Driving Simplicity: Two-Way Integration with Pathway at Nillumbik Shire Council

Pursuing Simplicity in Nillumbik Shire Council

What would you do with 80 extra days a year?

That’s the question Nillumbik Shire Council has to answer after integrating with the Snap Send Solve API.

Processing customer requests was taking up days of employees' time, with each report taking 10-15 minutes to process.

The processing time impacted customer experience with Council as it delayed the opportunity for resolution.

Nillumbik has 63,000 residents, with a predominantly older population. A crucial part of its Customer First Strategy focuses on simplicity for the community.

“All customer processes, information and contact channels are easy to follow, are seamless and require as little time and effort from the customer.” - Nillumbik Customer First Strategy.

When considering a new digital solution, Nillumbik Shire prioritises tools that are easy for customers to understand and takes workload off staff while saving operational costs.

Two-Way Integration: Snap Send Solve & Pathway Web Services

Nillumbik Shire Council integrated with Snap Send Solve via their existing Pathway Web Services CRM.

A staged rollout of the integration began in June 2022. Testing began with a limited number of incident types. Full integration was completed by December, after progressively road-testing processes with each new incident type added.

“We started out with a small number of requests first, which ensured we had confidence in the system. It was a good way to ensure it was going to improve our existing workflows” says Henne.

Next, two-way integration was added to allow notes in Pathway to be pushed straight back to the user.

Now, all Snap Send Solve reports are fed directly into Pathway. This process automatically uploads the photos and pinpoint location attached to the report and sends it to the correct team.

“We receive them [reports] in real-time rather than the report waiting up to 24 hours for the allocation of our external mail to come through. The reports are filtered through and sent directly to the correct team.”

At present, 68% of Nillumbik’s reports are made over the phone. Snap Send Solve reports account for 16% of reports received. With an older population used to calling with issues, Nillumbik Shire Council is working to move more people to the app. The transition enabled customer service staff to more easily juggle multiple responsibilities, contributing to a 40-day time-saving in the first six months of the full implementation.

“I think it all works together [ways to report] but, being off the phones, means that our staff can multitask a lot better.”

Working with Snap Send Solve, the integration was straightforward for the Nillumbik Shire team to implement.

“All reports from our technical team said it was really great working with Snap Send Solve to provide a simple solution to what we wanted. It's been really fantastic.”

The Benefits of Integration

Since the integration, Nillumbik Shire Council has experienced a 29% increase in Snap Send Solve report volume. Even with the increased volume, Nillumbik Shire has improved performance across multiple customer service metrics.

Comparing the first six months of 2022 to the same period in 2023, the overall rating of reports has increased from 3.36 stars to 4.03 stars, with the speed to Solve increasing from 3.66 to 4.02 stars.

Danielle Henne, Business Support Officer at Nillumbik, best explains why integrating Snap Send Solve with the Pathway CRM has been perfect for the council.

“We really have found it to be a great solution. We were previously bogged down processing the Snaps, especially during storms. Now we have them come straight through and it allows us to glance at them pretty easily to see if there's anything urgent that needs to be prioritised. It’s a great system and it's working really well for us.”

“It provides faster service. Our admin staff aren't tied up entering all that data from the email report into a pathway request as it all comes through straight away, it's saving so much time.”

Sometimes reports don’t immediately head to the right Solver. With the integration, Nillumbik staff can reassign Snap Send Solve reports directly in Pathway. If they receive a report meant for another organisation, staff don’t need to send an email or launch the Snap Send Solve portal to forward it onto the correct authority.

Danielle Henne also says that the time saving has been passed onto the customer.

“We’re able to rectify issues much faster too. When we know about it faster, we can rectify it faster and prevent further damage or injury.”

Reports are sorted directly, immediately creating a work order for the relevant department.

For Pathway customers, this integration is now readily available to save time and improve customer service. The benefits only increase as usage of the app does.

Nillumbik Shire Council was the winner of the VIC Environmental Award in 2022, voted by Snap Send Solve users. Not only did they have the fastest response to dumped rubbish reports in Victoria, but in all of Australia.

“It saves staff a lot of time and it's definitely a popular solution for the community,” says Henne.

If you use Pathway, reach out to save 80 days a year with this integration.

‍See Nillumbik Shire’s integration in action.