Ashford Borough Council uses SMS to extend social inclusion of services :: PublicTechnology.net :: e-Government & public sector IT news + job vacancies:

Ashford Borough Council has improved access to public services by addressing changing consumer behaviour and preferred channels of communication, by enabling public access to council call centre agents through mobile phone text messaging.

The first council service to be given SMS access has been the social housing division at Ashford Borough Council. This service provides housing to the public through a list system published once a month. On the day the list is published, applicants are required to contact the council to register interest in a particular property. Ashford Borough Council developed a system that would foster better social inclusion for council housing, and SMS applications to achieve the desired results.

The council now offers people registered on the Housing Waiting List two new ways to register their housing choices. Moreover, choices can be registered throughout the day and night by sending the Council an SMS text message from a mobile phone or by using the automated telephone service. These new services provide increased flexibility to the people of Ashford, enabling them to call or text after-hours, at times when they may be more likely to be reviewing what housing has become available.

To offer the SMS service Ashford has integrated an SMS gateway with the Mitel contact centre. This enables text messages to be routed directly to contact centre agents, or alternatively to route the messages directly into a database if they contain a specified code word.

Ashford Council is phasing-in SMS communications for various other council services. Using the Mitel Multimedia Contact Centre the public will soon be able use text messages to report street lighting faults, report abandoned vehicles, book council facilities and courses, and request details on council services. Citizens will also be able to register their details with the council to enable payments to be taken out of their bank account using SMS, so that parking fines can be paid using SMS, in addition to other council-related payments.

In order to access public services by SMS, an individual can send Ashford Borough Council a text message, which is then converted to email and answered by a call centre agent in real time. The agent then sends back an email, which is again converted into a text and sent to the customer’s mobile phone.

The Mitel IP Solution also gives the Council the flexibility to extend opening hours by enabling staff to work from home and have the same functionality that they do in the office. This ensures that emails, web chat and SMS messages can still be dealt with even when the office is shut. It also benefits the employees by helping them to achieve better work-life balance.

Rob Neil, Head of ICT Services at Ashford Borough Council said: “The Mitel Multimedia Contact Centre enables our contact centre staff to receive applications for council housing by text messages from a mobile phone that costs the public very little. ‘Texting’ is second nature to a large portion of the population and we are offering them the chance to access our public services in the way that suits them best.”

Ashford Borough Council in Kent employs 600 staff and has an annual budget of over £50 million.

Related links to this article:
Ashford Borough Council
Mitel

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