Suffolk County Council Uses UK Live Chat For Website

Suffolk County Council is run by 75 elected councillors that represent 63 divisions and were established in 1974. Located within Endeavor House in Ipswich from 2004, the Council covers areas such as; social care, public safety, roads and transport, planning, environment, and leisure.

Approaching Click4Assistance in July 2015, Suffolk County Council later ran a three month pilot which was funded by the general purse (the central fund within the local authority) across several departments.

1st Phase

Suffolk County Council implemented live chat internally, allowing access to the solution for up to 25,000 staff members to chat instantly with the HR department, who handle an average of 10-15 chats daily.

Customer Services were also included in the pilot. Their department covers general enquiries from residents - including everything from highways to waste and recycling.

The Customer First Team, dealing with adult social care enquiries, was the 3rd department to be involved with the pilot.

2nd Phase

Following the overwhelming success of the first phase, with all departments expressing interest in retaining the live chat solution, the Council opted to extend the pilot for a further three months, again funded from the general purse in order to extend to additional departments before individual departments became responsible for funding within their own budget.

Suffolk County Council rolled the solution out to CYP, a specialist area for children and young people. The branding is individual within this area, ensuring it is friendly and fully accessible for the younger generation, including an ‘Ask the Expert’ button. Volunteers from a local young person’s charity ‘mans’ the live chat enquiry line, answering an array of questions including young people’s health.

Moving Forward

Suffolk County Council’s future plans are to roll out to their internal ICT help desk, which is accessed via an intranet and self-service portal.

School’s Choice will also be incorporated, a department specialising in providing IT hardware and services to schools.

Having accomplished the key aim to improve online services and create a channel shift to achieve resource savings, Click4Assistance looks forward to a long lasting partnership with Suffolk County Council.

Local Authorities using Live Chat for Website

The cuts in funding have a big impact on local authorities and their services, leaving councils looking for ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Many local authorities believe implementing live chat for website will be expensive, but that’s not true. It usually costs under £5000 a year for a council to implement the Click4Assistance live chat for website solution!

Using a live chat tool means certain efficiency and saved resources. Residents are supported during the transition to online services; with operators able to handle multiple enquiries simultaneously, this often prevents more costly visits to the office or telephone conversations. For more information on how using live chat for website can help improve your services, contact theteam@click4assistance.co.uk or start a chat with us today on www.click4assistance.co.uk.