The AGCO’s Service Strategy and Experience Branch’s mandate is to deliver on the AGCO’s Service Excellence strategic objective by working with partners across the organization to ensure:
In 2020–2021, the branch has enhanced its capacity with additional expertise in service analytics, and service design, to better assist the AGCO putting the customer at the centre of all service design and improvement initiatives.
In October 2020, the AGCO launched the final phase of iAGCO online service delivery. The AGCO’s Digital First strategy includes modernizing service channels to provide an enhanced experience.
Organizations seeking charitable gaming licences from the AGCO and Electronic Gaming Suppliers seeking gaming approvals now conduct all AGCO-related transactions online through the iAGCO portal.
iAGCO has been the largest transformational project the AGCO has undertaken to modernize how we conduct our business, aligning with our goal to be a Modern Regulator and meeting our Service Experience objective of offering customers an easy, convenient and digital way of doing business with us. Now, all AGCO licensees, registrants and authorization holders can conduct their transactions online anytime from anywhere.
The AGCO was especially well-positioned to leverage iAGCO in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our online service platform allowed most of our customers to continue to transact with the AGCO despite unprecedented emergency measures, while allowing AGCO staff to seamlessly transition to working remotely.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant economic hardship for many AGCO licensees and registrants, particularly in bars, restaurants, casino gaming and horse racing. The AGCO has taken unprecedented steps to provide support by extending licensing and registration terms in 2020.
iAGCO user survey responses consistently show that our customers are extremely satisfied with the iAGCO services they use and appreciate the improved service experience. From the beginning, the rates for auto-approvals and auto-issuances have been high and have only grown over time:
As AGCO staff close out of this project by transitioning tasks, roles and responsibilities to ongoing operations, a new iAGCO Product Team is delivering on the AGCO’s strategic business goals through the fostering and building of iAGCO functionality. The AGCO’s Project Management Office, which provided leadership and oversight from start to finish and worked closely with our vendor, Computronix, has also undergone change to better respond to ongoing corporate project needs. The AGCO continues to refocus its efforts to further develop the iAGCO platform to deliver on organizational modernization and transformation goals.
TABLE 5: iAGCO liquor & gaming submission rates & auto-renewals
|
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
---|---|---|
Online submission rate for liquor applicants |
94% |
88% |
Online submission rate for gaming applicants |
87% |
57% |
SOP auto-issue |
93% |
39% |
Liquor licences auto-renewals |
38% |
9% |
Gaming registration auto-renewals |
62% |
31% |
The decrease in 2020–21 numbers can be attributed to the COVID-19 emergency measures.
TABLE 6: iAGCO and service improvements
|
2019–20 Volumes |
2020–21 Volumes |
---|---|---|
Online Regulatory Notifications |
25,074 |
18,247 |
Liquor Objections |
241 |
2823 |
Complaints |
2,581 |
2,980 |
Inquiries |
49,319 |
32,874 |
Cannabis Submissions (from the public and municipalities) |
1,086 |
9,393 |
Total |
78,301 |
66,317 |
Here is what customers have to say about iAGCO:
TABLE 7: Contact Centre and customer service support
The AGCO is committed to supporting its customers, the public and stakeholders through effective customer service support across a variety of channels.
|
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
---|---|---|
Telephone Contacts (Contact Centre) |
104,072 |
49,070 |
In-person customers (Head Office) |
2,162 |
0 (Head Office in-person Services were halted, and transitioned online due to the COVID-19 Pandemic) |
Self-Help (using automated voice messaging system) |
36,386 |
23,367 |
Web Chat |
6,756* |
5,164 |
AGCO website visits |
1,425,794 |
1,207,608 |
*Web Chat volumes are from September 2019 to March 2020.
The AGCO is committed to the continuous improvement of its customers’ service experiences and uses both quantitative service performance measures and customer feedback to gauge service performance and uncover customer insights that are used to improve service design and delivery.
Since March 19, 2020, AGCO Customer Services has offered Contact Centre services remotely, in accordance with Ontario’s COVID-19 Response. Using remote technology that was enabled to support the AGCO’s Continuity of Operations Planning, the AGCO pivoted to a virtual contact centre environment with no break in customer service delivery, while supporting public health safety objectives.
During this fiscal year, the remotely operated Contact Centre answered 91% of customer calls within five minutes or less, exceeding its 80% service level target. AGCO customer surveys indicated a customer satisfaction rating of 84% for those who called the Contact Centre, the same rating as the previous year.
