Lewisham Council cuts call centre waiting times by 90 per cent

The London Borough of Lewisham has cut its contact centre queues by up to 90 per cent by introducing a call management system.

The council's new system has increased peak call handling capacity, improved productivity and enhanced customer satisfaction. 

Abandoned calls have been reduced by half compared with previous rates of up to 40 per cent that were causing customer dissatisfaction and bad staff morale.

The QueueBuster call management system provided by BT and Netcall incorporates a recorded message giving callers a call back option without losing their place in the queue.

The BT-hosted system has enabled Lewisham Council to meet time-to-answer targets and increased productivity by 10 per cent.

Lewisham's call centre handles more than 1.5 million telephone calls and now answers 91 per cent of those calls within 15 seconds.

Reducing repeated calls enables a more accurate count of call volumes, to better forecast staffing level needs.

‘Rather than simply telling customers that queues are long, the new system helps us to manage workflow without increasing staff in the contact centre,’ said Zoë Kabir, performance manager at Lewisham Council.

Customer acceptance of the system is judged by 98 per cent of people surveyed expressing their satisfaction.

Lewisham Council contact centre has 100 seats and handles more than 1.5 million calls each year. It deals with enquiries from citizens and business customers and other council departments.

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