Wigan & Leigh Housing, which manages and maintains 23,500 council properties on behalf of Wigan Council, has selected the GMT workforce management solution to improve service levels within its contact centre through more accurate staff forecasting. GMT offered the best value, functionality and flexibility to meet the increasing inbound call demands of Wigan & Leigh Housing’s contact centre and will be fully operational by the end of this month.
As the central point of contact for any Wigan & Leigh Housing service, the contact centre is staffed by 24 agents responding to inbound calls, supported by two administrative staff. Each agent is qualified to respond to any housing related query, and over the last quarter, the contact centre received 300,000 calls, compared to 198,000 calls last year.
As a service-led organisation, Wigan & Leigh Housing has a number of key performance targets focused on improving the customer experience and reducing costs. It was necessary for the contact centre to find a simple and affordable solution to scheduling appropriate resources to meet this growing demand.
“Despite the rapid increase in call volume, we were not convinced that we needed to double our staffing levels to meet demand,” explains Mike Waters, Contact Centre Manager at Wigan & Leigh Housing. “During the tender process in May 2006, GMT enabled us to analyse historical call patterns and times and revealed that we didn’t need more agents, we needed better forecasting capabilities in order to utilise our staff to the best of their abilities. It offered the flexibility and scalability to fit our current environment at the best value.” “GMT offered the functionality we needed to create a highly efficient, automated forecasting and scheduling process,” continued Waters. “The Employee Time Centre provides agents with the visibility to rotas, ensuring they can identify what the business needs and when staffing is required. It allows them and us to plan the performance of the rota, including scheduling for holidays and ‘what if’ scenarios.” Set up in 2002 as a not-for-profit arms length management organisation (ALMO), Wigan & Leigh Housing provides services including rent collection, repairs and maintenance, dealing with empty properties and all tenancy matters, alongside other functions such as council house sales and homelessness. Tenants access the ALMO through its six area offices and the contact centre. Simon Angove, CEO of GMT said, “Whether contact centres have 20 or 200 agents, they share the complexities of forecasting and scheduling to ensure service levels and performance targets are met. The GMT solution delivers enterprise-wide visibility to resources and performance, promoting greater scale economies, improving agent morale and awareness and reducing centre operating costs through more efficient spread of resources.”
Wigan & Leigh Housing Company was set up as an arm’s length management organisation (ALMO), on 1st April 2002 to manage and maintain Council homes on behalf of Wigan Council.
The company is responsible for managing all landlord services for Wigan Council’s 23,500 homes including rent collection, repairs and maintenance, dealing with empty properties and all tenancy matters – as well as a number of other functions on behalf of the Council such as homelessness and council house sales.
Wigan & Leigh Housing is managed by a Board of Directors. There are also two Area Boards, one managing the Wigan area and one managing the Leigh area. Each board is made up of one third Council Tenants, one third Council representatives and one third Independent people.
Wigan & Leigh Housing is also committed to working in partnership with Wigan Council and is improving services and increasing tenant satisfaction for people in the borough. For more information about Wigan & Leigh Housing Company, go to www.walh.co.uk.
