Lagan secures £1.5m Blackpool Council Customer Centre contract

Blackpool Borough Council has selected Lagan to help them deliver a new Customer First Contact Centre.

Part of Blackpool ‘Customer First initiative, a drive to put the customer at the heart of everything the council does for its 150,000 citizens, the total value of the customer relations contract is put at £1.5 million.

The aim of the new Contact Centre is to make it a model of best practice with a target of dealing with 80% of customer interactions at the first point of contact. It also intends to provide an environmentally friendly place to work with good training and support for Customer Service Specialists, enabling the Council to recruit and retain the best people.

Lagan Frontline’s flexible technology design will be used to enhance and complement Blackpool’s customer centric and employee friendly strategy. Lagan’s Frontline CRM software will provide a fully integrated customer enquiry handling and response process, giving Customer Service Specialists easy access to information they need from many of the council’s existing computer systems. It will enable them to record details of every customer contact made, and by whatever means - telephone, post, face-to-face, email, Internet, SMS mobile phone messaging, and interactive digital television (iDTV).

One key objective for the initial implementation is the provision of a comprehensive service for citizens regarding ‘Life Events’ – recording births, deaths, moving home and new citizens moving into, or out of, the Blackpool Council area.

Initially the council’s existing Council Tax, Business Rates, Benefits, Planning and Electoral Registration systems will be integrated with the new Frontline solution. This will be followed by further integrations of key citizen focused systems installed at Blackpool.

As prime contractor for the complete solution, Lagan will manage the delivery and implementation of the whole solution including integration with Blackpool’s current systems.

Bill White, Lagan’s UK Local Government Account Manager, said: “Lagan is delighted to be Blackpool’s chosen partner in delivering their strategic Customer First Contact Centre. We know this Centre will be a great success and we look forward to helping the Council roll out the service across the whole of Blackpool Borough Council.”

Blackpool's Customer First Contact Centre is due to go live in July 2004.

(SP)