CPaaS: Delivering proactive, trust-building government-to-citizen communications
Public sector organizations handle large volumes of inbound calls. With CPaaS, they can extend their resources more effectively—while bolstering security and improving citizen experiences.
Jeremy Martin
5 minute read
Contents
Government and public sector contact centers face the challenge of managing high call volumes and appointment bookings on limited budgets—often while relying on restrictive legacy technology.
Together, these challenges create a cycle of communication gaps. Limited resources, systems, and channels mean that communications and reminders often fail to reach the right citizen at the right time. So, more citizens miss appointments or have to make unplanned calls to resolve their situation—which puts further pressure on contact center resources. And so the cycle continues.
The fragmented, legacy systems still used to support communications across the public sector are quickly becoming unfit for purpose. Siloed data and citizen visibility lead to poor communication experiences and missed cross-departmental opportunities. Security concerns are also growing, with fraud cases threatening citizens' trust in government interactions. And the lack of user-friendly digital experiences can hinder accessibility for marginalized communities and the most vulnerable citizens.
It's time for public sector communications to evolve, and that evolution starts with CPaaS.
CPaaS: A seamless solution for public sector communications
Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solutions seamlessly integrate with existing systems and platforms to enable proactive, two-way communications between public sector organizations and citizens.
With CPaaS, communications become easier to manage, track, and scale across multiple channels. It enables organizations to meet citizens where they are and reach them through the right channel, at the right time, with the right message.
Communications can be tailored to highly specific use cases, providing citizens with highly relevant, personalized information and enabling them to take follow-up actions directly through their chosen messaging channel. But that's just the beginning of what's possible.
Here's a quick look at how CPaaS could help you tackle some of the most persistent and complex public sector communications challenges.
Four ways CPaaS can transform citizen experiences and government-to-public communications
#1: Citizen communications and notifications
Today's citizens have very high communication experience demands. They expect to transact and interact seamlessly, which can be challenging to enable at scale across the public sector.
CPaaS solutions allow public sector organizations to initiate proactive outbound notifications and facilitate two-way communications that span multiple agencies and organizations. By sending notifications proactively, organizations can significantly cut the volume of inbound calls they handle, and their associated costs.
Deep integration with support systems and other relevant platforms enables the delivery of personalized and relevant communications. For example, when an important date is coming up for a citizen—whether it's a tax deadline, registration renewal, or payment requirement— CPaaS enables organizations to send timely alerts and empower citizens to self-serve instantly through their preferred messaging platform.
HM Revenue and Customs: HMRC is the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority. By adopting marketing campaign management application, Webex Campaign, they were able to integrate their contact center solution to trigger automated real-time SMS notifications, from self-assessment tax alerts to satisfaction surveys.
#2: Appointment management and reminders
Appointment no-shows cost the US healthcare system billions of dollars every year — and the public sector is no different. Every year, millions of appointments go unattended, contributing to higher wait times and leading to missed opportunities for citizens and organizations alike.
With CPaaS, citizens get timely, proactive appointment reminders that enable them to manage and rebook their appointments directly within digital channels. Plus, important pre-appointment reminders increase the likelihood that citizens not only attend appointments, but arrive fully prepared for them.
#3: Deflecting inbound calls
Public sector and government agencies are inundated with expensive calls into contact centers. Queues are often filled with citizens seeking information and help with simple issues that don't require a human agent to resolve.
Using CPaaS, public sector agencies can automate responses to common queries and enable end-to-end self-service customer journeys with no human involvement. This helps improve operational efficiency and citizen experiences while lowering the overall cost to serve. It also allows human agents to spend more of their time focusing on what they do best.
#4: Fraud protection and prevention
Fraud attempts are on the rise, and citizens are becoming increasingly skeptical of every communication they receive. CPaaS can help public sector organizations build trust by establishing a verified and authentic brand identity that's present in every communication.
Secure and verified communications channels help citizens transact with confidence through messaging, safe in the knowledge that they're dealing with a genuine agency.
OneSource: a debt resolution service provider wanted to boost customer trust. Using Webex Connect they were able to deploy RCS reminders, a channel that supports custom branding and a verified business profile, so customers were able recognize it was OneSource contacting them. This led to an increase in payment rates by up to 30%.
Webex Connect: A proven public sector and government-ready CPaaS solution
Webex Connect from Cisco is trusted by organizations across almost every sector to enable consistent, secure, and engaging two-way communications at scale. By seamlessly integrating with your existing systems and platforms, it allows you to quickly deploy new communications channels and deliver personalized communications that improve outcomes for citizens and your organization.
For public sector organizations with complex needs, Webex Connect can help deliver hyper-specific communications use cases right out of the box, so you can meet the unique needs of every citizen you serve. And built-in activity and engagement tracking help you measure and report on your progress—and ensure your communications are having the right impact.
Built on agile, cloud-based technology, embracing CPaaS can also be a valuable step on public sector organizations' journey to the cloud. By integrating the power and flexibility of a cloud communications platform with your existing systems, you can start to realize the value and ROI that cloud technology can offer, without having to rip and replace all the technology you rely on today.
Finally, robust security and built-in fraud prevention and verification capabilities help to build citizen trust in your communications and ensure that when someone receives a message, they know it's really from you. As a member of the MEF Code of Conduct, we are committed to preventing ID spoofing and messaging fraud in all its forms.
To learn more about Webex Connect and how CPaaS could help you tackle your citizen communication challenges talk to us today.
