Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

A contact center solution from Avaya has been selected by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). The global provider of business communications software, systems and services was selected to support the Agency’s customer service.


DVLA’s latest survey revealed that the Agency has a customer satisfaction level for 2006/07 of more than 91 percent, supporting its focus on delivering the highest quality of service to consumers.

"Technology is a critical component of our business strategy," said Ian Broom, head of DVLA's Contact Centre, in a Tuesday statement.

Broom continued: "Over the years we have been continually exploring and looking at innovative ways on how we can exploit new technologies to enhance and deliver the best customer experience. Avaya's Contact Centre system is proving to be a dynamic and productive addition to DVLA, who now answer in the region of 25 million calls per annum."

Headquartered in Swansea, the Agency has roughly 700 agents dedicated to answer customer queries. The fully integrated contact center offers a wide range of services, including inbound calls, help desk facilities, bill collecting and market research.

"It is all about meeting the customer expectations, making them feel valued, giving them easy and quick access to our services in their channel of choice," continued Ian Broom. "DVLA has made it possible for our customers to access our services in their preferred method.”

“For example, we introduced DVLA's Electronic Vehicle Licensing (EVL)
service specifically to make it easier for motorists to tax their vehicle. Through Avaya's Interactive Voice Response (IVR) we have mirrored our Web services to speed up the handling of calls, allowing callers to pay their vehicle tax without the need to speak to an agent but still making the user experience as friendly as possible," Broom added.

To further enhance the customer experience, last year, DVLA automated the forms ordering process using speech technologies.

The Agency also implemented 400 seats of the Impact 360 Full-time Recording software from Verint Witness Actionable Solutions. This Avaya developer partner is part of the company’s dedicated DeveloperConnect Programme.

The Impact 360 provides DVLA with full-time recording capabilities, enabling supervisors to assess agent performance, recognize best practice achievements and acknowledge employee efforts in delivering high quality services.

The solution also assists the contact center in identifying any specific training needs, contributing to the continual improvement of overall quality of customer service.

David Parcell, managing director of Verint Systems EMEA, noted in Tuesday’s statement: "Impact 360 is designed to capture, index and retrieve 100 percent of customer
and caller interactions in traditional TDM, IP and mixed telephony environments.”

“Contact centre recordings are a critical component of compliance programs and can provide the information required to quickly resolve disputes, verify transactions, and confirm sequences of events. Impact 360 provides DVLA with a robust, enterprise-class contact centre recording solution that captures all interactions and makes them available to DVLA when required."

The DVLA contact center is based on Avaya’s Communication Manager Telephony software. The center runs enriched applications, including Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) functionality, to direct calls to the right agent.

The solution also includes Avaya Call Management System (CMS) to help managers maximize call center performance, providing useful statistics including queue wait times and average call handling.

"For an organization like DVLA it is essential to manage customer interaction effectively while delivering excellent services to road-users," said Nick Roullier, country manager, Avaya, UK, in Tuesday’s statement.

"We are confident that our solution will assist DVLA in maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction and will continue working closely with them to further embrace the idea that technology, used properly, can sustain and drive forward high levels of customer service," concluded Roullier.

Technology and customer service are not always used in complementary terms. While statistics show that contact centers are increasingly implementing technology solution to promote efficiency and productivity, research still shows that consumers prefer to speak with live agents to achieve resolution.

While this research supports live interaction, the numbers are changing. Consumers are increasingly demanding real-time information and solutions and are willing to use self-service portals to achieve this end. In fact, usage in the industry is indicating that consumers are increasingly demanding these self-service options.

It is essential for the organization and the contact center to control the service that these technologies provide, however. If left unchecked, service can actually worsen instead of improve, negating the need for the solution in the first place. Proper management can ensure that optimal service levels are reached and customer satisfaction improves to the benefit of all involved.