The Government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong sees the need to consider new modes for delivering services that can improve standards, accessibility and value for money. The potential for achieving this through making best use of technology and streamlined operational process is enormous. EU has been exploring such opportunities in relation to the provision of the government's telephone enquiry service.

A project was initiated to develop and pilot the implementation of an integrated contact centre for specific public services which would provide:

For the public:

• One number convenience
• One-stop-shop services

For departments/staff:

• Greater efficiency with most of the queries dealt with at the first point of contact
• Staff with ready access to the right information
• More efficient deployment of resources to respond to problems

At present the Government is structured around a large number of departments, quite independent in their operations, each providing its own services for enquiry and complaint and its own customer service delivery points. Members of the public often do not know which department to approach or which number to call for specific matters.

 

The initial target of the 1823 CEL is for a number of departments handling environmental hazards and cleanliness matters. A phased implementation approach is being adopted. At present, 20 departments have joined the 1823 CEL. They are

There is sufficient call volume to justify setting up a shared call centre to support the full range of services.

 

Many citizens are faced with the following problems:

Key elements of the proposed contact centre operation are:

Because of the complexity of the functions, the number of departments involved, the disparity of systems used and the lack of documented processes, an essential first step was to conduct some initial business process re-engineering. Significant departmental efforts goes into handling enquiries from the public and following them up.

One approach, which has been very successful in the private sector and in the public sector in other countries, is to integrate the handling of enquiries from the public using contact centres. This involves the use and promotion of one telephone number to cover related departments, answered by highly trained staff working as a team, using effective information technology (IT) support. The IT support allows staff to deal with the vast majority of calls at the first contact, and to effectively deploy staff to deal with the problems.

In 1999, the EU conducted a study to determine the feasibility and scope of setting up a call centre to deal with environmental hazards and cleanliness. For the purpose of the study, this includes all matters relating to the safety and cleanliness of our city from an environmental perspective. The topic was chosen because it is of concern to the community.

Related issues affect many people's daily lives:

Services are currently provided by some 20 departments, with different levels of involvement, hence it is an ideal area for piloting the proposed approach in service delivery

Key players are: