. So that we can monitor those and improve our efficiencies in answering those emails and then start. So all of these three things is what's going to help our channel shift basically so those are our three key things for 2025.
Looking forward to it. You know that chat bot it seems like a gradual next step after, sorry the voice bot, seems like a gradual next step after implementing the chat bot because you've got a lot of that great knowledge there already and you continue to keep it updated and improve it so yeah looking forward to it. I know email has been on the list for a while now and it makes sense to bring that last sort of piece of the puzzle in to, so you have the same experience for all your residents. Why is prioritising agents with the right support important to you?
In a nutshell without the agents there is no customer experience centre, so it's really important to it's those agents that are talking to our residents, to our businesses, so if they're not supported and they don't have the right tools to do their job then we're never going to move forward at all. And we're never going to get it right. So they are fundamentally the key I, Walsall, we can't function without them, so if we don't support them, they're not engaged, they're not happy, they're not confident, then we may as well stop right now kind of thing. So they are the backbone and they are the most important people to me, in making sure that I can deliver the outcomes that I'm here to deliver.
That's a great answer. And I'm sure they're going to love hearing this when they listen to your podcast. What are your thoughts on AI and how it's transforming both the CX and local government industries?
So AI is the way forward. Currently, local authorities, CX, all of us are in some ways in the same boat. We're all facing... economic, social, environmental and financial challenges. AI is the tool that's going to allow us to carry on delivering an exceptional customer experience, delivering the best possible service, mitigating any risks and key, supporting our advisors and agents to ensure that they are, they have the knowledge, they have the tools to actually support people in difficult times. Be it a resident, be it a customer, to deliver. So they'll be delivering the best service, giving them the correct information, to ensure that actually we are doing the right thing by them.
So what do you think will be the biggest challenge in the local government industry around digital and AI in terms of the contact centre? What is that currently and how can councils overcome it?
So if I'm going to be honest with you, there's two things really, one is the cost okay. Yeah. And the second thing is change, the fear of change. Okay, so at first count, there are systems out there that are a lot cheaper. And, you know, but you've got to think of the bigger picture. So for local, whilst the solution may be a little bit more expensive than others out there, what Genesys allows us to do is promote channel shift, so whilst, and also give a better experience, so whilst it looks expensive actually it's not. So the amount of savings that we've actually delivered on the back of using Genesys is phenomenal. And you wouldn't think it but you've got to, it's about what we've been able to do is maximise our frequency. So I have, Walsall is we're an expanding council, so my customer contact centre is expanding. So in the last, I would say 18 months, I've actually taken on probably five services, customer contact, but actually by using Genesys Solutions, I've not had to recruit any additional staffing. Because what we've been able to do is actually utilise the tools to make sure that we've got the highest possible productivity. So while something can look expensive, you've got to... it's really important to appreciate actually what we're going to get at the end of it and actually you'll find it'll actually be cheaper in the long run it's that bigger picture. Yeah the return on investment piece yeah. Exactly return return on investment and also, like I say, it's that push on and what Genesys allows us to do is encourage channel shift and self-serve. And also the better experience because we are now accessible 24/7 rather than 9 to 5, well in our case 8.45-5.15 Monday to Friday. But so and the other thing is, like the biggest challenge is that fear of change. "We can't do it." "It can't be done." "People won't take, the staff won't take to it." "The customers don't want it." You've got to understand it and actually embrace it. And we've got to, it's really important for local authorities now, we've got to be working in line with our private sector colleagues and offering the same kind of contact as they do.
Yeah, because that's what residents really want, don't they?
Exactly. What they need as well, not what they want, what they need as well.
And what they deserve. Yeah. What key trends do you think will emerge over the next 12 months with the contact centre and CX space?
