Arkansas.gov Help Desk Team - Customer Service Department of the Year

Company: Arkansas.gov Help Desk Team - Little Rock, AR
Company Division/Group: Information Network of Arkansas
Company Description: The Information Network of Arkansas (INA) is a public-private partnership between the state of Arkansas and the Arkansas Information Consortium (AIC) that helps government entities web-enable their information and services. Little Rock-based AIC is celebrating its 22nd year as the state’s official digital government services partner, and is part of digital government firm NIC's family of companies
Nomination Category: Customer Service Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Public Services & Education

Nomination Title: Arkansas.gov Help Desk Team

Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, explaining the achievement since July 1, 2018 of the nominated customer service organization, OR a written essay of up to 650 words describing the same? (Choose one): An essay/case study of up to 650 words

The Arkansas.gov Help Desk is a team of six customer service representatives who provide front-line technical support for the 230 agencies (partners) and hundreds of thousands of citizens (customers) who use Arkansas government online services. In 2016, this team began a dramatic transformation in its approach to providing top-notch customer service. In just three years, the Arkansas.gov Help Desk has created a 5-star customer service “BRAND” and implemented standard processes, self-service tools, chatbot automation, customer feedback programs and KPIs — resulting in 96% customer satisfaction and 98% partner satisfaction ratings.

Users of Arkansas.gov and its 950+ online services can go to ar.gov/help for technical help with everything from resetting passwords to requesting transaction refunds. The team redesigned this page in 2018 for intuitive usability, and to quickly drive customers to self-help options (curated “FAQs”), a link to “Report an Issue” and open a case online with the Service Desk, or “Chat with an Agent” to start a live chat. Since 2018, more than 2 million people have visited the Help Center.

When citizens start a Live Chat, the intelligent Arkansas.gov chatbot is the first to answer their questions. As much as 50% of incoming questions are being handled by the Arkansas.gov chatbot, alleviating the workload of customer service agents. Since May 2018, the bot has handled roughly 1,400 citizen conversations each month. This service augments the 6 Arkansas.gov CSRs, givings the team the ability to serve more citizens, walk them through complex processes and reach out proactively to engage them. Finally, if the chatbot isn’t able to provide an answer, citizens can connect with a friendly CSR. Since May 2018, there have been more than 50,000 Live Chat conversations on Arkansas.gov.

Another avenue for support is technical support cases. Since 2016, citizens have opened more than 20,000 cases each year. In early 2019, The Service Desk Director implemented and trained her team on a process for working cases that emphasizes frequent and proactive customer communication. They receive emails and follow-up phone calls from the Help Desk team letting them know where their request is in the process and when it will be resolved, and confirming that the resolution was satisfactory. A standard, consistent case handling process has led to several customer service improvements including faster resolution speed (weekly number of cases over 10 days dropped from average of 40 to fewer than 10) and increased customer satisfaction ratings (up to 96% from 86% before the process was in place).

Each time the service desk team completes a case, the customer has an opportunity to rate their satisfaction and share feedback. Partners and citizens can select a smiling/neutral/frowning face and write comments. The Service Desk Director reviews the support satisfaction ratings on a weekly basis and addresses any customer service issues with team members. Citizens report a 96% satisfaction rating with their support experience, with 94% reporting that the service desk “went above and beyond” to assist them with their question or problem. Every single member of the Help Desk team has been mentioned by name in positive customer feedback. Additionally, the Service Desk Director reviews every survey response and personally calls each customer that reports a negative experience to make things right and learn what the team could have done better. Analysis of feedback has resulted in service improvements, from fixing issues to automating routine tasks.

Since 2018:

- Launched new Help Center, which gets 2 million visits each year (ar.gov/help)
- Implemented Customer Satisfaction Survey
- 97% current overall satisfaction rating, up from 86% in 2018
- 20% adoption rate
- All CSRs mentioned by name in positive comments
- Created Case Handling process, emphasizes frequent communication with customers
- 5-Star Customer Service “BRAND” and monthly “Attacoins” awards to reward outstanding customer service teamwork
- Built Arkansas.gov chatbot, which handles roughly 50% (~6,000/mo) of Live Chats and gives more capacity to CSRs