South Staffordshire District Council Digitizes and Automates Services with Verint

Verint for Citizen Engagement helps the 2022 UK Council of the Year elevate citizen experiences through digital self-service.

Woman using phone outside on laptop sitting

The results

  • Generated over $1 million in added revenue income.

  • Delivers services faster, in turn enhancing the citizen experience.

  • Optimized contact center workload.

About South Staffordshire District Council

South Staffordshire District Council, which was selected as the UK Council of the Year in 2022, is a district council in the West Midlands, England. The council provides various government services ranging from council tax collection, benefits payments, and planning applications to waste collection.

south staffordshire council logo

The opportunity

South Staffordshire District Council initiated a customer experience improvement program to transform the services it delivers for its customers with the help of digital technology and automation. The council aimed to create a collaborative way of working that would have a positive impact on residents, businesses, and staff while delivering operational efficiency, financial benefits, and return on investment.

“The program is about transforming the way we deliver services to our customers and residents,” says Andy Hoare, Assistant Director of Business Transformation and Digital Technology at South Staffordshire District Council. “We want to help our customers become more independent. Instead of relying on the council, we want them to be able to easily do things for themselves.”

Man walking and texting

This is a carousel with slides that do not auto-rotate. Use the Next and Previous buttons to navigate.

Solution

South Staffordshire District Council implemented Verint for Citizen Engagement to elevate citizen services. A best-of-breed cloud solution, Verint for Citizen Engagement enables the council to drive greater CX automation and, in turn, faster ROI via self-service, and automate customer notifications, satisfaction feedback, and performance reporting.

“The objective was to introduce a rapid development program using Verint for Citizen Engagement as a CRM solution to deliver change quickly for our customers, residents, and businesses here in South Staffordshire, as well as within the council itself,” Hoare highlights.

Verint helped maximize channel-shift by enabling intuitive online forms for customers on South Staffordshire District Council’s web site. The forms are an integral part of the Verint Citizen Engagement solution, so customer requests are automatically routed and immediately available to the appropriate South Staffordshire Council team for response.  “At the same time, because we expect to continue to receive requests through email and other channels, citizens can still call an agent to complete the request within the system,” explains Hoare.

“Verint also enabled us to introduce an online Freedom of Information (FOI) service,” explains Kevin Hubery, Corporate Policy Manager at South Staffordshire District Council. “The Verint Citizen Engagement solution enables us to manage the complete FOI process from initial receipt, allocation to a local team manager, response preparation, and the sending of the final response to the citizen.”

The benefits

Once implemented, South Staffordshire District Council was able to offer self-service capabilities to its customers. It not only accelerated channel shift, but also boosted efficiency. This included the seamless integration of the council’s address, mapping, payment, and billing systems with Verint’s Citizen Engagement solution.

The council’s web site highlights the top four transaction types based on customer activities (apply, pay, report, and request). This enables residents to easily find and request various services, such as garden waste collection, tree works permissions, council tax payments, fixed penalty notice payments, bulky waste collection, and more.

Garden waste was the first service to go live, permitting residents to sign up online for their garden waste bins to be emptied. As a result:

  • 90 percent of residents who signed up did so online.
  • 29,000 residents used the form within the first six months of its launch.
  • Over $1 million GBP in added revenue income was generated.

Since the success of the garden waste service, South Staffordshire District Council has added another 15 online services. Thanks to Verint’s intuitive forms, the council receives a growing number of online requests, helping it to do more with less and easing the burden on employees.

Further, thanks to the council’s customer experience improvement program, it enhanced its compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI). With the best-of-breed CX automation gained through Verint for Citizen Engagement, the council now addresses FOI requests more efficiently and effectively.

“The Verint solution is set up to remind customers and service agents of the 20-day deadline as the countdown proceeds,” concludes Hubery. “Another advantage is that both the requests and the responses to the requests are all captured within the same system. Previously, it was a very manual system.”

Featured Verint solutions

  • Verint for Citizen Engagement

    Elevate your citizen engagement by transforming your service delivery with our cloud solutions. Leverage digital, self-service, and traditional service channels to deliver services beyond expectations. Boost efficiency and reduce costs through integrated services. Improve agent performance and employee satisfaction.

    Learn More

Read more customer case studies

  • south hampton city council logo

    Southampton City Council Drives Innovative Digital Self-Service Strategy with Verint

    Discover how Southampton City Council transform the quality of customer experience, reduce number of enquiries, and drive improved efficiency...

    Case Study
  • city of edinburgh logo

    The City of Edinburgh Council Increases Customer Satisfaction from 70% to 85% with Verint

    The City of Edinburgh Council is always looking to the future

    Case Study
  • West Sussex County Council case study thumbnail

    West Sussex County Council Meets Statutory Service Delivery Goals with Verint Operations Manager

    West Sussex County Council is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex in the South of...

    Case Study