Australian Digital Health Agency
Using Automation to manage massive call volume spikes in their contact centre enabling safe and timely delivery of Government services
Project
Date: 2019
Background: With the deadline approaching for Australians to opt-out of having a Digital Health Record, The Australian Digital Health Agency had challenges with outsourcers and technology, and were unable to handle the 100x spike in volumes impacting the call centre.
This forced the postponement of the deadline and created significant bad press. A new operating model and technology platform was required within 2 months to meet the new opt-out deadline.
Background: With the deadline approaching for Australians to opt-out of having a Digital Health Record, The Australian Digital Health Agency had challenges with outsourcers and technology, and were unable to handle the 100x spike in volumes impacting the call centre.
This forced the postponement of the deadline and created significant bad press. A new operating model and technology platform was required within 2 months to meet the new opt-out deadline.
Results
Customer Science Group implemented a three-pronged strategy with overarching program management as follows:
People: Workforce planning: to optimise headcount, organisational structure and training and create a spike plan for underutilised resources from across the outsourcer and agency. Recruitment: of a temporary workforce scaled rapidly to meet strict requirements of the Agency
Process: Target operating model: designed and applied to meet the demands with adjustments in QA, recruitment and other processes Knowledge management solution embedded within existing outsourcer frameworks Rapid process: methodology introduced to review & optimise the processes while removing unnecessary steps. Increased self-service, automation technology and optimised process steps. Spike planning: introduced a phased model to apply solutions as the volumes increased and responsiveness decreased.
Technology: UiPath-based Robotic Process Automation was used to reduce workload per enquiry with the robot executing activities that the contact centre agents were previously completing manually. Target operating model: Single technology platform that added to the standard Contact Centre tech Rules-based engine created to manage decision making for opt out and cancelation of digital health records. Automated IVR: solution to collect information, action requests and provide FAQ information. Unified Desktop: seamless process navigation experience for contact centre agents Cloud-based automated call diversion and call back system: to minimise call abandonment rate, also being able to offer call back service to consumers.
Result: Customer Science delivered the solution in six weeks. UiPath Digital Workers interface with the Genesys platform, Microsoft Dynamics, the Customer Directory Management System and the My Health Admin Portal. The automation ensures data accuracy across the steps in the opt-out and cancellation process, and automatically checks the status of existing health records, verifies Medicare details and completes identity checks. The automation navigates to the My Health Admin Portal and completes the majority of the opt-out process ensuring the contact centre agent has the ability to focus on the customer interaction rather than navigating the myriad of applications and screens necessary to complete the tasks.
The Australian Digital Health Agency’s new contact centre was proven to handle a 60x call volume increase without a busy signal. The Customer Experience increased dramatically – all customers were able to reach the contact centre without exception. A 35% efficiency gain was recorded, the previous bad press reversed and 0 customer complaints were received when the new opt-out deadline was reached.
People: Workforce planning: to optimise headcount, organisational structure and training and create a spike plan for underutilised resources from across the outsourcer and agency. Recruitment: of a temporary workforce scaled rapidly to meet strict requirements of the Agency
Process: Target operating model: designed and applied to meet the demands with adjustments in QA, recruitment and other processes Knowledge management solution embedded within existing outsourcer frameworks Rapid process: methodology introduced to review & optimise the processes while removing unnecessary steps. Increased self-service, automation technology and optimised process steps. Spike planning: introduced a phased model to apply solutions as the volumes increased and responsiveness decreased.
Technology: UiPath-based Robotic Process Automation was used to reduce workload per enquiry with the robot executing activities that the contact centre agents were previously completing manually. Target operating model: Single technology platform that added to the standard Contact Centre tech Rules-based engine created to manage decision making for opt out and cancelation of digital health records. Automated IVR: solution to collect information, action requests and provide FAQ information. Unified Desktop: seamless process navigation experience for contact centre agents Cloud-based automated call diversion and call back system: to minimise call abandonment rate, also being able to offer call back service to consumers.
Result: Customer Science delivered the solution in six weeks. UiPath Digital Workers interface with the Genesys platform, Microsoft Dynamics, the Customer Directory Management System and the My Health Admin Portal. The automation ensures data accuracy across the steps in the opt-out and cancellation process, and automatically checks the status of existing health records, verifies Medicare details and completes identity checks. The automation navigates to the My Health Admin Portal and completes the majority of the opt-out process ensuring the contact centre agent has the ability to focus on the customer interaction rather than navigating the myriad of applications and screens necessary to complete the tasks.
The Australian Digital Health Agency’s new contact centre was proven to handle a 60x call volume increase without a busy signal. The Customer Experience increased dramatically – all customers were able to reach the contact centre without exception. A 35% efficiency gain was recorded, the previous bad press reversed and 0 customer complaints were received when the new opt-out deadline was reached.