Citizens Advice Scotland undergoes national telephone system upgrade
Citizens Advice Scotland has upgraded its national telephone system to ensure it is scalable to cover all national and local services and optimises the staff resources on their helplines.
The extensive telephony project, which was undertaken by Scottish-based digital transformation and telephony experts, Exchange Communications, has resulted in lots of benefits for staff and its users including better sound quality and agent management, ensuring calls can be transferred to available operators as swiftly and efficiently as possible.
George Holmes, Operations Manager at the Extra Help Unit, which is a UK-wide service managed by Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “The new system is very user friendly for our staff and makes it easy to see which agents are available to take calls and how the telephone line is performing each day.
“Upgrading our telephone system has also enabled agents to manage consumers’ calls more efficiently and has helped us to deliver a much more rounded service on the customer service journey – key whilst many navigate employment issues and financial concerns as a result of the global pandemic.
“The new softphone app provides better sound quality and as the management of agent groups is all web based, remote set up is so much easier and simpler.”
Tom Sime, CEO at Exchange Communications, said: “The completion of the project to upgrade Citizens Advice Scotland’s national telephone system not only means that each of the local offices participating will be able to conduct calls more efficiently with citizens by juggling local and national calls, but immediately delivered full home working for its staff which continues to be the norm for lots of workers across the country during the pandemic.
“With citizens unable to visit local offices in person, the new system ensures Citizens Advice Scotland can support the essential services provided by the network of advisers working remotely during this pandemic and also allows more than 50 branches to work on a common platform.
“We are delighted to see the fantastic results of the upgrade and that there has been a positive impact for both staff and consumers using this highly valuable service.”
Citizens Advice Scotland is a registered charity which supports Scottish Citizens Advice Bureaux by providing expertise on things like management and fundraising, resources such as IT support, tools and training to support advice giving, and help with running campaigns.
Exchange Communications is a leading cloud and digital transformation specialist, delivering telecom and smart building connectivity solutions to businesses in over 100 countries worldwide.
Having the right communication tools in place is vital to any business wanting to provide the best customer service possible, at all times. To discuss your company’s requirements and how Exchange Communications can help, call us on 0800 008 7600 or visit www.exchangecommunications.co.uk