Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

The technology has helped transform how Children 1st approach recording information about children and families. It enables them to be much more outcome focused, and in line with the individual-focused approach that colleagues have always delivered. The process now starts with recording what families think will make a difference for them, captures the child and family’s journey as they work with the charity and measures what difference this work has made.

By more effectively gathering their hopes, progress, stories and feedback of children and families, Children 1st are amplifying the voices of children and young people, so that they can learn and evidence what really makes a clear and positive difference for children and families. What’s more, having a system that ‘talks their language’ re-enforces the importance of involving children and families in the creation of their own records. Children and families are able to review and connect with their own story as they have recorded it in partnership with the charity.

We at Kerv are incredibly proud and humbled by the opportunity to work on this project with Children 1st and thank all of the team involved. Delivering a project like this that make a difference to families is hugely rewarding and why many of us choose to work in technology. To have feedback from staff at Children 1st that said:

“I would now be proud to show a family their record’ is great evidence that technology can move from a bottleneck to an enabler of change when designed and implemented correctly.”

Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

Before engaging Kerv Digital, Children 1st were using a proprietary, heavily customised end of life SQL Database to run their organization and deliver critical services to families Technical restrictions and high overheads for modifying the system meant the technology had not kept pace with the changing needs of the charity, or their ways of working.

Not only did Children 1st struggle to update the system to improve processes, the terminology and language used by the system felt out of date and not representative of the ‘human’ side of what they do. The system did not talk about families and children as individuals, and instead referred to them as more transactional service users. This was not representative of the values and approach of Children 1st, it had become clear they needed to evolve all areas of how they recorded important information about families.

The charity wanted to develop a new approach which supports the incredible work with children and families, respects the rights of those whose data they hold, and enable them to evidence the quality and impact of their work through an intuitive system, that is accessible and simple to use. They agreed that Microsoft Dynamics 365 represented the best platform for the charity, due to the extendable nature of the system, allowing them to tweak and evolve the system, to ensure they never stand still with technology again.

Children 1st performed a thorough review of potential providers and settled on Kerv Digital due to their innovative approach to building long-term solutions in partnership with charities and solving problems together rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.

The goal was always to prioritise and handle every call with the utmost efficiency. This was made complicated due to a legacy phone system which struggled to filter calls and relied on drivers pressing buttons to navigate IVR options, putting safety at risk too.

As events snowballed, agents could end up fielding calls for issues that were already being resolved, further compounding matters. The on-prem system was also expensive to maintain and unable to effectively support remote working.

It wasn’t uncommon for our agents to get 15-plus calls on the same issue. They also had to deal with general information requests, diverting them from urgent incidents.

In providing a solid foundation for the agency to achieve KPI improvements, the Kerv cloud contact centre solution also underpins wider organisational targets. Along with a 90 percent average for customer satisfaction, the agency is better placed to maintain a strong safety record with 97 percent road network availability and 85 percent of all motorway incidents cleared within an hour.

The Kerv solution was easy to extend beyond the contact centre, enabling HR teams and claims handlers to enjoy the same benefits.

Building on that success, the agency rolled out the new cloud platform across its HR function. “We have one central and nine local HR teams,” adds the spokesperson. “Due to busy workloads our helpdesk used to suffer, resulting in high abandonment rates and cases being raised via other channels. Now, service levels are back to where they should be. Employees get served faster and many HR people are happier working from home.”

Similarly, claims handlers now benefit from feature-rich cloud contact centre features. Before, the team operated in isolation with no technical support. So, customers would phone the contract centre, tying up agents who would invariably end up having to transfer the call. Through predefined intelligent routing, those callers are now connected to the right team first time, reducing stray traffic by 50 percent in the process.

For us, the real driver was the need to noticeably improve public services for residents. To do that we needed to escape the role confusion that comes with over-broad IVR menus. Although our system presented customers with only four choices – option one for adult services, option two for child services, option three for highways, and option four for everything else – that inflexible approach was too hit and miss.

Not least because it relied on the customer understanding how the council functioned as an organisation to get themselves to the right place. In fact, wherever you are, not a lot of people have that kind of insight. In addition, the IVR couldn’t capture valuable data such as why citizens were calling or the nature of their requests. So, our general enquiries option had become an impenetrable black hole.

As well as self-service, we quickly discovered bots are great at doing the legwork and gathering valuable data. That’s also informed our plan. We now have several live bots dealing with specific customer journeys and are about to launch another to assist with general customer enquiries.

Yet, in many ways, the exciting part is still to come. In 2023, along with other local councils we’ll merge into a single unitary authority. But, on day one, it’s likely each council will still retain its own contact centre. So, we’re figuring out how to best streamline service and minimise disruption as we consolidate onto to a single inbound number.

That’s another many-to-many AI-powered communications opportunity where bots with speech recognition technology will be able to do the heavy lifting. For instance, helping smooth volume spikes and deflecting calls through self-service. Or identifying customer intent and routing calls to the right agent, right first time, thereby increasing efficiency by reducing transfers, emails, and call backs.