I think what we will find is there's going to be more and more channel shift. So as you know people, as CX and contact centres are now embedding the technology, you know using, I mean I remember a couple of years ago, I can't remember who it was actually, and it was the first time I saw a web chat. I was like, what's this? Now, actually, I'm seeing day in, day out that more and more organisations, contact centres are actually having more digital solutions, rather than just the traditional telephony platforms and email platforms. And what I think is over the next 12 months, we're going to see more and more of that across CX and contact centres. And I think that what you're also going to see is actually the quality of information through chatbots. I think that's going to be improving because I think everyone across CX, it's key that that is the way forward. That's what people need. That's what people want. And there's got to be some time, dedication and effort in making sure that actually it's not just a case of, right, we've written this article and that's it. Forget about it. They've got to be live. So I think what we're going to find is quality is going to be improving. And I think we're going to kind of see what I think we'll see is more consistency over the next 12 months and more and more usage of digital solutions and AI.
Yeah, I think definitely that AI piece and, you know, the Agent Assist, the knowledge, the Copilot. We, you know, we all know that Genesys is constantly evolving and there is so much research and development in those spaces. So we'll probably see a lot of new features, but I know that we're already looking at a few features that have just dropped or just come out that we'll be looking into with yourselves to help improve that AI experience for yourselves, your agents and the citizens.
I definitely can't wait for 2025. It's going to be amazing.
Yeah, I know. It's going to be really interesting. But I mean, 2024 has been a huge transformation for you guys. And, you know, just being along for the ride has been incredible. It's been great to see you guys, you know, win awards and do great things in your space. And like you said, you're not just, you know, in a council circle. You're with much bigger businesses and you're doing more than... than a lot of people in this space at the moment. So you'll be leading that, I'm sure, going into 2025 in the future.
Bring it on. Can't wait.
Great. Thanks so much for your time, Kiran. It's been great. I mean, we speak about this stuff all the time, but you're so passionate about it and I love to hear it. So I really appreciate you doing this with Kerv and with me.
And anybody, if anybody ever wants to reach out please feel free to do so. More than happy to talk you through our experiences in more depth, what you were looking forward to, our challenges, so invitations out there. Thanks Kiran thanks
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Description
Listen to our latest podcast as we talk to the award-winning Walsall Council about their transformation in resident experience - increasing accessibility and customer satisfaction by utilising existing functionality and AI - no budget increases needed! Featuring Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager and an interesting chat about AI.
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
Transcription
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Customer Engagement Examples of Excellence podcast. This is an Engage Customer podcast. Find out more at engagecustomer.com. In this episode, our host Stacey O'Donnell, Customer Success Manager at Kerv, chats with Kiran Grewal-Lehal, Customer Delivery Manager at Walsall Council, about their recent transformation journey with Kerv.
Hi everyone, just a quick introduction of myself. I'm Stacey O'Donnell and I've been helping Walsall on their transformation journey for the last sort of two years and we've had a relationship with Walsall Council for much longer than that, I would say probably about five years now. We've done loads of good projects for them but for the sake of today's discussion I think it's good to note that we have recently been on the transformation over the past 12 months implementing digital and AI. I'm going to hand over to Kiran to do a quick introduction and then we can move on to questions.
Thank you, Stacey. So, good morning. My name is Kiran Grewal-Lehal. I'm Customer Delivery Manager for Walsall Council. I've been with Walsall Council for coming up to just over two years and we've had Genesys implemented approximately five years. However, over the last two and a half years, we've been working very closely with Kerv to see how we can utilise Genesys to the best possible, and all the functionality, to give the best possible resident experience.
Great. Thanks, Kiran. I think we have some questions that we'll go through. So I'll sort of crack on with those and then we can just have an open discussion around your transformation project. So Walsall Council have gone through a huge transformation over the past 12 to 18 months, implementing digital and AI into your contact centre to help you better serve your citizens. Please could you tell everyone about this major transformation?
Of course. So as I said in the introduction, it's been the key thing for myself has been to have to make sure that we offer the best resident experience. Initially our telephony platform was brilliant, however it is restricted to standard working hours and there are a lot of people who want to contact us and need support out of these working hours, and it's not feasible for us to stay open, so it was really, for me it's really important, to have a solution for those. Over the 18 months or so we've been working with Kerv, just to see how we can actually be accessible to everybody pretty much 24 hours a day. For me, and for Walsall Council, it's important to keep people at the heart of everything that we do, so the digital and AI solution quite simply was the way forward. And I think that it's clear that we've got the, we're on the right track as, as you may, some people may be aware, that Walsall actually won most improved council of the year this year so whilst it's been a lot of hard work, the decisions that we've made and the the work that we've put in, there's clearly a value and it is actually helping everybody achieve our goals; to be accessible, and to be able to serve every customer, every resident, every business, whenever they want to, in whichever mode that they want to that works best for them.
