Customer Resolution Center

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The Fairfax County Department of Family Services transformed an agency office telephone switchboard into a high performance Customer Resolution Center (CRC) capable of resolving client service needs at the first point of contact. The CRC currently services in excess of 160,000 customers annually, providing information and guidance on over 70 agency-wide programs. In response to rising caseloads and increasing demand for financial and medical assistance (FMA) services within our community, in June 2014 the CRC shifted focus from call routing to call resolution. We enhanced the skill-level of our CRC employees through additional training, received access to the FMA electronic case management system, and integrated subject matter expects within our team who were equipped to respond and resolve FMA case issues. This increased our first point of contact customer resolution by 170% within one year, allowing FMA caseworkers outside of the CRC an additional 6,080 hours of time to work on valuable case work activities that would have otherwise been spent answering status and application questions. The CRC was developed with results-based accountability data, comprehensive analysis, and program service partnerships that can be applied and replicated by other jurisdictions.