Colorado Department of Labor & Employment

Objective

The Colorado Department of Labor & Employment (CDLE) was having issues enrolling claimants in necessary state-funded programs due to inaccuracies in citizen contact details. As a result, staff time was wasted in researching alternative communication methods, citizen enrollment was taking much longer than necessary, and returned mail was piling up.

Solution

CDLE implemented Experian Data Quality real-time address verification within the call center and self-service web portal to standardize the capture of citizen information. The state of Colorado now ensures that claimants provide complete and accurate contact information at the point-of-capture. In addition, CDLE uses backend address verification to cleanse address files before importing into their database, ensuring that only standardized and complete contact information is entered.

Results

CDLE now has a more streamlined approach toward processing claimant inquiries and requests. In addition to improved processes, database accuracy has improved by over 20 percent and returned mail has gone from more than seven giant postal service bins to less than four small boxes annually.

About CDLE

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment works extensively with the State on occupation and employer postings, unemployment insurance claims and other state funded programs. The agency acts as an information hub for the citizens of Colorado, giving the ability to file claims and requests, learn about potential openings and much more.

Citizens are able to file claims and provide contact information by calling into the agency or going to their newly launched self-service web portal. From there, claims and requests are processed almost immediately.

CDLE found that most contact data mistakes were a result of errors on the part of the person entering the information. In addition to mistyping, residents also often forgot to provide important details like street directional and apartment numbers, leaving contact details incomplete.

Jay Johnson, manager of employer services/business analyst for CDLE, was experiencing the repercussions of bad address data and was tasked to find a resolution.

Identifying claimant inefficiencies

Claimants are given the option to file a claim or update their contact information through the CDLE call center or self-service web portal. When a citizen files a claim, he or she provides contact information in order to receive much needed state benefits. “If contact information is keyed or captured incorrectly,” explained Johnson, “then the information package sent to claimants is returned to us.”

When something is returned to CDLE, a staff member is forced to manually research an alternative communication method. As Johnson explained, “If an employee cannot find the claimant or claimant’s employer information, he or she resorts to manual research through the yellow pages, Google, and the USPS® website. This proved extremely inefficient to CDLE processes and also delayed benefits to claimants.”

Data quality problems

Johnson and other CDLE employees attended a conference in order to learn and discuss new technologies used within other state agencies. Johnson found that many other states were experiencing similar data quality issues. In between conference sessions, Johnson went into the exhibitor hall and stopped by the Experian Data Quality booth where he was shown a demo of the address validation software.

After further review, CDLE installed a free evaluation of the software to test within the call center for two weeks. From there, they ultimately purchased the tool and began seeing results immediately.

Data quality solution: Experian Data Quality

CDLE deployed QAS Pro in their call centers. The functionality automatically invokes to guide call center representatives through the address entry process. Users start by entering the ZIP Code™ which immediately refines search results and helps the user reach a complete address with fewer keystrokes.

In addition to implementing address validation in the call center, CDLE also uses QAS Batch on the back end in order to clean and enhance existing address records in their database.

With the recent launch of their self-service web portal, CDLE also purchased QAS Pro Web. The tool ensures that claimants enter a complete and verified address, and prompts the user for any missing address details where needed.

“By implementing a data quality strategy and using these tools in conjunction, CDLE has a more streamlined and efficient claimant process, explained Johnson. “When a person files a claim, we have the ability to verify in real time, which results in a faster process time.”

Results

“Training staff in the call center was incredibly easy,” explained Johnson. “I had a trainer from Experian Data Quality onsite who showed staff how the tools worked. We were up and running in less than 20 minutes.”

“Before we had a data quality strategy in place, we averaged a 64 percent contact information accuracy,” explained Johnson. “Since implementing the contact verification software, we are now averaging over 84 percent.” Johnson then went on to explain, “The CDLE was averaging roughly seven giant bins from the USPS® every year in returned claims; we’ve now been able to reduce that to four small boxes annually.”