Local authority reduces average wait times thanks to MJ Flood Technology and Enghouse Interactive.

Fingal County Council (Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is an Irish local authority located to the north of Dublin. Fingal is Ireland’s fastest growing county with a population of over 296,000 people. It provides a wide range of services and facilities from infrastructure to parks, libraries and housing, supported by 1,400 staff.

Delivering Answers Across a Wide Range of Council Services

As part of its commitment to its citizens, Fingal County Council is continually looking to improve its level of service. Its frontline Customer Care Unit handles queries that span a wide range of topics, from complex housing questions to more routine calls about the opening times of Council services.

These were handled through a traditional PBX solution, meaning that it was difficult to monitor and report on activities and performance.  The Council was keen to remedy this over the medium term through a corporate move to Microsoft Teams and a specialist contact centre solution.

Rapid Deployment to Meet Urgent Organisational Needs

The arrival of COVID-19 dramatically accelerated Fingal’s plans to move to a more digital, Teams-based workplace.  This was particularly important within customer care.

As a first step, the Council aimed to provide agents with the ability to work remotely through the telephony elements of Microsoft Teams, before rolling out full contact centre functionality to its 23 agents. Following a competitive tender, it chose to work with Microsoft Gold Partner MJ Flood Technology and Enghouse Interactive Communications Center (CC), thanks to its key fit with the Council’s needs and strong experience working with other Irish local authorities.

Enghouse Interactive’s Communications Center is a total contact centre solution covering all interactions and channels. It features a user-friendly interface, powerful reporting and seamless integration with Microsoft Teams. Understanding that time was vital, MJ Flood Technology implemented Teams telephony within a month for the Customer Care Unit. This enabled agents to work effectively from home. Fingal was one of the first local authorities in Ireland to achieve this. It then worked with Enghouse to rollout Communications Center, which went live in November 2020, backed up by full remote training of agents. Teams has Teams has now been deployed across the entire Council. More.

Local authority reduces average wait times - more benefits

• Able to switch to remote working for all customer care agents within one month
• Reduced average wait times to 19 seconds even though the number of calls increased
• Increased visibility of performance and incoming call loads
• Greater collaboration between front office and other departments
• Faster, more detailed reporting to spot trends and areas for improvement