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Harrow Council

11 Jan 2022
Harrow Council

Overview

The borough of Harrow was formed in 1934 as an urban district of Middlesex. The local authority at that time was called Harrow Urban District Council. In 1965 the municipal borough was abolished and its former area was transferred to Greater London from Middlesex to form the London Borough of Harrow. Today, Harrow has a population of about 230,000 residents.

Access Harrow is Harrow Council's reception service, also known as the 'One Stop Shop'. It is the first point of contact for council help and advice, provided face to face, by telephone and via the web.

Recently, Q-nomy was invited by Harrow Council to introduce new technologies to the One Stop Shop, in order to improve the customer experience.

Benefits to the Customers

On arrival to the One Stop Shop, customers have the option to either self serve using the self serve kiosk machine or queue up to see a receptionist for a ticket to access a Council service.

The self serve kiosk allows the customer to immediately access a range of services by pushing a touch sensitive screen and print a ticket with a number.

With the ticketing system the customer does not have to wait in a queue and brings the advantage of fairness to customers who are seen on the order of their arrival. The system not only helps Harrow Council provide a better quality of service to its customers and achieve efficiencies which is paramount in this economic climate, but more importantly the system helps the council deliver effectively, by allowing customers to maintain their position in the queue while they are seated waiting their turn, positively influencing its current customer satisfaction level.

Benefits:

  • Improved waiting times
  • Customer is met with agents that have the appropriate skills set to deal with the enquiry
  • Better customer experience
  • Customer expectation is managed through effective time management
  • Improved resolution rate at first point of contact

 ticketing system the customer

Benefits to Management

Q-nomy reports produce various statistical reports on information such as demands on services with peaks and troughs, rates and patterns, waiting and service times. Based on the management information produced by the reports we are able to achieve optimal use of resources with improved effectiveness and efficiencies. Additionally, with real time reports there is increased visibility and transparency on all areas of the One Stop Shop, providing management to deliver a higher quality and level of service.

The available reports assist management in identifying and addressing development needs and skills gaps of agents resulting in a workforce that is efficient and capable of delivering a high quality service. Monitoring agents’ performance and productivity has become much easier with the system and the granularity the reports provide.

Benefits:

  • Recognize services demands
  • Effective organisation of rotas
  • Recognize peak times for staff allocation and effective use of resources
  • Provides meaningful management information to deliver effectively and efficiently

Griselda Colvin, Benefits Manager: "Since the introduction of the Q-nomy system in February 2012 the One Stop Shop Service has had advantages both internal and external to the organization, making it an effective tool for both users and customers”

Benefits to Staff

The Agents have visibility of the customers in the queue waiting to be served through the figures shown in the system. The information is updated on real time and agent skills are allocated according to service demands managing customer flow in and out of the One Stop Shop. Agents have the facility and the flexibility to transfer a customer to another agent who has the appropriate skills for another service that is required by a customer without the customer having to queue again. The System provides a history of the agents work sessions showing the number of tickets they have served and their average serving time. These indicators will allow the agents to assess their performance and analyze their efficiency while serving different services

Benefits:

  • Improved staff productivity
  • Training needs and skills gap identified and addressed
  • Increased staff satisfaction through effective use of statistical information
  • Performance management with meaningful data

Operational Benefits to Access Harrow

The data collected by the System produces meaningful real time reports on daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or any other periodic basis. The reports provide data on every employee, informs how many customers have visited per day, week, month, waiting time and transaction times. This data helps us effectively manage resources and reduce waiting times delivering a better quality of service to our customers.

The flexibility of system has enabled Harrow Council to adapt it to various special requirements; For instance, to use it on the night of the May Elections to deal with the Presiding officers queuing to return the ballot boxes from the various polling stations.

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