NHS Business Services Authority and Eptica win at Customer Contact Association Excellence Awards

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Date : 11/15/2012

NHS Business Services Authority and Eptica win at Customer Contact Association Excellence Awards

Receives Most Effective Use of Self Service accolade for transforming telephone service for 3 million annual calls

Reading 15 November 2012: Eptica, a leader in multichannel customer interaction management software and NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), have won the Most Effective Use of Self Service category at the prestigious 2012 Customer Contact Association (CCA) Excellence Awards. NHS BSA has seen training time for new agents drop by 30% and first year savings of £121,000 since its Eptica-powered self-service knowledge management technology project called Sherlock went live.

Sherlock has enabled NHS BSA to transform telephone customer service. It ensures that 230 agents can access accurate, up to date information in order to deliver fast, consistent answers to the 3 million calls it receives every year

The benefits already delivered by Sherlock have exceeded project expectations. As well as lowering training time the number of staff deployed on the service desk has been reduced by a third. In a recent survey 72% of agents said that Sherlock had made their jobs easier and 62% believed it had added to the customer experience. Sherlock is receiving nearly 40,000 queries every month from agents and the project is predicted to save £121,000 in its first year of operation, rising to £162,000 per annum in the future.

The NHS BSA is responsible for a wide range of healthcare-related administration services. These include managing the NHS Pension Scheme in England and Wales, which has over 2 million members, administering the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme in the UK, processing and making payments to dentists and pharmacists and managing the NHS Student Bursary scheme.

“Winning this prestigious CCA award is demonstration of the benefits that self service is delivering to every one of the 3 million calls NHS BSA receives every year,” said David Roberts, Shared Services Manager, NHS Business Services Authority. “Working with Eptica has transformed how we provide customer service, making it simple for our 230 agents to find information and answer telephone queries across the diverse range of services we deliver. Our agents love Sherlock and it is making a major difference in how we operate, enabling us to provide a superior, efficient, customer experience to telephone callers.”

The awards were announced at the CCA Gala Dinner on 7 November 2012, part of the annual CCA Convention. NHS BSA was also shortlisted for three further awards for customer service excellence. In 2011, Eptica and Ageas Insurance Services won the Best Technology Partnership category at the CCA Awards. In the same week NHS BSA and Eptica were runners up at the North East Contact Centre Awards in the Innovative Use of Technology category, with NHS BSA winning best North East Contact Centre, for the second successive year.

“Providing the highest levels of customer service is crucial for every organisation, whatever sector they operate in,” said Dee Roche, Global Marketing Director, Eptica. “This latest recognition for NHS BSA’s Sherlock knowledge management project demonstrates how the organisation is leading the public sector. As the CCA award shows, Sherlock is making self service elementary for NHS BSA.”

The CCA is a membership body of 900 organisations across the UK with over 5000 senior customer services practitioners. Its Excellence Awards programme is designed to recognise achievements of individuals and organisations committed to delivering outstanding customer service. The Excellence Awards judging panel includes professionals from all sectors and senior executives with wide-ranging experience in customer contact and customer service.