With the implementation of the new DHHS/IDS contact center services on the NICE CXone platform still in process, a U.S. government shutdown was imminent and would affect benefits payments for thousands of Michigan residents. An immediate and significant increase in call volume was expected, with worried constituents calling to inquire about their benefits.
For an added challenge, just weeks later the state faced an unusually bitter cold snap — another event that would impact thousands of Michigan’s most vulnerable residents. Callers in danger of losing heat or electricity needed priority access to assistance from DHHS caseworkers.
THE SOLUTION
Once word came that the shutdown was happening, ISD swung into action, working with NICE CXone to increase capacity. Changes were also made in call routing and scripting for incoming calls with the visual Studio interface to quickly and efficiently adjust routing flow.
“We were managing the higher volumes pretty well,” says Adam Yusko, Application Development Associate Manager. “But in January, the state issued a notice that food benefits would be paid early, and our call volume immediately went through the roof!”
“We worked with NICE CXone, and in just a few hours had increased the number of ports, so that we could put more agents on the phone, get the calls answered and reassure callers that they would get their benefits,” he continues. “We also put informational messages out on the self-serve IVR so residents could get the information they needed even before talking with an agent.”
Increasing capacity quickly was key in getting food stamps out to citizens. “It took us less than one day to increase capacity with NICE CXone’s CXone technology,” Adam says. “Using our old on-premises platform it would have taken us months to increase capacity to meet the demand.”
Meanwhile, soon after the shutdown the state’s extreme cold snap also required quick action. “We needed to give citizens priority access to case-workers for state emergency relief to keep their heat and electricity on,” he explains. “One of the things we were able to do with NICE CXone was set up special transfers outside core business hours. If people called in right before or after those hours, they were routed directly to county offices for assistance.”
Throughout it all, the team also gained important insights for the future. “In both of these situations, we learned how to get messages up quickly and efficiently,” Adam says. “It has also highlighted additional needs that we’re now building into the system. Some of those features are disabled but, if needed, can be enabled again at a moment’s notice.”
Incorporating self-service satisfied a major need
“Incorporating self-service options in the CXone IVR was a major objective of this project,” says Adam. “And it’s working. In February 2017, on a legacy self-service-only IVR, we had limited call volumes with no way to measure or gauge satisfaction. But in just one week this past February (2019), we had 479 calls on NICE CXone’s IVR — with only 20% of the state’s population directed to the new system so far.”
Adam says that feedback from callers who use the self-service IVR has been positive and seems to be improving. “We’ve been using CXone Feedback Management surveys with the pilot counties to specifically address the self-service features inside the IVR,” he says. “Especially re-garding ease of use, we’re seeing progress: ‘Satisfied’ and ‘very satisfied’ responses combined are in the 40s, very consistently. We [DHHS Leadership and MiECC] are pleased with that, as government systems often get low marks due to upset callers.”
Looking ahead with NICE CXone
The state of Michigan looks forward to continuing to work with NICE CXone and to rolling out the DHHS/ISD contact center platform to the rest of the state.
“The NICE CXone team has gone above and beyond to troubleshoot,” Adam says. “They’ve been very accessible and were able to make adjustments very quickly.”
“NICE CXone has been a critical part of the success of the roll-out,” he continues. “We are receiving 200,000 calls a month, and both agents and citizens are happy with the new contact center services.”
NICE CXone’s FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) certification is another big plus. “Knowing that NICE CXone is FedRAMP certified proves that the highest security requirements are met,” says Bill Premble. “Statewide, there’s a lot of attention and focus on security, so we knew this was the only prudent solution for us.”
ON THE NICE SOLUTION
“Our on-premises system wasn’t really keeping up with the technology. We needed to make some migrations and server upgrades, and we also had infrastructure challenges. Instead of approaching these as separate projects, we began looking at moving to the cloud and NICE CXone’s CXone platform.”
Director
Michigan Enterprise Contact Center (MiECC)
“When the federal shutdown occurred, we anticipated a huge influx of calls related to applying for aid. With CXone, we were able to increase our capacity to handle those calls within 24 hours.”
Director
Michigan Enterprise Contact Center (MiECC)
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ABOUT
Although the state of Michigan maintains 14 different contact centers, the agency that manages public assistance, Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), had no consolidated contact center. Approximately 5,000 caseworkers located all over the state were collectively handling around one million calls annually. Each worker interacted with assigned residents by phone or in person to help them apply for and receive benefits. It was a slow and frustrating system for constituents and staff alike, with lots of missed calls, voice mail messages and interrupted workflows.
As part of a total revamp of its operations, ISD worked with NICE CXone to develop a “virtual” contact center using the CXone cloud customer experience platform. This enables up to 10% of caseworkers to log in to the system to take calls and applications, while freeing up others to do other tasks.
Caseworkers shift between the roles, according to schedules. Callers can get to the caseworkers manning the phones directly and have their questions answered on the spot. Self-service options — critical to the new system — were also incorporated into the CXone IVR to offload more routine calls from caseworkers. Only midway through implementation, the system is already improving access, reducing frustration and streamlining the process for distributing and receiving benefits.
