case study
management at the council. As the public
access project manager Terry Wright
has overseen the implementation of
Qmatic’s updated system for customer
processing and meeting handling for
three years. The result has been several
improvements for customers and staff.
Planning a visit
Before modern queuing systems, all the
visitors at the council office would’ve had
to wait for their turn, state their business
at the service desk and then get help
when the relevant council co-worker was
free. Today the visitors can plan their visit
ahead, book the visit in advance, and can
be sure to meet the right person for their
individual needs. Customers who drop-in
without an appointment can discretely
book themselves into a queue for a
service by completing a digital form on a
touchscreen, without having to disclose
details about themselves in public.
These innovations help visitors to
28 KIOSK solutions
feel safe, save time and makes planning
easier for the council workers, especially
since the reasons for people visiting
varies from desperate social need to
planning permissions. Terry pointed out
that some of the cases are emergencies,
like families who have just lost their
home. In those cases, booking a meeting
in advance is out of the question.
The clients seem to agree with the
ambition for smoother handling of pre-
booked meetings in non-emergency
cases. In a survey in May where some
30 customers were interviewed, more
than 80% indicated they would use
appointment-based bookings.
Handling remaining drop-in clients
has become easier too; they check-in
at a kiosk and the system then looks
up the details in an address database
and presents this back to the client.
The client can then choose their correct
details easily. This means improved
security and better service. This part of
the new system is also the solution to
avoiding the potential for a member of
staff serving a customer who is known
to them in a private capacity. As staff
can now see the name and address of a
client before actually meeting them, they
have the option to pass the client on to a
colleague if necessary.
Driving change
The use of state of the art solutions
for customer journey management
also gives tools to deliver better value
for money for taxpayers. Qmatic’s
comprehensive Business Intelligence
tools provide Milton Keynes Council with
management information that helps
drive change and improvement. For
example, although the council receives
on average 6,132 face-to-face customer
visits each month the system showed
that between 30-40% of the time the
desks were staffed, there were no clients
to serve. This does suggest there might
be staff capacity that could be used in a
more effective and efficient way. n