Yeah we've seen that obviously with working with you how well you've managed to implement the technology and how well that's that's worked in servicing your citizens. I think that feeds quite nicely into if we could highlight the top priority of your customer experience goals when starting your transformation journey that would be helpful.
So quite simply it was to have the best possible experience and that can be, that's not just about how quickly we answer a telephone call, or how you know if we resolve at first point of contact, it's about being accessible. So for myself it was to firstly standardise our basic services i.e. the telephony side, make sure that people are, when they're waiting to speak to us via email, telephone, or now through web chats as well, that we answer that contact as quickly as possible, that the service that we give is the best possible service, and that's monitored by ourselves and we're constantly enhancing that experience. And also that the knowledge that the team have to answer those queries is readily available, it's clear, it's accessible and most importantly we are, things change a lot, that we have the ability to be able to quickly go in and make any changes, which the Genesys solution has allowed us to kind of hit all of those marks and we can demonstrate that, from day one. So currently at Walsall, our customer contact, so web chats and telephone calls are answered within less than a minute, which I think is absolutely fabulous. Our abandonment rates are much lower than industry. So we don't abandon any more than on average 3% of our customer contact. Our knowledge system, that's been built in with our web chat and chatbot is constantly the functionality that Genesys offer allows us to be able to each advisor and customers to give us feedback on the knowledge articles that we've got, and we've got a team of officers who are on hand straight away to make any amends so we know that our knowledge, all of our information, is accurate, up to date, so that we answer every query correctly.
And that really helps with the auto-surface to agents, right. With agent assist and really helping them with that knowledge so they have it to hand. And then also in the chatbot, so, you know, you're deflecting in the sense that not everyone's needing to come through, because your level of knowledge is at such a high level now, that you're able to deflect from bot point before even getting to an agent, but you obviously have the agent there to help citizens where needed.
Exactly. And our data shows that actually that is happening because a lot of our queries, 'cause having the functionality to give a thumbs up that the query has been answered, that demonstrates that it works. So we are able to actually, particularly out of hours, we're not having to, because we don't have live advisors of an evening and early hours of the morning. But the customers are contacting and giving us the feedback that actually the articles are working for them and if for any reason they're not correct we pick them up straight away. Because they've got the opportunity to give us the feedback.
I think that flows quite nicely into the next question around business outcomes, I know that you've spoken a little bit around answer time deflection, is there any sort of business outcomes that have improved that you can highlight other than those?
So our customer, our telephony contact, has started to come down, so it's falling, which is a positive because people aren't having to wait. Now with our web chat and chatbot, they can go on, more so chatbot, they are able to service, self-serve themselves. The biggest thing for us is channel shift. So as a local authority, we are challenged financially, as every other local authority, and to be fair, most businesses at the moment, but by each interaction on the telephone, there is still a cost element to it. But if people are able to self-serve on the chatbot, we then save that telephone call and that resource. So we're finding our call volumes are dropping, which is then enabling us to kind of support our financial goals. And also it's working for the residents, the businesses that are using that chatbot because they're not having to take time out of their busy day the next day waiting to speak to an advisor. So it's less frustrating. So our customer satisfaction is improving because they're not having to wait for an answer. They've got the ability to get their answer themselves.
And I also think it's a generational thing, isn't it? I mean, you've got a younger generation now coming into, you know, living in their own homes, buying their own homes, having to contact the council for certain reasons. And, you know, they sometimes prefer the digital approach to getting on the telephone and having to ring in outside of, you know, being out of hours or anything like that. And I think also, you'll probably see more and more of that as we move forward into the future.
