For a number of years, the Infocentre has found it difficult to respond to telephone and
written contacts in a timely manner as consumer and business demand has increased
year on year. A number of significant initiatives were implemented in 2012–13 to improve
service delivery.
The Infocentre has outsourced all telephone calls about scams to the SCAMwatch hotline in
an effort to increase its accessibility to non-scam contacts, specifically members of the public
and small businesses seeking information on their rights and obligations.
The main benefit from outsourcing to the SCAMwatch hotline is the increased number of
non-scam contacts served by our highly trained in-house team. In 2011–12, 60 per cent
of all calls served related to scam reports. Now 90 per cent of calls served-in-house were
non-scam contacts, meaning the ACCC handled over 20 000 more individual exchanges on
Competition and Consumer Act and Australian Consumer Law matters compared to the last
financial year. The benefit of this is also seen in the quality of matters being escalated for
further consideration. Calls to the SCAMwatch hotline continue to be entered into the ACCC
database and are regularly assessed.
The change in business model does have an impact on reporting and the comparison that
can be drawn to previous years. In particular, it would appear as though call volumes have
dropped, However, this is in part attributable to a more accessible service as fewer customers 178 ACCC and AER Annual Report 2012–13
3INCREASING ENGAGEMENT
are hanging up when asked to wait in a queue. Another impact on volumes we continue to
monitor closely is the new website, which enables customers to more readily self-serve. In
addition, a new customer relationship management system replaced an earlier system in July
2012. It improves Infocentre contact-handling efficiency. Web forms, which have grown both
in number and as a proportion of contacts, have particularly benefited from the introduction
of the new system as work-flows and template responses can now be managed within the
new system. It will also be possible over time to enhance the system to help provide the most
accurate and up-to-date information to consumers.
Other initiatives implemented during the year included introducing a revised management
report, increasing the transparency of Infocentre reporting, improvements to the quality
management processes and improvements to the telephony system, including introducing
an interactive voice response system, allowing more efficient management of telephone
contacts. For example, recognising that callers to the ACCC’s Indigenous hotline rarely wait
on line, it is now possible to transfer callers on this line directly to a trained and available
staff member