Customer satisfaction surveys of the AGCO’s common service channels (iAGCO, website and voice) indicate an overall customer satisfaction rating of 72%, down from 78% in the previous fiscal year. With the Contact Centre’s rate unchanged at 84%, and a slight decline of the AGCO survey (41% to 39%), the most significant change was to iAGCO satisfaction, from 78% in 2019–20 to 67% in 2020–21. The AGCO experienced significant changes in the composition of licences being processed that relate directly to the opening and closure of business activities as part of the Province’s COVID response. Due to closures, typically more satisfied customers, including SOP applicants, represented a much smaller proportion of total services in 2020–21 than in previous years.
The AGCO’s Complaints & Inquiries Handling Policy continues to focus on complaints analysis, continuous improvement, and evidence-based decision making, with a renewed focus on ensuring complaint documentation is consistently meeting the needs of both due diligence requirements, and complainant satisfaction. Through regular performance monitoring, the AGCO’s turnaround for addressing regulatory complaints greater than 30 days improved to 26% in 2020–21 from 30% in 2019–20.
In September 2019, the AGCO launched a new channel of communication to support and further enhance the customer service experience. Web Chat offers customers a direct, web-based digital line to the Contact Centre Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This popular service, currently available to Special Occasion Permit and cannabis customers, is scheduled to expand to other lines of business.
Compliance Services (CS) is responsible for conducting regulatory inspections, audits and financial investigations across all lines of business regulated by the AGCO. Throughout 2020–21, CS continued to conduct regulatory inspections, in-person and virtually, across all lines of business during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure business continuity while supporting the broader public health objectives.
This approach benefits both the AGCO and Operators through reduced administrative burden, increased operational flexibility and strengthened regulatory outcomes. It also allows the AGCO to proactively manage the evolving nature of its regulated industries and sectors while taking on new regulatory responsibilities.
When conducting an audit at a casino facility, the AGCO assesses site compliance with the requirements under the Gaming Control Act (GCA), the Registrar’s Standards for Gaming, the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, 2001, and related regulations. The AGCO helps regulated entities to comply with regulatory requirements by taking an approach based on education, collaboration and deterrence.
During 2020–2021, the AGCO carried out three risk-based audits/reviews.
The AGCO applies a risk-based approach to all of its activities, including its eligibility assessment and registration process, technical assessment and approval of updates to the OLG igaming solution and new games, and the application of regulatory assurance activities to assess compliance with the Registrar’s Standards for Gaming.
During 2020–2021, the AGCO carried out three risk-based audits/reviews.
During 2020–2021, the AGCO monitored ongoing changes to the OLG’s lottery platform, assessed related risks, educated new Gaming-Related Suppliers on AGCO’s regulatory requirements and expectations, and assessed technology-related readiness.
In 2020–2021, CS continued to focus its resources on areas of higher risk with a continued emphasis on being outcomes-based and compliance-focused. Inspectors achieved this by investing significant effort into proactively working with licensees and registrants to ensure regulatory compliance.
Over the fiscal year, CS effectively used virtual compliance activities that allowed for continued communications between the AGCO and its stakeholders during the pandemic and allowed for enhanced service delivery with less regulatory burden.
CS recognizes the benefits of collaborative working relationships with police services and other regulatory bodies. Throughout 2020–2021, CS continued to seek out new strategic partnerships and collaborative approaches to promote compliance among all industries and sectors regulated by the AGCO.
In this fiscal year, CS continued to increase its collaboration with municipal partners, including participation in a new multi-ministry COVID safety awareness and compliance team of more than 200 provincial offences officers from various ministries throughout Ontario. This coordinated provincial initiative to combat COVID is an area where CS has been instrumental in assisting the effort to keep Ontarians safe.
CS has continued to work in strong collaboration with its strategic partners from the local police, public health units, and bylaw enforcement departments to limit duplication of local compliance and enforcement efforts.
TABLE 8: Compliance Services inspections – cannabis
|
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
---|---|---|
Pre-inspection |
73 |
1061 |
Cannabis pre-opening |
45 |
528 |
Education |
148 |
1189 |
Unannounced inspections |
222 |
678 |
All other inspection types |
154 |
1786 |
TABLE 9: Compliance Services inspections – raffles
|
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
---|---|---|
Inspections |
57 |
11 |
Infractions cited |
1 |
0 |
In addition to commercial gaming inspections, the AGCO continued to conduct inspections at sites that fall under 207(1)(b) of the Criminal Code. These sites are conducted and managed by the OLG (see “3. Charitable Gaming (cGaming)”).
AGCO COs also provide education and outreach to the charitable gaming sector to ensure continued compliance.