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; continually exploring innovative ways to enhance its customer service capabilities using digital-first strategies. By implementing new services that put residents and businesses first, the leading Scottish local authority can deliver superior service with less effort.

However, to achieve heightened customer-centricity, the Council first had to overcome some challenges. Most notably, its legacy customer relationship management (CRM) system was no longer fit for purpose. The Council aspired to ensure that the citizen journey was joined up and could be viewed end to end by employees, and with residents receiving proactive communications to inform them of the progress of their enquiry.

The Council engaged with four vendors, creating a “heat map” to assess the capabilities of each potential solution provider. Verint was tops across much of the criteria, ranging from product functionality and track record, to speed of implementation and future roadmap.

“Whereas some vendors shoe-horned their solution to meet our goals, the Verint platform was fit for purpose from day one,” Harvey explains. “The rich, out-of-the-box functionality was ideal for a public authority like the City of Edinburgh Council. In addition, Verint never over-promised. We could trust doing business with them.”

Working in close collaboration with Verint’s professional services team, along with integration partner CGI, the Council deployed Verint Engagement Management Professional in just six months. The Verint solution integrates a multichannel Agent Desktop with Forms, Customer Portal, Process Manager, and Knowledge Management to deliver an agile and adaptive customer engagement platform geared to customers’ needs.

Verint for Citizen Engagement is transforming the Council’s approach to customer engagement – enhancing the service delivery experience, increasing efficiency, and introducing powerful and rewarding self-service. The benefits include:

• Customer experience: Proactive, frequently automated communication is helping to deliver a personalized, responsive, and rewarding service experience. Other advancements, such as agents use of mapping technology to view the Council’s assets, have enabled more rapid identification and resolution of public service issues. As a result, customer satisfaction has increased from 70 to 85 percent.
• Efficiency: The Verint platform eliminates manual intervention, removing the “middle office” and shifting services to responsive digital, self-service channels. In fact, the volume of residents transacting online has risen from five to 30 percent. There has also been a reduction in average handle time and more enquiries are now resolved at the first point of contact.
• Time to value: By implementing the Verint solution in only six months, the Council was able to achieve a quicker return on investment.

Verint for Citizen Engagement has also been an invaluable resource to the Council during the COVID-19 pandemic. In just three weeks, the Verint professional services team worked with the Council to develop a system to support citizens shielding themselves from the virus. The Council used the single, timely view of shielding residents to manage the delivery of medication, food, and other essential items.

“We are immensely proud of our achievements in such a short time,” Harvey concludes. “This is a capital city using innovative technology to radically change and redefine its approach to service delivery – ultimately bettering the lives of the citizens of Edinburgh.”