United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The magistrate Linz (with a total of about 2700 staff members) has a long tradition of customer orientation. For a lot of years, the customer focus has been continuously improved by implementing numerous actions such as the establishment of a citizens’ service centre, peripheral service centres, professional centres as well as e-government. Therefore, in the field of personal customer contact as well as the internet, Linz has already achieved an excellent level.
However, the mostly used access of the citizens to the city administration (approximately 1 million calls per year) still demonstrated a service gap. Measurements and comparative studies showed that only one third of the callers could reach the desired contact person.
Therefore, we started a project to establish the first Austrian communal call centre (later called “Teleservice Centre” TSC) in November 2004.

It aimed at increasing customer satisfaction by improving the accessibility by phone in a very professional way; moreover, we wanted to finaly solve the problems and inaly solve the problems and wishes of about 80% of all phon calls at the first contact. Thereby, professional service centres of the city administration were supposed to get released of standard enquiries, so that an increase in effectiveness and efficiency of the entire organisation was achieved.

The Teleservice Centre with a total of 22 staff members started in March 2006 (first on trial) and was officially opened in October 2006.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The reachability by phone could be strongly improved. Between 75 and 80 % of tangible enquiries are dealt and answered finally by the employees of the Teleservice Centre, most time it is not necessary that the customers need to be connected with somebody else or have to call again. Moreover the callers can dispatch lots of service features during one call, including for instance the registration for the adult evening class, duplication of official documents and the yearly park tickets for inhabitants. An extensive reporting system contains important management data (e.g. information, for which department the TSC answered inquiries). Apart from lots of positive feed-back from satisfied customers we were tested via a “mystery action” in November and December in 2007. We got a brilliant result.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
On initiative of the head of the citizen service department general conditions were checked in a feasibility study in the year 2003/2004. Based on a following concept the mayor of the provincial capital Linz gave his approval to implement and establishing the Teleservice Center. The members of the project team were from different departments of the magistrate Linz: citizen service department, organizational development, public relation office, information and communication technology, building and planning. From the beginning the project team worked together closely with specific departments that gave their qualified information for best establishing the Teleservice Centre. Based on already available information (e.g. www.linz.at) an extend knowledge data base was established and is continuously updated.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Aims of the Teleservice Centre: An increase in customer satisfaction by: • improving the accessibility by phone • professionally dealing with and finishing enquiries • professionalization of the first contact • improving outward communication Higher productivity by: • grouping competences and resources • relieving professional service centres from standard enquiries The project team for the realization of the Teleservice Centre was established at the beginning of 2005, including the following working groups for the different subject areas: • working group 1: service concept and processes • working group 2: staff and organisation • working group 3: infrastructure • working group 4: knowledge management • working group 5: information and communication • working group 6: reconstruction

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Basis for the establishment of the TSC was an elaborated concept concerning staff- and organisation, which basically includes the following key points: • The new service concept provided an integrated service establishment. Since the beginning of 2006 the compartment “citizen service” consists of the citizen service centre for the personal customer contact and the Teleservice Centre for telephonic advice, transactions, e-mail-information as well as the management of complaints. • Staff recruitment and employee selection: The key element for the success of a call centre (as well as any other service establishment) is the staff. Therefore, primary importance was attached to the employee selection and an extensive, multi-level selection procedure was carried out, so that the most appropriate employees could be chosen. • A special office hour plan was developed in order to cover the extensive business hours of 55 hours per week. A very important issue was to cover the variable number of calls during the office hours. • Personnel development: Extensive training provided for a new, well-trained team that could really grow into the very demanding challenge. It consisted of communication training, professional training and team building training. Regular coaching was introduced in order to assure the quality of the communicative behaviour. • Infrastructure: The room adaptation was done according to the corresponding norms associated with workplace-ergonomics, acoustic insulation and indoor temperature. The technical and IT-equipment including the required telephony-components and a special software with an integrated knowledge data base matches the expectations of a high-quality call centre. • Knowledge management: The knowledge data base accesses the contents of the our Web-Services (www.linz.at) and includes additional, standardised and structured information. In this way, more than 1000 current entries are provided (including the links there is a total of 4300 information pages). A network consisting of the responsible contact persons, the so-called information managers, was established in order to transfer knowledge from the most important professional areas.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The challenge of the TSC lies in the broad and complexness of the array of products of the whole municipality, which reaches in any areas of life of the people. To give frequently asked questions the best possible answers, it is necessary to have qualified staff. Apart from communication trainings the employees got special trainings. To avoid rather expensive fluctuations we tried to create best circumstances for your employees. The variety and complexness of calls need an extensive knowledge management. That leads to another challenge to cope with: Specialists of different departments must make their know-how available for the TSC. This requires understanding and acceptance of the expert departments, that is not self-evident. To achieve a maximum of acceptance most of the expert departments were contained in the project straight from the beginning.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The expenses for the establishing the TSC were approx. 1.040.000 €. The expenses for the establishing were paid by the City of Linz and divide into Retrofitting: 700.000 € Computer staff: 170.000€ Training for staff: 50.000€ Extern consultations 120.000€ On this project work round 15 employees of the magistrate Linz (of the specific departments) regularly. This was most time during the working time.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The establishing of the Teleservice Centre is a sustainable project, because it has a substantial and effective contribution to an effective and efficient implementation of the tasks of the municipality. Because of the extended opening hours of the department to 55 hours per week (Mo to Fr 7.00 to 18.00) and the enlargement of services offerd via telephone there is less need for our customers to personally show up. The concept of the Tele Service Centre in general can be transfered to other municipalities and they could use our experiences.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The teleservice centre constitutes the completion of an extensive service strategy for the three most important communication channels (personal communication, telephone and internet) between the citizens and the municipality. In that way, the magistrate’s outward effects as a modern service company for the citizens of Linz was emphasised anew and boosted to a contemporary, modern level. By relieving the professional service centres of the routine inquiries, the TSC makes a major contribution to the increase in productivity of the municipality. The key element of a service establishment’s success are appropriate and content employees. Here, the relation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction is very obvious. By now, it is well known that the special attention paid to the selection and qualification of the employees as well as the respective general conditions paid off in any case. This becomes obvious in the higher-than-average dedication and an excellent service quality. Furthermore and most importantly it is confirmed by a lot of positive feedback of our callers. An efficient, technical equipment, which supports the employees best, is essential. This could be achieved through efficient, close cooperation between technicians, especially software developers, and users. The internal acceptance as well as the development of the knowledge management in cooperation with the professional departments posed a serious challenge. In addition, the increase in service offers of the TSC to more complex topics has by now also continually increased the acceptance in the professional areas. To sum up: the closer, the sooner and the more consultant the cooperation with the professional departments and the bigger the satisfaction.


Institution Name:		Landeshauptstadt Linz
Institution Type:		Public Agency
Contact Person:		Christoph Andlinger
Title:		PHD
Telephone/ Fax:		+43 732 70701202
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		peter.ilchmann@mag.linz.at
Address:		Hauptplatz 1
Postal Code:		4020
City:		Linz
State/Province:		upper austria
Country:		Austria

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information