Citizens in the Scottish Borders can expect faster, more accurate and consistent service from the council after it successfully completed the first phase of its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Project.
Callers and visitors to Scottish Borders Council customer service centres can now request any of over 300 council services, ranging from bulky uplifts to planning and council tax enquiries. The vast array of information and detailed instructions required to respond to these requests have been built into the new CRM system which means that customer services staff are guided through how to respond to the service request, with all relevant supporting information being automatically provided on screen, as required.
The CRM implementation is a key part of the council’s Customer First Programme, and the new CRM system represents a significant investment by Scottish Borders Council towards improving customer service and raising efficiency levels. Scottish Borders become the 10th Scottish council to go live with the Lagan CRM solution procured through the national framework agreement developed by the Improvement Service in partnership with Scottish local government as part of the National CRM Project. 14 Scottish councils have now standardised on the Lagan solution representing a significant critical mass and the greatest number by a significant margin using the same, single solution.
Customer benefits include improved speed, accuracy and consistency of response as well as increased quality of customer response to provide an overall improvement in the customer experience.
However, this is only the first stage of a long-term project. Over the coming months, the team will be further streamlining processes to deliver even more efficient and effective customer services, as well as introducing a range of self-service options that customer can access via the council’s website.
