The Scottish Executive (TSE) is the devolved government for Scotland. It is responsible for most of the issues of day-to-day concern to the people of Scotland, including health, education, justice, rural affairs and transport.

The Challenge
In March 2006, Tobacco Control legislation was introduced in Scotland to ban smoking indoors (excluding private homes). This includes restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels, theatres, bingo halls, sports centres, shopping centres, public transport, schools, hospitals, and clubs.

TSE needed to establish a ‘Smoke Free Compliance Line’ service to provide members of the public with a means of reporting breaches of the new legislation. It was important that they provide an unbiased service when handling ‘alleged breach’ calls.

One of the key challenges faced by TSE was the fact that there was no historical daily call volume data to assist initial planning efforts.To ensure the effective delivery of this high-profile inbound service, TSE required a professional call centre outsourcing provider and chose Stellar UK (formerly known as Excell Contact Centres) as their partner.

The Solution
Stellar recruited and trained staff to meet the unique requirements of the service. This included the ability to professionally manage potentially difficult, abusive or hoax calls.

Scripting and call handling guidelines were put in place to provide assurance to genuine callers that all breach details would be communicated to the relevant Environmental Health representatives for their District/County.

Stellar applied proven workforce management principles to match staffing levels with variable call volumes and to ensure that contractually agreed Key Performance Indicator’s were consistently being met.

Through close communication with TSE, shift schedules were adjusted in line with fluctuations in call volumes which reduced after the initial 3 month period post launch.

Stellar was highly commended by TSE for their flexibility, responsiveness and the overall success of the service.

The Result
Some highlights of Stellar’s achievements during this partnership include:

• Successful delivery of an extremely high-profile service in line with TSE’s expectations.
  
• Achievement of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) throughout the duration of the service.
  
• Initial 6-month contract extended for further 6-month period.
  
• Provided a flexible, cost effective workforce capable of ramping up and down to cater for variable call volumes.
  
• Created unique scripting and data capture solution in close partnership with TSE.
  
• Conducted daily e-mail communications with all of Scotland’s 33 designated Council Environmental Health Departments.
  
• Smooth implementation of the Smoke Free Compliance Line from a Public perspective.
  
• Delivered detailed daily reports to TSE using a CMS Reporting system. This allowed detailed analysis of call volume to be undertaken, and subsequently published on TSE’s website for public access.
  
• Delivered a cost-effective automated service in the latter stages of the service in response to reduced call volumes.
  
• Recommended and implemented script enhancements to streamline complaints management.