Southwark Council
A local council building trust with residents through innovation.
Southwark London Borough Council is a local authority in the UK with responsibilities for council tax and local services such as housing, education, and environment. The messages they send residents are often critical in nature, so it was imperative the communications were trusted and secure. However, due to the rise in fraud and phishing scams, using SMS as a channel reduced customer confidence in the messages they were getting and Southwark needed to think outside the box.
With RCS messaging, see how the council were able to build trust, with 90% of customers saying that they felt more reassured and better served.
51%
Increase in customers taking action.
90%
Felt more reassured and better served.
31%
Increase in customers choosing to pay after receiving a message.
Challenge
Rise of fraud and phishing scams wavering customer trust.
Solution
Increase customer engagement for debt collections.
Results
Resulted in a 31% increase in people choosing to pay.
Background
Southwark Council has been working with its partner Telsolutions for many years; they specialize in providing multi-channel messaging solutions for local governments in the UK. By continuing to innovate with technology partners, Southwark have built up a reputation as being a forward-thinking local authority, often the first to try new solutions.
Challenges
- Southwark faced issues when sending communications via SMS and email, with customers often unsure of the legitimacy of the message they are receiving. The messages they sent to customers are often critical in nature, so it was imperative that the communications they sent out were trusted and secure.
- Due to the rise in fraud and phishing scams, using SMS as a channel reduced customer confidence in the messages they were getting.
Solution
Telsolutions established a partnership with Webex and together, built a solution using RCS messaging to help build trust and legitimacy within Southwark Council’s customer base.
About RCS
RCS is an upgrade to SMS that enables businesses to create rich, app-like experiences from within the messaging inbox. The channel also increases trust and security through verified business accounts and custom branding as well as promoting higher customer engagement through the use of interactive features such as carousels, quick replies, and rich media.
Use case
Southwark Council first launched RCS for its communications around debt recovery to customers for council tax payments. Customers would receive a message if they had missed a payment instalment but before they received a statutory reminder, they hoped this would reduce the number of statutory reminders they would have to send.
How did we help?
Southwark had established integrations with Telsolutions systems but they used Webex Connect to route the messages via RCS, or if the mobile handset was not enabled with RCS, the message would be sent via SMS. The council had to be registered with the mobile networks and adhere to the correct data protection requirements in order for Google to sign off a verified business account. This all happened in a matter of weeks.
Now that Southwark Council have a verified account, they are planning to roll out RCS for other points in the recovery process so there is an end-to-end customer journey for debt collections management.
Improving payment collections with RCS
How Southwark Council boosted customer engagement and payment rates with rich messaging.
Reassurance drives action
90% of customers felt more reassured and better supported through RCS messaging resulting in stronger engagement and a more empathetic approach to council tax reminders.
Higher delivery, higher response
Using RCS led to a 24% increase in message delivery and a 51% increase in customers taking action—driving a 31% rise in payments made.
A smarter collections journey
Southwark, using Webex Connect, seamlessly integrated RCS into its existing systems, sending secure, branded messages at the right time. Plans are now underway to extend RCS across the full collections lifecycle.
RCS has been a game-changer in reassuring our customers that the messages we send are indeed from us and therefore this has significantly increased the payment rates for council tax collection and debt recovery.
