Automated Call Routing

This information was sourced from "Automated Call Routing" by AI.GOV.UK, https://ai.gov.uk/knowledge-hub/tools/automated-call-routing/?directTo=library. Licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0.

The challenge

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) comprises 59 local and independent bureaux. While this ensures local expertise, it made central access difficult. During the pandemic, the Scottish Citizens Advice Helpline was established to provide a single, national point of contact. However, the process relied on volunteers to manually route calls to local bureaux, resulting in long wait times (up to 24 hours), increased operational costs, and poor customer experience.

The solution

Partnering with CivTech and HelpFirst, Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) deployed a PolyAI voice assistant that interacts with customers over the phone and automatically routes calls to the correct local bureau. The assistant understands Scottish accents and is supported by a custom-built Scottish postcode extractor.

The results

• Reduced average connection time from several days to 30 seconds across 23,000 calls per quarter.
• Cut operational costs by ~90%, from £450k/year to £40k/year.
• Improved service accessibility and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) across geographic, linguistic, literacy, and mobility dimensions.
• Freed up social worker time, improving frontline service delivery, while eradicating an error-prone step from the process.

Learnings / insights

• Localisation (e.g., postcode extractors and accent support) is critical for ensuring user trust and accuracy in regional services.
• Leveraging existing tech rather than building from scratch can help speed up delivery and reduce risks.