Better practice guidance for government contact centres   (third edition)

The third edition of the Better practice guidance for government contact centres issued by the Central Office of Information (COI) has been released.

This new edition can be viewed here in pdf format.  A quick scan reveals paragraphs 3.55 to 3.63 (page 36 or page 37 onwards on adobe reader) are relevant.


Quote:

3.55  However, 0800/0808 numbers can suffer from hoax calls, and you may wish to consider the new 03 tariff, which has been created for those organisations that want a common national number but do not wish to charge citizens a premium (over geographic rates) for contacting them. 3.56  Given the bad press surrounding high call charges and in particular the practice of revenue sharing around 0870 numbers, COI sought a more trustworthy tariff that could be adopted by government departments and non-departmental public bodies and suggested this to Ofcom as a useful way forward. To try and get some consistency of approach it is hoped departments will use numbers in the 0300 or 0303 ranges (to mirror 0800 and 0808) with the new 03 tariff, which will be made available to public services and not-for-profit bodies only. COI would recommend this as an appropriate fairer tariff for government use where a free service is not offered. 3.57  A fairer charging structure for the public and the absence of revenue share on 03 numbers should help make citizens feel more comfortable with communicating with government via the telephone, as they will pay the same amount for these calls as they would for calling a geographic number on whatever package they have and whichever line they are calling from (including mobiles). Calls to 03 numbers will be counted as packages in the same way as calls to geographic numbers. COI understands that these numbers should also (in due course) be more likely to be accessible from abroad than some 08 numbers. 3.58  It is understood that transition to this range may be difficult, unwelcome or inappropriate in some circumstances, but it should be considered for all existing services. For new services with a requirement for a paid-for tariff, it should by and large be the most appropriate option. 3.59  COI will be working with Ofcom during the implementation of this new tariff structure and has already advised on who might wish to make use of such a tariff. However, there is a cost involved and you may wish to look into the benefits of aggregating your spend into a larger contract with a provider. COI runs such an activity on behalf of government and will be making this an important part of its own aggregated inbound tariff arrangements so as to benefit government collectively. 3.60  0844 and 0845 are still appropriate tariffs, but it should be noted that they can be charged at up to 5p per minute (from BT lines) and that this may be seen as a barrier by some individuals, so migration to the new 03 numbers may be considered. Revenue share on 0844 and 0845 numbers is possible, but should be avoided by public sector bodies to avoid criticism. Ofcom will be reviewing 0845 again in a couple of years (at which point revenue share may be prohibited). 0844 and 0845 tariffs should never be referred to as ‘local rate’ in any publicity or by agents. 3.61  From January 2008, 0871 will be ICSTIS-regulated and positioned as a premium rate (up to 10p per minute from BT lines) with a revenue share facility, and so is not recommended for government activity. Calls can be expensive for the public and the revenue share can be viewed negatively by citizens, who may feel that the department concerned is exploiting them. Even if the revenue is being utilised towards the service’s cost of operation, this might not be fully understood or accepted. 3.62  Any public body considering migrating to 0871 from 0870 to protect its revenue share should consider this decision very carefully in light of the poor publicity received over past government use of 0870. 0871 should never be referred to as ‘national rate’ in any publicity or by agents. 3.63  The position with 0870 is more complex; to try to re-establish some trust in this range, Ofcom plan to change the rules6 so that calls will be charged at no more than the rate of the originating provider’s national calls to geographic numbers (unless a pre-call announcement warns of a higher rate to be charged) and revenue share will not be permitted. This would make 0870 more palatable for use in a government context, perhaps in a business-to-business environment. In the meantime, the 0870 tariff should not be referred to as ‘national rate’ in any publicity or by agents. However, given the lack of trust in this particular number range, departments should give serious consideration to migration to the new 03 range so as to avoid criticism.

Reserved for possible future use!

The new version has a few amendments and some points remain which should surely have been updated. Paragraph numbering has changed so that each one has its own number. In some cases, odd words have changed here and there. The previous release of this document was an update in August 2006 which can be downloaded here.

Paragraph 3.54 was 3.52. The following text has been removed:

Quote:

…Some mobile operators currently do charge for free numbers, however COI has arranged an agreement alongside the Telephones Helplines Association (THA) to exclude calls to certain types of 0800/0808 lines from being charged for.

The new version now makes no mention that freephone numbers are chargeable from mobiles or these "special" numbers which can be used so they are free.


Paragraph 3.59 (was paragraph 3.53, 5) was:

Quote:

COI will be working with Ofcom during the implementation of this new tariff structure and have already advised on who might wish to make use of such a tariff. We will be seeking to make this an important part of our own aggregated inbound tariff arrangements so as to benefit Government collectively.

The sentence in italics has been replaced by:

Quote:

…However, there is a cost involved and you may wish to look into the benefits of aggregating your spend into a larger contract with a provider. COI runs such an activity on behalf of government and will be making this an important part of its own aggregated inbound tariff arrangements so as to benefit government collectively.

For some reason, paragraph 3.61 (formally 3.55 (1)) is as it was previously:

Quote:

From January 2008, 0871 will be ICSTIS-regulated and positioned as a premium rate (up to 10p per minute from BT lines) with a revenue share facility, and so is not recommended for government activity. Calls can be expensive for the public and the revenue share can be viewed negatively by citizens, who may feel that the department concerned is exploiting them. Even if the revenue is being utilised towards the service’s cost of operation, this might not be fully understood or accepted.

Paragraph 3.63 (was 3.55 (3)) has been amended to say that COI understands that the change has been put back to September 2008.


Paragraph 3.65 (formally 3.57) has been amended with the text in italics:

Quote:

If you are asking citizens to respond by coupon or reply card, COI recommends offering a freepost address to avoid the cost and inconvenience of postage stamps. If you are using SMS, you should consider the cost to the citizen of sending a text, particularly since a response may involve multiple texts back and forth. It is worth investigating this option as some mobile companies offer free texts within packages, while some available short codes can be made free to respondents.

Paragraph 3.66 (formally 3.58) is still as was in August 2006:

Quote:

You should always clearly communicate the cost of calls/texts to customers on publicity materials and you should not use any misleading terms such as ‘local rate’, ‘national rate’ etc. COI can advise on this and Ofcom intends to develop descriptions for the tariffs to try to increase tariff transparency.

I'm not sure when Ofcom intends to "develop" descriptions and why it should take so long.


Paragraph 3.67 (formally 3.59) is also still as was in the previous version:

Quote:

The choice of tariff is often a decision that should be made as part of wider communications/publicity planning. The tariff should be given due consideration and its impact on the citizen discussed. COI can advise on this and can source non-geographic telephone numbers as part of its centralised inbound aggregated tariff arrangements at highly discounted rates.

It would be interesting to know how many public sector services know this and how many have taken COI up on its offer.

Dave,

May I complement you on your interesting comparison between V2 and V3 of the COI Guide.  May I also complement you on your foresight in retaining a copy of V2 of the guide.

The main questions seems to remain though:-

1) Why has Ofcom done so little to correctly explain the basis on which 03 calls must be charged to the main UK OCPs so that several major ones are still charging 03 calls at g6 multimedia rate eg Post Office Homephone

2) Why has Ofcom done so little in general to promote its launch of 03 numbers in August 2007, particularly in the light of the delay and/or permanent postponement of 0870 call charges being reduced to 01/02 rates in cases where there is no call price announcement indicating otherwise.

3) Why has no major UK government call centre using 0845 and/or 0870 numbers for all customer contact yet changed to replacing them with 03 numbers. :-? :-/ :'(