Client Success Story:
Broward County Florida WWS

Services & sector

About Broward County Florida WWS

Broward County is a county government entity located in southeast Florida. Broward County Government’s mission is to deliver cost-effective and collaborative services to enhance and promote the quality of life for Broward County’s residents, businesses, and visitors.

To contribute to maintaining infrastructure, developing, and managing resources for the benefit of the community, residents, businesses, and visitors alike may make payment services as utilities, building permits, parking permits and much more.

The requirement

Broward County Government approached Key IVR with the aim to de-scope their environment and IT systems, to achieve PCI-DSS compliance – the industry standard for card payment security at the County’s Water and Wastewater Services. They wanted to do this by outsourcing the responsibility of processing sensitive payment data, and ensure it was no longer passing through their organization. There was already an IVR payment system in place, built in-house, processing card payments over the phone, but Broward County Water and Wastewater Services (WWS) wished to improve security by utilizing a specialist third-party.

After discussing their needs with other payment solution providers, many wanted to take control of the calls, replacing some of the existing telephone systems with other suppliers. This was something Broward County WWS wanted to avoid, to reduce operational changes for their teams and keep well-established systems in place.

Broward County WWS also aimed to improve the call-to-payment ratio, by implementing a secure customer service staff led platform that would allow customer service staff to assist customers through the process to ensure a payment is processed securely and effectively before confirming with the caller on the phone that the payment was successful. Their ultimate goal was to improve the overall user experience, and minimize customer inconvenience.

The solution

Key IVR worked closely with Broward County Government to understand their requirements, working alongside their current processes and gateway and telephone providers: Cybersource and Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager), to build a solution that conquered the issues they were experiencing and meet their descoping objectives.

Key IVR developed multiple bespoke services, including:

Customer Service Staff (Agent) Assisted Payments

Key IVR delivered an Agent Assisted Payment solution to ensure residents of Broward and WWS customers could make payments towards the different services offered, safely and securely over the telephone, complying with PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance. Customer transactions are processed during the call, so customer service staff can build a great rapport with residents, further solidifying their relationship and positive reputation to the county.

Through an easy-to-use dashboard, the customer service staff is immediately informed of any issues relating to the card details and whether payment is processed successfully or not. This cloud-based solution was easy to implement into their current business processes, working seamlessly with their existing telephone systems and gateway provider, with no on-site installation.

Once customer service representative staff have successfully completed a payment(s), the outcome is fed back into the account, providing an instant and accurate update to residents’ or business’ record.

For further security, an Address Verification Service (AVS) was introduced to verify that the billing address entered by the customer is the same as the one associated with the cardholder’s credit card account. This protects against fraudulent card transactions and is an important step in reducing malicious payment activity in Broward County.

Find out more about Agent Assisted Payments

Automated Payment IVR

For payments being made outside normal operating business hours, or for those that don’t need to be handled by live customer service staff, Key IVR also implemented two Secure Payment IVRs. Customers can call a dedicated phone number, available 24/7, 365 days a year, and make self-serve payments in either English or Spanish, without needing to speak to a live customer service representative.

All payments are processed in a PCI-DSS compliant manner with branded voice prompts, recorded by a professional voice artist, taking them through the process step by step. Residents can also opt-in to receive an emailed receipt after a payment is made, giving them peace of mind that the payment was complete.

The IVRs immediately saved the Broward Country Government team valuable time day-to-day, as any “payment-only” calls could be handled by the Payment IVRs automatically. Customer service staff could then reallocate valuable time and energy to discussing more complex payments or enquiries.

All payments can be monitored via the Key IVR client portal, allowing admin users to access call logs, transactions, and daily reports. It serves as a central location to monitor both Key IVR services in one place. This is in addition to the API connection, giving different ways to view and manage data to suit their operations across multiple departments.

Find out more about Payment IVR

The outcome

Implementing these new solutions into the Broward County Government’s overall operations has drastically improved day-to-day activity for their team. Not only is data being handled in the safest way possible under PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance, but it has streamlined the way customer payments can be processed and managed, making reconciliation quick, accurate and automated.

“At Broward County Government, our partnership with Key IVR has been transformative. With the implementation of multiple new payment solutions, we’ve streamlined our payment processes and improved accessibility for our diverse community. The Customer Service Staff Assisted solution has empowered our staff to assist customers efficiently, ensuring a seamless payment experience. Additionally, the bilingual IVRs have enhanced accessibility, allowing customers to navigate the payment process comfortably in their preferred language, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and engagement.

These new payment solutions have simplified our operations and strengthened our commitment to customer service excellence. By leveraging Key IVR’s innovative technology, we’ve achieved greater effectiveness in handling payments and, we’re excited to continue exploring new opportunities for collaboration with Key IVR to further enhance our payment solutions and better serve the needs of Broward County residents.”