Basildon Borough Council has announced savings of £600,000 from the first year of operating a self-service customer contact centre.

The centre has been delivered using technology from Qmatic, and forms part of the councils Customer Experience Programme of Change.

The centre has been also been used to deliver improved customer experiences to the 180,000 visitors the council service in a year including reduced wait-times and increased service guidance.

Tom Walker, business relationship manager for customer services at Basildon Borough Council, said: An improved customer experience means serving visitors with the right information, through the right channel in the right time - ultimately getting the basics right”.

Lee Washbrook, manager of customer services at Basildon Borough Council, described how the new service would need time before customers become accustomed to the self service system: “We were expecting to see a slight dip in satisfaction levels while our customers acclimatised to the new system and layout, as it can be challenging to garner support for such bold changes.”

Sitel named Global Contact Centre Outsourcing leader

UK contact centres to move to the cloud in 2013