Engagement solutions for Local Government
Increase contact with your citizens, reduce costs and improve your collections processes.
Streamlining core processes
Local authorities are under continuing pressure to do more with less. Offering more self-service options and automating engagement can drastically reduce the load on staff while increasing the reach and speed of communications. Our range of contact and collections services can help you to communicate more effectively at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
Engagement in action
Use cases
Mobile council tax collection
Traditional methods of contact such as calls and letters can be time consuming and expensive. Using mobile, interactive voice, response and SMS, you can allow your residents to self-serve and pay their bills at their own convenience 24/7.
Our MobilePay service allows you to send a reminder to your citizens when they have a payment due, containing a secure embedded link through to payment. Identity verification is quick and simple with no need for reference numbers, and there is no need for an app download. There is also an option to save card details so the process is even faster for future payments.
Encouraging self-service decreases the strain on your contact centres, and is a more efficient and cost effective alternative to letters and agent calls.
Contact centre toolkit
Our AgentAssist online console arms your contact centre agents with the tools they need to recover more revenue and provide a better service to your residents. Our tools will also enable your agents to identify any residents who may be in financial hardship. From deferred payments to automated callbacks, you will be able to resolve more calls on a positive action. Read more about the AgentAssist console here
Community alerts
Send alerts to your residents via SMS, voice or email message. Our multi-channel messaging service allows you to engage with your residents instantly, and enables them to self-serve at their convenience. Keep your residents engaged and up to date on your services with real-time, instant notifications. For example:
- Service disruptions
- Local emergency alerts or disturbances
- Account based reminders or notifications.
Appointment scheduling
Yakara AutoAppoint takes the hassle out of appointment scheduling across all of your council departments. Send residents timely appointment reminders and cut down the wasted time and costs associated with missed appointments. Our software connects with your current systems so that you can implement self-service scheduling, allowing residents to change or cancel their appointment without the need to contact your call centres.
Service feedback and community surveys
Are you offering a new service on your site? Do you need feedback on how happy your residents are? Our marketing products help you not only promote your services to your residents, but gain valuable and timely feedback. Send your residents an embedded link via SMS where they can give you their thoughts on the services you provide. Identify any common complaints, and monitor your services on an ongoing basis, so you can quickly rectify any issues and improve your service. Read more about our feedback solution here.
Find out more about our services
The Council’s collaboration with Yakara has delivered immediate results. The integrated text reminder and payment option offers customers greater convenience and has helped improve collection rates. The Yakara team took time to listen to our requirements and this played a huge part in delivering a successful customer engagement tool.
Our partnership with Yakara has contributed to an improvement in our benefits speed of processing performance. Staff enjoy the convenience and simplicity of texting customers when they require them to submit evidence or to advise of a review and we receive a greater, quicker response from customers than traditional means of communication, making the service more efficient for all.
Finding new and innovative ways to interact with residents has always been important at Fife Council. The rise of smartphone technology gave us the opportunity to implement a more immediate solution to customer contact than sending out paper reminders. Our residents really enjoy the convenience of MobilePay, and we’ve found it to be a quick and cost effective way to boost revenue collections.
