From Architecture to Operations: Building and Running a State Agency's Contact Center

Download the Case Study (PDF)

Project Summary

A large state agency engaged Mpathic to design, build, and operate the contact center for a statewide education benefits program. The program served families applying for benefits, enrolled students, schools and education providers, and program vendors, each with different questions and different stakes. A parent calling about an application, a school asking about enrollment, and a vendor working through a payment issue all needed accurate answers from the same operation.

There was no existing contact center infrastructure to inherit. Routing, case management, participant records, reporting, and the knowledge agents would rely on all had to be created. The data involved raised the stakes further: student records, family financial information, and program enrollment data, all of which had to be handled inside a secure environment under state and federal privacy requirements. The agency needed the operation designed, built, staffed, and live on a tight timeline.

The agency needed:

• A complete contact center technology stack, designed and implemented from the ground up
• Defined KPIs, processes, and reporting the agency could hold the operation to
• A trained, screened team able to support families, schools, and vendors across phone, email, and live chat
• Secure handling of student and family data within a controlled environment
• A rapid standup, from contract to live operations, in roughly 90 days

Mpathic Solution

Mpathic designed and built the entire technical environment on AWS. Amazon Connect served as the CCaaS foundation, configured for multi-channel routing, IVR design, and queue management, with a dedicated statewide toll-free line obtained and enabled for the program. Amazon Cases provided case creation, tracking, and resolution, integrated directly with the contact platform. Mpathic designed and built a custom CRM to manage participant profiles, interaction history, and program data, integrated it with the program's platform of record and its e-commerce portal, and completed the data transfer from the program's existing repository. A knowledge base, also designed and developed by Mpathic, gave agents a single accurate reference for the full complexity of program rules and supported self-service. Amazon QuickSight dashboards gave the agency real-time, dynamic visibility into every KPI.

Implementation ran as Agile sprint cycles covering discovery, requirements validation, solution design, configuration and integration, testing, training, and go-live support. Mpathic conducted a train-the-trainer engagement with the program administrator to develop program-specific scripts, FAQs, and procedures, then assumed ownership of ongoing staff training, quality assurance, and compliance monitoring. Recruiting, onboarding, training, and launch were all completed within the agreed window, and the Engagement Center went live in roughly 90 days.

Mpathic then staffed and managed the center as the program's complete contact center provider: customer success representatives recruited from state residents where practicable, a dedicated trainer who also owned compliance and quality assurance, and a customer success manager. Agents handled inbound and outbound contacts across phone, email, and live chat, including outbound campaigns supporting participant engagement and benefit utilization. Daily responsibilities included frontline support for parents, schools, and education providers; applications review and processing; order fulfillment and technical support for the program's payment platform; reimbursement review and processing; and lead support for all vendor relations.

Mpathic did not inherit the program's KPIs; it helped define them. Working with the agency, Mpathic consulted on goals, KPIs, and process improvement, then built the QuickSight reporting that tracked them in real time. Contractual targets included answering 80 percent of calls within 30 seconds, an abandonment rate of 8 percent or lower, average handle time of 10 minutes or less, and first call resolution of 80 percent or higher. Performance was reviewed with the agency in daily and weekly metrics reviews and quarterly business reviews. The engagement was structured as a monthly recurring charge rather than per-hour billing, which put the incentive on Mpathic to invest in staff quality, retention, and continuous improvement instead of maximizing billable hours.

Security wrapped the whole operation. All participant data was processed exclusively within the secure AWS environment; CRM and case data was segregated and access-controlled; no PII was retained on personal devices or transmitted outside the environment without authorization; and every staff member completed background checks, identity verification, drug screening, and confidentiality agreements before access.

Project Outcome and Success Metrics

Every headline metric ran well ahead of its target:

• Customer satisfaction of 4.88 out of 5.0 on after-call surveys
• First call resolution of 93 percent, against a contractual target of 80 percent or higher
• Average speed to answer of 12 seconds, against a standard allowing 30 seconds for 80 percent of calls
• Average email response time of 8 hours, against a 24-business-hour SLA
• Go-live achieved in roughly 90 days from contract start

First call resolution of 93 percent against an 80 percent requirement meant fewer callbacks, fewer escalations, and less frustration for families working through an unfamiliar program. A 12-second average speed to answer meant participants reached a person almost immediately. The client's actions confirmed what the dashboards showed: the team was expanded from 9 to 10 FTEs based on performance, and the contract was extended month-to-month beyond its initial two-year term. When the same partner designed the architecture, defined the metrics, and ran the operation, accountability had nowhere to hide. Mpathic built the system it would be measured by, then beat every target it set. The engagement continues today.

Download the Case Study (PDF)