Public sector

We have supported the accessibility of public sector organisations for over two decades. That experience — combined with our working relationships with telecom regulators — means we understand what the public domain expects from telephony and how to deliver it.

Citizen information numbers, emergency lines, council services, and inter-departmental routing — CallFactory builds and maintains them all, so that reliable access to public services is guaranteed.

Council switchboards handle everything — bin collections, planning enquiries, housing repairs, parking permits, social services. A well-structured phone menu sorts callers before they reach a human: “Press 1 for waste and recycling, press 2 for housing, press 3 for planning, press 4 for all other enquiries.”

Each department can have its own call queue, its own opening hours via time-based routing, and its own voicemail for out-of-hours messages. Citizens who call about a pothole at 10pm can leave a message that lands directly with the highways team the next morning — not in a generic inbox.

For councils already running a contact centre, CallFactory works alongside your existing phone system as an overflow layer, a backup, or a replacement for specific departments.

When a flood hits, a gas leak is reported, or a public health incident occurs, councils need to get a phone line live within minutes — not days. We keep emergency numbers in reserve that can be activated immediately. A welcome message with the latest information is created on the spot using our text-to-speech AI, and calls are routed to the incident response team.

As the situation develops, the message can be updated in seconds — new instructions, updated timelines, alternative contact details — all without calling us. If call volumes surge, our platform handles the capacity automatically. No busy tones, no crashed phone lines.

Because informing citizens is always important — and sometimes critical — we offer 24/7 support on request. During major incidents, our specialists monitor call traffic in real time and can respond immediately: expanding queues, adding recorded announcements, or redistributing traffic across alternative locations.

Our support mailbox is monitored evenings, nights, and weekends. Our team is on Slack with notifications on our mobile phones, so we stay in touch around the clock. For organisations that need it, we set up a dedicated Slack channel for instant messaging at any time.

Planning consultations, roadworks notifications, changes to local services — all generate a wave of calls from residents wanting to know how they are affected. A dedicated information line with a pre-recorded message handles the bulk of these enquiries without tying up staff.

Callers hear the key facts — what is happening, when, and what to do — and can then choose to speak to someone or leave a message for a callback. The recorded message is created with our text-to-speech engine and can be updated by your team at any time, so the information is always current.

Many council services require out-of-hours cover — social services emergency duty teams, housing repair hotlines, noise complaint lines. These lines need to reach the right person at 2am on a Sunday, not ring through to an empty office.

With CallFactory, out-of-hours calls are routed directly to the duty officer’s mobile phone through the carrier network — no app, no internet connection needed. The duty rota is managed through our team dashboard. Officers log in and out with a single click, and last-minute roster changes take effect immediately.

Larger councils and government bodies manage dozens of phone numbers across departments, offices, and service points. These numbers may have been set up by different teams over different years with different providers.

CallFactory consolidates everything onto one platform. One dashboard to manage all numbers, one invoice, and one team to call when something needs changing. We can audit your existing setup, identify unused numbers, flag overcharges from previous providers, and often reduce your telephony costs significantly.

Public sector organisations need clear financial processes — and we understand that. Our invoicing supports cost items, cost centres, and the name of the commissioning department. Invoicing per individual number, department, or division is standard. If your finance team requires purchase order numbers on every invoice, we accommodate that.

For shared services — where multiple councils or departments share an emergency line or out-of-hours number — we invoice each organisation separately for their share of the costs.

Many public organisations have accumulated phone numbers from different departments, different periods, and different providers. We can audit, rationalise, and consolidate your existing telephony setup — often uncovering significant savings from unused subscriptions or inflated interconnection rates.

We have seen councils paying for numbers that are no longer in use, or routing calls through expensive legacy carriers when a more cost-effective path exists. A straightforward audit — which we offer at no charge — usually identifies savings that pay for themselves many times over.

Not all citizens can navigate a website or use an app. For many — especially older residents, those without internet access, or people in vulnerable situations — the phone is still the primary way to contact public services.

CallFactory ensures that phone access remains reliable and well-structured. Clear menus with simple language, voicemail for those who call outside hours, and a voicebot that can guide callers through common requests without needing a human on the line. The phone remains a lifeline — and it should work like one.

We are not a reseller — we operate our own IVR platform. When something needs changing, we change it ourselves. When a problem occurs, we can pinpoint it exactly, right down to the carrier level. If you are with a reseller, they have to phone their platform provider first, who then has to investigate, who then gets back to them, who then gets back to you. When public services depend on your phone lines being available, that chain simply does not work.

Because we all love technology — and spend our free time tinkering with computers, telephones, IVR, and AI — there are always multiple colleagues online at any given moment. If something happens, someone is already there. Our support mailbox is monitored evenings, nights, and weekends. Our team is on Slack with notifications on our mobile phones, so we stay in touch around the clock. For clients who want it, we set up a dedicated Slack channel so you can reach us instantly by message at any time.

With other providers, you need strict and expensive SLAs to get this level of attention. And when something actually happens, the SLA often turns out to be just a piece of paper — support is still not there when you need it. Our “best effort” SLA is the best you can get: motivated team members who know the platform inside out and want to help you.