CASE STUDIES

Customizing Inbound Customer Service to Help the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs

Project at a Glance:

• Software Application development
• Management consulting
• Professional license application processing
• Inbound customer service

THE NEED

Ultimately, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA) seeks to protect the public from fraud, deceit and misrepresentation in the sale of goods and services within New Jersey.  Through its Professional Licensing operation, the DCA supervises the activities of approximately 43 boards and committees, regulating more than 80 professions and occupations. Close to 600,000 New Jersey citizens are licensed by these Professional and Occupational Licensing Boards.

In many instances, DCA consumers were experiencing unacceptable wait times to speak with representatives at its call centers. In addition, the division could not sustain service transaction transparency since calls were not effectively logged into a database.

In 2009, the DCA wanted to revitalize their contact center operations in order to:

• Increase responsiveness to callers and decrease wait times
• Establish transaction transparency to drive operational accountability and increase service quality and efficiency

THE SOLUTION

InspiriTec worked with the DCA on-site in Newark to completely overhaul its contact center with a full call center operations and procedures analysis, CRM application development and re-staffing.

A crucial component of InspiriTec’s work was to create a customized “Call Tracker” CRM system. After completing a thorough review of business processes and needs analysis, InspiriTec outlined program specifications and developed a CRM system to suit the unique needs of the DCA. The CRM system had extensive reporting capabilities that allowed customer service representatives to capture call details and route urgent calls to DCA personnel. Based on the analysis derived from the Call Tracker data, the DCA initiated major improvements to their work flow and reorganization design across all departments. Application backlogs were reduced once Professional Boards were integrated within the call center and license application lead times dropped from three months to one – or only 15 days in some instances.

Over and above the activities described earlier, some of our best InspiriTec Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) are hired by the State of New Jersey, Boards of Nursing and Medical Examiners to assist in processing applications for Nurses, Physicians, and Certified Homemaker Home Health Aides. These CSRs are now working with Board staff on various tasks such as creating deficiency letters; changing names and addresses in the State MIS system; re-instating applicants; printing invoices and fingerprint letters; and assisting walk-in applicants for Nursing, Homemaker Home Health Aide and Physicians with their questions.

InspiriTec’s ongoing duties include:

• Call handling and customer service support for a wide range of industries and call types
• Staffing and supervision
• Issue resolution
• Phone systems and scripting consulting
• Planning and project management