Contra Costa County uses N-Focus Plus to improve productivity and customer service levels
Government agency ran their first N-Focus Plus reports within 45 days of determining the need to improve call center efficiency
Summary
Contra Costa County’s Employment and Human Services Department has five call centers that handle calls related to issuing and supporting welfare and health care benefits.
In order to improve call center efficiency and customer service, Contra Costa required a solution that would work with CMS to provide automated reports and alerts that warned agents and management when service levels were not meeting goals.
Contra Costa chose NetLert’s N-Focus Plus to work with CMS because it met their needs and they found it easy to use. Since deploying the solution, Contra Costa’s agents, supervisors and managers have saved time and effort in managing calls and reports. Contra Costa has also improved customer service because they no longer have to actively monitor the call queue. Instead, they receive notifications when call times exceed their chosen threshold.
Challenges
Contra Costa’s Medi-Cal Service center employs over 160 agents who field 20,000 calls each month from 120,000 customers. Contra Costa’s other 110 agents, who are spread out over four call centers, field 7,000 calls per month.
Contra Costa regularly required reports for all five call centers, 20 different supervisors, five managers and multiple call queues. The process of collecting data and publishing those reports was a manual process and required significant effort.
Contra Costa’s alert process also depended on someone to actively monitor the queues and make service adjustments. This would occasionally result in dropped calls or unnecessarily long wait times.
Solution
Implementation
Within 45 days of determining the need to improve call center efficiency, Contra Costa was running their first N-Focus Plus reports. According to a Contra Costa County representative, “We chose N-Focus Plus as the solution that best met our needs based on a review of four industry standards. N-Focus Plus also proved to be easy to configure and use.”
Results
Contra Costa opted for a half-day of training, and their supervisors viewed an online orientation video.
Contra Costa currently has 60 people who view reports, including managers, supervisors, and senior management. They also intend to provide agent reports using N-Focus Plus, which will help provide service level feedback on an individual basis.
The solution’s ease of use has been the main benefit so far. According to the representative, “A junior ACD coordinator was able to use N-Focus Plus to collect and evaluate data in less than two hours, then provide a management report that answered a productivity question that we couldn’t answer before.”
About NetLert
Based in the mountains of Western North Carolina, NetLert produces a variety of communications and reporting tools for the contact center industry. The company initially offered its enterprise level instant messaging solution, NetLert IM, but has continued to evolve, focusing on developing and refining new software products. Today, NetLert is uniquely positioned in the market place, providing innovative products based on leadingedge technology to contact centers of all sizes. For more information, please visit www.netlert.com.
About the Contra Costa County Employment and Human Services Department
Contra Costa County’s Employment and Human Services Department is dedicated to providing services that support and protect adults, children, families, and the elderly, and promote independence and self-sufficiency. They have over 270 agents over five call centers addressing the various needs of their residents.