Yes, and I completely agree that it is, you know, there is the younger generation. However, at Walsall, our model is 'Walsall Connected'. So we work with lots of other partnerships and our key focus is to help support all residents to become digitally able. So when they go to our the 'Walsall Connected' sites they are supported so that then allows them, with that support in using digital technology, they can then themselves serve self-serve themselves. So actually whilst it is the young we are actually working very closely with other demographics as well within the community to support them. One of the other things that we've implemented is with Genesys is CX Translate. Within Walsall we've got a large range of communities and our CX Translate functionality allows residents or businesses to communicate with us in their language of choice and that then allows them to be more digitally able because it's hard for them to come on the phone when they don't, when English is not their first language and they're struggling, but with the cx translation it's been a game changer for them. And we've been able to help so many customers with queries that actually even with an interpreter they would have struggled, because it feels a bit awkward when you're using a third party, but they're able to communicate with our agents in their own language and we can communicate back within their language without actually really realising we're doing it.
Yeah and the time to help them then is reduced isn't it? Because you're not then having to engage translation services and and all of those things, it's sort of immediate instead of having to go around the houses on it. And cost as well, yes both time and cost. Yeah and cost. That's great, implementing technology to support agents is going to be an interesting one. It's great in the long run. So let me just start that question again. Implementing technology to support agents is great in the long run, but people often find change stressful. And I know, you know, with a team, it can be really stressful, especially if they're already at capacity. How did the team react to the new technology and how did you encourage them to adopt it?
So this is a very interesting question because with local authorities, what you will find is that people have been here for a very long time, and historically local authorities haven't been the best at embracing new technology for various reasons. So my team is very mixed so I have a lot of my team are have been here for 25-30 years, pretty much their whole working career. And then I've got see we do have some newer staff who've been coming in of recent. And what I found is that from past experiences if you talk to people and you let them know what we're doing, why we're doing, involve them, you will get that buy-in. So buy-in is really really important. If you enforce anything on anyone there'll always be, it's human nature to have, some form of resistance. So with the whole project, and I suppose testament to the great relationship that we have with Kerv, what we've been able to do is actually involve the team. So we've we've had working groups and we've got people in my team involved from day one in what's happening so they can understand. So it's not scary. 'Cause change is scary right for anyone. So we've had we've involved them in testing, we've involved them with their input with the knowledge assist articles, we've got them to understand what's going to be, how it's going to benefit them, and how it's going to benefit their customer contact. And what they found is that now people people that are coming through to them are a lot happier because they haven't been forced to wait etc, even with the web chat that the person wants to be, you know, using the web chat. So therefore there's that that tone and that interaction is a lot better. So by involving them in every kind of step point, that's allowed us to quite for them to embrace it, and even when we went live, what we did was we arranged for the team to be the whole team to come into the office, because we do actually work mainly we work from home. Yeah. But we had we made it into a bit of a, for want of a better word, a bit of a team day fun day. So we had everybody in. We had floor workers. We had a floor worker per each bank of desks so that that the first time they get their first web chat they've got someone there, just for that bit of confidence. And we arranged for this to happen for a week. After the second day they were all, no one, they were all surprised at how easy it was to actually switch from voice to web chat, and they were all like we didn't have a single technical issue. Everyone was comfortable, they love it.
Yeah I know there was some resistance there in the beginning on you know you know new technology, new web chat, you know a bit scary. But when, even when I was down to visit you guys a couple of weeks ago now, I spoke to one of your agents and they were explaining, you know, how easy they found it to make the switch.
But the key, like I say, it's communication. And having, you know, if your product is right and, you know, it's going to work, you talk to them, they see it works, you get that buy-in automatically.
Yeah, that's completely true. One of the most critical areas of the agents projects was designing and authorising the knowledge articles. Can you tell us a bit about how you went about this and what advice you might give to anyone considering implementing knowledge? Because I know this was a big topic for you guys for a long time.
