Citizens experiencing issues with the new government sign-in system can now receive assistance around the clock via the introduction of an automated tool, alongside the expansion of other support channels
The contact centre to support users of the new One Login sign-in system now offers chatbots that can assist citizens around the clock.
The centre began operating a year ago and offers telephone support from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, as well as an online form that users can submit to request help. To support the operation of the facility, the Government Digital Service – which developed One Login – signed a £17m three-year outsourcing agreement with Bengaluru-headquartered specialist HGS.
The customer facility has recently added two new support channels: live web chat with agents during office hours; and an automated chatbot that is available 24/7 and which “quickly and efficiently handles initial user queries”, according to blog post from GDS’s One Login contact centre manager, Stephen Allington.
“These two services work together to provide a seamless user experience,” he added. “The web chat has evolved as the programme has grown and the agents are now able to manage multiple chats with users. The chatbot has also increased the number of tasks it can handle at any one time. This enables users to quickly resolve straightforward issues through a chatbot, meaning our agents are able to dedicate their time to more complex issues.”
Alongside the implementation of these new support options, GDS has also undertaken “significant amount of work on the [online] self-help guidance… which empowers users to find solutions to their problems independently”.
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To ensure those seeking support are directed to the right place, the centre uses an “intelligent channel route” method, through which users are funnelled “to the most appropriate channel and agent based on complexity, urgency and availability”.
Allington wrote: “For example, in an instance of suspected fraud, a user will be immediately routed to a live agent. However if someone wanted to raise a Freedom of Information request, they would be routed to webform as FOIs need to be written to be responded to.”
He added: “This strategy allows the service to scale up at busier times, such as major deadlines. As the strategy is in motion the contact centre will continuously monitor and measure its performance and tweak the service as it grows.”
To support ongoing improvement of the contact centre, at the conclusion of their call users are asked to take part in a customer-satisfaction survey. About half of users currently do so – which the blog claims is “above standard industry benchmarks” – and the three-quarters of respondents indicate that their query was solved via the channel to which they were initially directed.
“It is our aim that this user satisfaction score will grow over time and more resources are added,” Allington said. “By incorporating customer feedback and usage data, we’re able to continuously refine and enhance our service, ensuring it meets users’ needs more effectively over time.”
One Login is now used to support access to more than 40 individual services across government and over four million people have created an account. The aim is for the tool to be implemented ubiquitously across all government agencies and hundreds of individual services – replacing almost 200 separate online accounts systems. All departments are required to set out their adoption plan and begin the process of implementation by March 2025.
