Visitors form an orderly queue at Hastings Council HQ

Press Release

As part of ongoing improvements to customer service, through its new One-Stop-Shop reception area, Hastings Council has teamed up with leading queue management specialist, Tensator, to ensure that visitor waiting times are kept to a minimum and queries are quickly directed to the right department.

The innovative web-based system incorporates a single line queue to four reception staff, who are able to deal with 80 per cent of quick queries. It also has a combined ticketing system to enable dispersed queuing, so those with more detailed enquiries or who need to see a special advisor are given a ticket from the reception and can sit and wait or browse the gift shop whilst waiting to be called to an allocated service desk.

A central 42” LCD screen above reception and another in the waiting area, display ticket numbers and queuing information as well as media messages about the council’s services.

All advisors within the council have the facility to log data relating to each enquiry through the web portal. And, as all data is captured and analysed centrally, it enables the monitoring of important KPIs such as length of customer wait, number of customers seen for all services and which advisor served them, which is essential for the council to help manage demand and monitor the quality of services offered. numbers and queuing information as well as media messages about the council’s services.

Hayley Thomson, Business Development Manager from Tensator, said: “Hastings Council wanted a queue management solution that would improve the overall experience encountered by visitors from when they arrived at the Town Hall to when they left with their query answered. We were able to listen to their very specific requirements and tailor a solution that would enable them to manage customer flow, reduce overall waiting times and provide effective analysis tools.”

Julie Smee, Contact Centre Project Manager at Hastings Council added: “Through our ongoing commitment to customer service and the development of our Contact Centre, which acts as a One-Stop-Shop to accessing the full range of council services, we wanted an intelligent system which managed footfall at peak times as well as provided data for us to constantly improve our service.

“We can access the information remotely so are able to monitor peaks and troughs and take action accordingly. Also, the ticketing system has been built to operate with standard ticket rolls, allowing us to keep operating costs to a minimum.”

The system was implemented in April 2012 and more than 2,600 customers have already visited the contact centre and benefited from shorter waiting times and improved access to council services. In the last month more than 330 enquiries have been logged through reception. And, with more services due to transfer their operations into the Hastings Information Centre over the coming the council is all set to handle much higher volumes of customers on a daily basis.

For more information on Tensator and its government queue solutions, please visit www.tensator.com.

About Tensator

Tensator is a recognised leader in Queue Management solutions, offering a wide range of electronic call forward systems; dispersed virtual queuing technology; digital media platforms including the Tensator Virtual Assistant; in-queue merchandising; crowd and access control solutions; and Tensabarrier products – the most respected barrier in the world.

Tensator empowers blue chip retailers, international airport terminals, transport providers, financial institutions, major exhibition, leisure and entertainment venues, construction sites, restaurants and hotels to speed customer flow through the queue – improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Tensator helps eliminate lost revenues through walk-aways and drives high value impulse sales with its range of queue management solutions. www.tensator.com