Salford City Council and Their Journey with Live Chat

Salford City Council have many departments’ available to the residents via the website, enabling them to access their own account straight from the homepage where visitors can request to pay bills, make claims and report any issues. Areas covered include:

• Council tax

• Bins and recycling

• Schools and learning

• Planning, building and regeneration

Salford City Local Authority Implements Live Chat

In order to streamline resourcing and support visitors when using digital services, Salford City Council investigated the employment of a live chat solution. Approaching Click4Assistance in the winter of 2015 and following thorough discussion over capabilities, security and strategy began their Live Chat implementation in April 2016.

They decided to locate the chat button neatly to the side of all of their pages enabling visitors to make enquiries instantly. Implementing a ‘sticky’ chat button ensures the ability to chat stays within view as the visitor scrolls. When the button is clicked, a pop up prechat form is presented, displaying a disclaimer and gathering the visitors’ name before proceeding into the chat session. They have customised the window to ensure continuity, including their colour scheme and logo within the header.

Visitors are advised during the text based interaction, where operators can automatically redirect the visitors’ browser in order to ensure they are able to find the most appropriate information This method of signposting is extremely popular with local authorities, along with the ability to create unlimited pre-defined replies for the most commonly asked questions. Using the functionality included, operators are able to handle multiple enquiries simultaneously, saving valuable time.

What Happens Next?

In order ensure quality control and assess the popularity of the live chat solution, Salford present a survey form when the chat is completed. This allows the Council to monitor areas for improvement based on their customers’ feedback:

• How satisfied are you with the quality of the customer service?

• Have you used Live Chat before?

• Would you use Live Chat again?

• If Live Chat had not been available, what would you have done?

• Left the website/emailed/telephoned

  

Salford City Council are delivering great customer service through the Click4Assistance Live Chat solution along with many other local authorities including Buckinghamshire County Council and Sunderland City Council.

If you would like to find out more about how Live Chat on your website can help your organisation, contact our Local Authority coordinator on 0845 123 5871 or email us at theteam@click4assistance.co.uk.