£1 million investment in Bristol’s ‘flaky’ telephone system

Bristol City Council has approved a £1 million investment in its telephone systems to prevent it from collapsing.

£1.5 million has already been spent on setting up a new system, since the current one has a tendency to cut callers off for no reason, but a report submitted to the cabinet identified that an extra £990,000 is necessary to make it better.

The cabinet approved the new funding at a meeting in City Hall.

The system is not reliable and callers are often cut off without warning. The system often collapses, leaving people unable to contact authorities.

The council decided to upgrade its call system in 2015 and set aside £1.5 million for the project. However, it needed an ‘Omni Channel contact centre’ to allow council officers to communication with residents across a number of platforms such as web chat, text message, email, social media and on the phone through one computer program.

The report predicts the contact centre will cost an additional £990,000 and make it easier for callers to reach the right department and speak with an advisor.

It is predicted to save the council £1.1 million over the next five years.

Craig Cheney, deputy mayor for finance, governance and performance, said: “It is a new improved telephony system which allows residents to get in touch with us in different ways and will help us provide a much better service to the people of Bristol who need to speak to a real person and not a machine or get cut off, confused or sent all around the houses as can happen now.”