Self-service apps, customer and contractor portals and automated truck data capture systems are having a major impact in reducing business administration efforts by eliminating paperwork, preventing double handling of data and speeding up responses.
Smart phone apps and web portals that streamline communications between ratepayers and council call-centre staff provide a new interactive self service information channel that’s available at all hours, from anywhere, on any device.
Residents can lodge complaints or make service requests even outside normal business hours, without having to wait on hold in a call centre phone queue.
Enquiries can be answered instantly by an online self-service information provision.
Questions about what service calendar applies for any given address can even be provided in the form of an app, that can then remind residents when to put their bi-weekly bin out.
Web portals can also provide a collection booking service for kerbside white goods, hardgoods or recyclable electronic goods pickup.
Where collection operations or bin maintenance is contracted out, communications between council staff and contractors can also be streamlined using a Request For Service (RFS) portal that allows contractors to view and allocate follow-up actions.
Providing contractors with such RFS data electronically allows them to efficiently forward selected requests to their own mobile-empowered field staff without needing to re-key the data into their systems.
This enables faster response to service requests and easy proof of service validation such as uploading pictures of inspected sites or the GPS locations of spill-cleanups.
It also makes it easier for contractor staff to report problem sites from their onboard truck data capture systems directly back to council.
Collaborative systems that share the same data from resident requests, contractor reports, GPS trail data and field inspector responses from mobile staff apps can dramatically reduce request response time while eliminating paperwork and double entry efforts.
Where customers, council and contractors can all work in concert on shared electronic data requests and responses, productivity and responsiveness improvements offer a win-win-win solution for all participants.
*Copy provided by Terry Daley, CEO www.wastedge.com
