The Challenge

The Draper Approach

Results Realized

The Challenge

The Georgia Real Estate Commission engaged Draper & Associates to review and evaluate the communication processes and delivery systems used to conduct business with Real Estate and Appraisal licensees, approved schools, and the citizens of Georgia . GREC was seeking a qualified, objective analysis with recommendations on areas for improvement related to operational efficiency of the communications services and systems to provide maximum benefit to both licensees and the public.

For each of the past five years, the Real Estate and Appraiser licensee population in the State of Georgia experienced an unprecedented 10% annual increase. This continued growth strained the staffing resources and the systems to respond accurately and timely to constituents. The Information Services Division of GREC has responsibility for processing 228,000 licensee applications and responding to over 118,000 telephone calls annually.

Initially, Draper began with detailed and interrelated data gathering and fact-finding activities covering all aspects of organization, operational and managerial systems, reporting, and processes. In addition to reviewing management reports, organization charts, job descriptions, and procedures manuals, Draper & Associates conducted structured interviews GREC managers, staff and key stake holders in the Real Estate and Appraiser community.

Preliminary findings were produced in relation to each of the following parameters:

The review resulted with conclusions defining the current state of communications and a list of thirty-two recommended courses of actions. These conclusions and alternatives were developed with the input and support of GREC staff and selected constituents considered industry subject matter experts, working in conjunction with our Consulting Team.

Following the initial assessment, the Georgia Real Estate Commission engaged Draper & Associates to provide project management and implementation support to design and implement a customer-centric telephone system.

The Draper Approach

Since the design and implementation of the new telephone systems was expected to take up to nine months to complete, Draper & Associates recommended and implemented four initiatives to provide immediate improvement in telephone service levels.

Draper & Associates worked with GREC management to implement four initiatives over a two week period that enabled Information Services to reduce caller hold time and abandonment by 50% using their existing structure and resources. While these improvements were dramatic, they were quick fixes and did not completely address specific customer issues detailed in the initial analysis and recommendations.

Draper then turned its attention to the long-term solution to improving the telephone system for the Commission. Draper & Associates led a project team of key managers and subject matter experts, in the implementation of a redesigned, customer focused telephone system. The project plan consisted of three phases including 1) Data Gathering / Requirement Definition 2) Process Flow Design / System Design, and 3) Testing / Implementation.

Results Realized

The project was accomplished on time and within budget. The redesigned telephone system provides a logical and intuitive menu with choices that are specific to each customer segment. Using interactive responses, the system is designed to provide information on the most frequently requested call drivers.

Since implementation, the system has successfully processed an average of 40% of the daily calls to GREC Information Services Call Center. Additionally, management reports were developed to track and report information on an individual and collective basis for ongoing evaluation. Service Levels continued to improve with average hold time reductions more than ten minutes to less than two minutes with the abandonment rate lowering from over 20% to less than 5%.