Unnecessary calls to contact centres cost time, effort and money, which is why the government is imposing new obligations on local government to reduce “avoidable contact”

Woking (UK), 12 August 2008 - Local councils faced with the task of meeting new NI14 regulations on “avoidable contact” can turn to a new guide from Rostrvm Solutions.   The guide contains a number of top tips on how to measure avoidable contact and minimise the number of unnecessary calls, which are a waste of time, effort and usually money for both residents and their local councils.

Performance on reducing avoidable contact is one of the factors that will be assessed within the new performance management framework agreed between communities, local councils, and the Local Government Association—so called National Indicator number 14 (NI14).

The guide explains how Rostrvm Solutions can quickly help organisations such as councils identify, monitor and reduce avoidable contact. It focuses on:
• The value of measuring avoidable contact
• The benefits of reducing it
• The functionality of rostrvm CallGuide software

“Local councils can find out the number and cause of avoidable contacts which is the first step to reducing them,” says Ken Reid of Rostrvm Systems.

Local councils aren’t the only organisations who can benefit from the rostrvm CallGuide, says Mr Reid. Almost everyone has experienced the frustration of avoidable contact, and it is a huge problem for overstretched call centre staff.

“The fact that simple transactions are increasingly satisfied by consumer self-service—internet and automatic voice response systems—means person-to-person contacts tend to be more complex and take longer,” says Mr Reid. “Reducing avoidable contact gives more capacity to handle unavoidable contacts more effectively and reduce overall workload.”

The rostrvm CallGuide software is a desktop IT application that lets public sector and commercial organisations support contact processes or simply record contact outcomes. It can manage an entire contact flow step-by-step recording the detail required, or can be used simply at the end of a call when the agent could confirm whether or not the call was avoidable.

All the data is stored in a relational database for reporting and analysis, for example providing a supervisor with a snapshot of current activity or printing results summaries. The information can be accessed using a range of analysis tools, including Microsoft Excel and SQL Reporting.

In addition to helping reduce avoidable calls, rostrvm CallGuide improves business efficiency, contact handling and the experience of callers. It can link to email or other IT systems, streamlining functionality across different technology platforms.