Yes, it's that I have. That's definitely an understatement, Stacey. So the knowledge articles is something that even before we even started, we were aware we needed a knowledge bank. With Walsall, and maybe lots of other organisations, when you have people who work, our attention rates are amazing. People don't leave. We don't lose staff. So we've got staff who've got 20, 30 years experience. And it's all in in their heads. Yeah the knowledge and in their brains. Exactly and we are also we have got an aging workforce so for myself, when i first joined, it was really key that how do we extract that knowledge? So even before we started this project it was always there, how do we get this information, where do we keep it? Especially when we're very, very busy as well, doing our day jobs. So when we started this project for the knowledge articles. It was key for us to firstly agree, we had to decide what our agents needed. Now, the best way to do that is actually speak to the agents because they're the ones that are using it. So I suppose it was really kind of understanding what it's going to look like, who's got that knowledge, how is it going to be easily accessible? We want to keep it concise because we don't want the advisors when they're pulling an article up for it to be, you know, a 10-page document on a simple process because they're actually with, they need to be able to get the information. So we had, what we did was, we have a team of people whose role was to actually work with our service areas and our advisors to capture that knowledge. And then work with the advisor more so to understand how it needs to look like for them to. You know what they need to see. Testing what it looks like when it's in front of them because it's great having that article on on you know in your initial document but actually how does it look when you're using the system? So the key thing for myself is, you know, any advice I would give is - involve the agents. And also do some testing yourself on the chatbot side of things because it's the agents have still got.. it's great that, you know, the agent articles have the information, but those agents have got an understanding, but if somebody's using the chat bot they're pulling up an article, if you didn't know anything about it, how would that read to you? So testing and using the right people to test is the key thing for myself and that's the biggest piece of advice I can give and also planning, and you've got to give it the time.
Yeah and it's interesting you say that I think because you want agents to be able to service different areas so like you said if you know if someone's in schooling and they need something around cleaning green or bin collection and they're generally in one or the other queue, how do you serve this knowledge to them to make them understand a different area well?
Exactly.
Yeah that's great. Thanks. And the very crucial question is what's next for Walsall? I know what's next. It's quite exciting stuff. But what's next for Walsall?
I'm going to be honest, we still have work to do with with the knowledge articles. So my ultimate aim is to actually have every advisor can answer every customer inquiry at first point of contact. So if, as Stacey you mentioned, if they rang about their bin but then had a question about their child's primary school place, currently we are moving that call, but with the development of the knowledge articles, it would be that actually that one advisor can answer every query they've got, for any customer contact within Walsall. We're also currently working with Kerv at the moment to look at implementing a voice bot. And the next thing that's high priority for me, so these are all pretty much for the for the next year these projects, is working on integrating our emails into the Genesys platform as well. So that we can monitor those and improve our efficiencies in answering those emails and then start. So all of these three things is what's going to help our channel shift basically so those are our three key things for 2025.
Looking forward to it. You know that chat bot it seems like a gradual next step after, sorry the voice bot, seems like a gradual next step after implementing the chat bot because you've got a lot of that great knowledge there already and you continue to keep it updated and improve it so yeah looking forward to it. I know email has been on the list for a while now and it makes sense to bring that last sort of piece of the puzzle in to, so you have the same experience for all your residents. Why is prioritising agents with the right support important to you?
In a nutshell without the agents there is no customer experience centre, so it's really important to it's those agents that are talking to our residents, to our businesses, so if they're not supported and they don't have the right tools to do their job then we're never going to move forward at all. And we're never going to get it right. So they are fundamentally the key I, Walsall, we can't function without them, so if we don't support them, they're not engaged, they're not happy, they're not confident, then we may as well stop right now kind of thing. So they are the backbone and they are the most important people to me, in making sure that I can deliver the outcomes that I'm here to deliver.
That's a great answer. And I'm sure they're going to love hearing this when they listen to your podcast. What are your thoughts on AI and how it's transforming both the CX and local government industries?
So AI is the way forward. Currently, local authorities, CX, all of us are in some ways in the same boat. We're all facing... economic, social, environmental and financial challenges. AI is the tool that's going to allow us to carry on delivering an exceptional customer experience, delivering the best possible service, mitigating any risks and key, supporting our advisors and agents to ensure that they are, they have the knowledge, they have the tools to actually support people in difficult times. Be it a resident, be it a customer, to deliver. So they'll be delivering the best service, giving them the correct information, to ensure that actually we are doing the right thing by them.
