Selectron’s work with the City of Atlanta, GA demonstrates the value of both our Relay customer engagement platform, as well as our Managed Services hosting environment. Selectron’s Relay Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution served as a useful tool that addressed a key pain point for City contractors and fit with their existing technology landscape. Selectron’s ability to host the solution provided enhanced security benefits, allowing the City to reduce their IT burden and reallocate resources toward serving their customers.

Problem
Prior to implementing Selectron’s Relay IVR, Atlanta contractors could schedule inspections either from the web or a mobile app. These resources, while convenient, left contractors unable to safely schedule inspections while driving. Given how much time contractors spend on the road, the City needed a safe, hands-free option to help contractors schedule efficiently without needing assistance from customer service staff. Even with a growing array of web and mobile options available, IVR technology has stood the test of time and continues to be an essential channel that customers rely on. While newer solutions like web and mobile app-based services can offer more sophisticated options, IVR provides a simple, hands-free experience that’s comfortable and familiar for most people.

Solution
Selectron implemented the Relay IVR, integrated directly with the City’s Accela permitting system, to allow contractors and other permit holders to schedule inspections over the phone. The integration with Accela ensures full automation, providing a key additional benefit to contractors without creating additional work for back-office staff. Ken Boff, Atlanta’s IT Senior Project Manager assigned to the project, reported that

Selectron [was] very accommodative in terms of meeting our specifications. They built out the solution and tested it a piece at a time, resulting in a smooth implementation from start to finish.

Rather than deploy the solution on premise, the City elected to deploy the IVR in Selectron’s Managed Services hosting facility. According to Boff,

that’s a strategic direction by the IT shop at the City of Atlanta that new technology investment, wherever possible, can be hosted or cloud based. It frees the city up from all the additional cost and operational policy of having on-premise solutions, and it frees up a lot of City resources to not have to manage those systems.

This is a sentiment we hear regularly from Selectron customers: Managed Services solutions free up resources and employees to better serve their customers.

Results
The Relay IVR provided the exact functionality Atlanta contractors needed to supplement the existing app- and web-based scheduling options. The system is functional and reliable, and Boff reports that

we haven’t needed much support. We get periodic updates, which happen during off-hours so it doesn’t affect our customers.

Selectron’s hosting services allow support staff to conduct maintenance proactively, ensuring system issues are resolved before they impact City staff, or the customer experience.

In their own words
Project Manager Ken Boff is keen to emphasize the benefits to the customer experience.

The main driver [of this project] was to do better by our customers. The goal is to create a customer experience that’s world class, and this was one piece of that. It’s given us a big win because we launched the service, it immediately got usage, and it’s been very heavily used ever since implementation. Using office staff to field calls and schedule inspections manually is not feasible anymore due to the volume. With the IVR, our staff is free to assist customers calling with questions that can’t be automated.