In this article, discover how Opus is helping local councils to define and implement winning external communication strategies.
With the widespread uptake of collaboration software to enable remote working, it’s never been easier for councils to manage their internal communications estates. At the same time, this has opened the door to conversations about their public access strategies and how effectively their external communication channels are serving their citizens.
Faced with legacy systems and traditional communication estates deeply embedded into their processes, councils are increasingly turning to solution providers such as Opus for support with identifying the right contact centre solutions and integrating these with their existing systems to drive the implementation of omnichannel public access strategies.
Choosing the right contact centre solutions
Technology that was previously cost-prohibitive to the public sector is becoming ever more affordable. For the first time, local councils are able to access a wealth of contact centre systems and features that:
- boost citizen experience (CX)
- increase contact centre engagement
- reduce costs through automation
“A system’s capabilities are key to successfully delivering an engaging communication strategy”, explains Paul Allen, public sector expert at Opus. “With the right contact centre solution, a local council could incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and webchat, for example, into their systems. When a member of the public interacts with them, the agent can then direct them quickly and easily to a relevant page on the website or move them to a self-service functionality to find the information they need, if that’s more appropriate.”
As contact centre solutions become more accessible, where does Opus fit into the equation and what value do we deliver to local councils seeking to improve their public engagement?
“[Local government’s technology] 2022 priorities include continuing to shift citizen interactions online, adopting cloud by default (though not for everything), increasing hybrid working for staff, automation, and cybersecurity.”
‘Here’s what 2022 has in store for UK public sector technology‘,Tech Monitor
Helping local councils to define their communication strategies
Technology platforms are not solutions on their own. Before any software can be deployed and integrated into a local council’s existing infrastructure in a way that will deliver the functionality required of it, a great deal of complexity is first involved at the strategy phase.
“Our approach is always consultative”, reveals Pete Whitehouse, another public sector expert at Opus. “We begin by sitting down with the council’s team to assess their current estate and find out what pain points they’re experiencing. We then come up with recommendations based on other successful customer deployments and also the technology options available. It’s about combining our sector experience with best-of-breed technology to help the council understand what’s possible so that we can build a detailed roadmap and deployment plan that will deliver the outcomes they need.”
Many councils are receiving an unprecedented volume of citizen outreach as a result of the global pandemic and its impact on our daily lives.
- What steps can councils take to ease the pressure on their agents?
- How can they differentiate between citizens who genuinely need to interact with a human and those who can self-serve?
- How can they manage this transformation without delivering a sub-par experience?
“These are the kinds of questions we’re helping councils to solve through citizen-centric communication strategies offering omnichannel experiences”, Pete explains.
The technical implementation comes next, followed by ongoing support and account management if the customer chooses to engage Opus in that capacity going forward.
How could you benefit from partnering with Opus?
In the last 12 months alone, our success in the public sector has seen Opus awarded International Cloud Partner of the Year for cloud solutions with one of our vendors. We continue to work with local councils throughout the UK to understand their citizens’ needs, re-evaluate their communication strategies and select best-fit contact centre solutions that join the dots between those two things to deliver a winning experience.
“Gone are the days when a technology upgrade was synonymous with disruption. By taking an iterative approach, we’re able to migrate users from even large legacy systems to a new platform gradually. We can enable local councils to oversee that transition themselves, or we’re able to come in and manage the service completely, depending on each council’s preferences and unique requirements.”
Paul Allen, public sector expert, Opus
While the process is no longer disruptive, the same cannot be said for the marketplace. Emerging contact centre technology is constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, unlocking new functionalities and delivering different ways for local councils to interact with the public. The global pandemic has only accelerated this. Staying abreast of these changes is an ongoing challenge for local councils, but Opus can help.
“Today’s organisations have so much choice at their fingertips”, Pete explains. “For a local council running a project to upgrade the legacy system that they’ve had in place for 5-10 years, the questions are many.”
- What are the pitfalls they should watch out for?
- Will they be paying OPEX or CAPEX?
- Is it a cost-per-month, per-user contract?
“All these details have to be discussed. As a truly independent provider, Opus can help you to answer them in a way that will deliver the best results for your council and for the public who depend on you.”
