Two U.K. police forces provide personalised support for victims of crime

U.K. police forces, Thames Valley Police and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary, protect and serve 5 million citizens across 3,700 miles in the South of England. 

Freeing up contact centre staff to focus on emergency calls while optimising victim support.

Anyone can be the victim of a crime. And while the support each victim needs is unique, one thing remains constant: All victims want to feel up to date and engaged during the lifecycle of their crime. 

Thames Valley Police (TVP) and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary (HIOWC) share a collaborated service for contact management. Their contact centres are staffed with highly skilled call handlers, and when a victim reports a crime, this is the first interaction between victims and the police. Staff need to be empathetic, efficient, and responsive to build trust into every interaction.

The two forces serve a population of 5 million people, and the police take around 2 million calls from the public every year. All calls come to the contact centres, whether they’re emergency calls or less urgent. Around 20% of calls were victims asking for an update on their case, which isn’t routinely information that contact centre staff routinely have access to. Instead, victims had to wait for calls or correspondence from the officer handling their case.

This was frustrating for victims looking for reassurance their case is being handled, and also for staff who were acting as the bridge between victims and officers as well as answering critical calls from someone in an emergency.

TVP and HIOWC needed to find a better way of communicating with victims throughout their case. They also wanted to address the growing demand for more digital ways to report and track crime, while keeping phone lines available for emergency calls.

Launching a self-service portal for victims to report crimes and track their cases.

The two forces partnered with Salesforce Professional Services to build a self-service portal for citizens using Public Sector Solutions — which is a purpose-built platform for the sector that includes Service Cloud and Experience Cloud. The implementation took just 15 weeks and is the first portal of its kind in the U.K. This self-service model is being used as inspiration for other forces wanting to adopt something similar. Relevant, trigger-based emails and SMS messages are pushed out to victims through Marketing Cloud to keep them updated throughout the investigation. 

MuleSoft is used to integrate into existing force systems and detect when relevant data changes occur. This data is then secured and made available to the portal and Marketing Cloud, enabling relevant, personalised, and timely information to be shared with victims. Early feedback indicates this is increasing victim satisfaction.

Reducing contact centre calls by 10% by digitalising case tracking.

Victims can register on the portal once a crime has been reported to access investigative updates, communicate directly with the officer handling their case, and track its progress. Six thousand victims of crime have already registered on the portal and revisited to check progress an average of four times. With fewer calls coming in, call handlers in the contact centre are now more productive. TVP and HIOWC have had an efficiency saving of £1.4 million, 31 FTE equivalents, with call handlers better able to focus on emergency calls.

Centralising victim support with personalised updates and knowledge article recommendations. 

Transparency is also key for building trust between the police and citizens. The portal provides at-a-glance visibility of every case as it progresses and sends alerts to victims by SMS and email when there are new updates. Victims and officers can also communicate directly within the portal, which helps victims feel more supported.

The force has over 300 knowledge articles with information on support services victims can use, and the portal was designed to signpost victims to the most relevant articles for advice and information on their case based on contextual attributes. 

Creating custom communications journeys to guide victims through every step of the process.

Previously, the two forces had one standard email template to send victims acknowledging their crime had been reported but didn’t have the resources to send more personal communications. Now, the forces have designed digital victim journeys in Marketing Cloud with dynamic content to send more relevant information on the next steps and support available. 

Journeys are kicked off as soon as the crime is reported, thanks to an integration between Marketing Cloud and the contact management system via Mulesoft. There are over 120 trigger-based communications sent across SMS and email, including a confirmation with their crime reference number, a link to sign up to the portal, and notifications at key steps in the enquiry. Victims are also informed of how their data will be shared between agencies and support services involved in the investigation, how they can opt out of emails if they prefer, and how they can receive a survey to provide feedback.

Modernising the way the public interacts with the police with multichannel engagement.

The self-service portal reflects changing preferences in how the public wants and expects to engage with public service providers. It enables TVP and HIOWC to connect social platforms and refine a multichannel approach — self-service and online for those that want it, or calls into call handlers for those who prefer a more human experience. The portal was developed with officers in mind and was integrated into existing systems, so staff didn’t need to learn how to use a new technology. It also means the experienced call handlers in the contact centre have more time to take on more personal (and often more complex) cases. This is key in helping build trust among the public and demonstrating the police to be modern, digital, approachable, and dynamic.

Salesforce and the police have a shared value of trust. When working with victims of crime, it was critical for TVP and HIOWC to find a platform they trusted to be reliable and secure. The force chose the The Salesforce Platform because it could be customised to fit its needs and has a professional, user-friendly interface. This makes the portal more accessible to members of the public.

Find out how TVP and HIOWC approached the implementation with this step-by-step How to Guide.