So what do you think will be the biggest challenge in the local government industry around digital and AI in terms of the contact centre? What is that currently and how can councils overcome it?
So if I'm going to be honest with you, there's two things really, one is the cost okay. Yeah. And the second thing is change, the fear of change. Okay, so at first count, there are systems out there that are a lot cheaper. And, you know, but you've got to think of the bigger picture. So for local, whilst the solution may be a little bit more expensive than others out there, what Genesys allows us to do is promote channel shift, so whilst, and also give a better experience, so whilst it looks expensive actually it's not. So the amount of savings that we've actually delivered on the back of using Genesys is phenomenal. And you wouldn't think it but you've got to, it's about what we've been able to do is maximise our frequency. So I have, Walsall is we're an expanding council, so my customer contact centre is expanding. So in the last, I would say 18 months, I've actually taken on probably five services, customer contact, but actually by using Genesys Solutions, I've not had to recruit any additional staffing. Because what we've been able to do is actually utilise the tools to make sure that we've got the highest possible productivity. So while something can look expensive, you've got to... it's really important to appreciate actually what we're going to get at the end of it and actually you'll find it'll actually be cheaper in the long run it's that bigger picture. Yeah the return on investment piece yeah. Exactly return return on investment and also, like I say, it's that push on and what Genesys allows us to do is encourage channel shift and self-serve. And also the better experience because we are now accessible 24/7 rather than 9 to 5, well in our case 8.45-5.15 Monday to Friday. But so and the other thing is, like the biggest challenge is that fear of change. "We can't do it." "It can't be done." "People won't take, the staff won't take to it." "The customers don't want it." You've got to understand it and actually embrace it. And we've got to, it's really important for local authorities now, we've got to be working in line with our private sector colleagues and offering the same kind of contact as they do.
Yeah, because that's what residents really want, don't they?
Exactly. What they need as well, not what they want, what they need as well.
And what they deserve. Yeah. What key trends do you think will emerge over the next 12 months with the contact centre and CX space?
I think what we will find is there's going to be more and more channel shift. So as you know people, as CX and contact centres are now embedding the technology, you know using, I mean I remember a couple of years ago, I can't remember who it was actually, and it was the first time I saw a web chat. I was like, what's this? Now, actually, I'm seeing day in, day out that more and more organisations, contact centres are actually having more digital solutions, rather than just the traditional telephony platforms and email platforms. And what I think is over the next 12 months, we're going to see more and more of that across CX and contact centres. And I think that what you're also going to see is actually the quality of information through chatbots. I think that's going to be improving because I think everyone across CX, it's key that that is the way forward. That's what people need. That's what people want. And there's got to be some time, dedication and effort in making sure that actually it's not just a case of, right, we've written this article and that's it. Forget about it. They've got to be live. So I think what we're going to find is quality is going to be improving. And I think we're going to kind of see what I think we'll see is more consistency over the next 12 months and more and more usage of digital solutions and AI.
Yeah, I think definitely that AI piece and, you know, the Agent Assist, the knowledge, the Copilot. We, you know, we all know that Genesys is constantly evolving and there is so much research and development in those spaces. So we'll probably see a lot of new features, but I know that we're already looking at a few features that have just dropped or just come out that we'll be looking into with yourselves to help improve that AI experience for yourselves, your agents and the citizens.
I definitely can't wait for 2025. It's going to be amazing.
Yeah, I know. It's going to be really interesting. But I mean, 2024 has been a huge transformation for you guys. And, you know, just being along for the ride has been incredible. It's been great to see you guys, you know, win awards and do great things in your space. And like you said, you're not just, you know, in a council circle. You're with much bigger businesses and you're doing more than... than a lot of people in this space at the moment. So you'll be leading that, I'm sure, going into 2025 in the future.
Bring it on. Can't wait.
Great. Thanks so much for your time, Kiran. It's been great. I mean, we speak about this stuff all the time, but you're so passionate about it and I love to hear it. So I really appreciate you doing this with Kerv and with me.
And anybody, if anybody ever wants to reach out please feel free to do so. More than happy to talk you through our experiences in more depth, what you were looking forward to, our challenges, so invitations out there. Thanks Kiran thanks
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