Background
Founded in 1985 by the provincial government, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) manages gambling to benefit all British Columbians.
With more than 3,400 lottery retail locations, 36 casinos and gaming centers, and in-person and online sports betting, BCLC not only provides entertainment and winnings for players, but revenue helps fund health care, education and community initiatives across B.C.
BCLC operates a high-touch contact strategy across several teams: from dealer and reseller outreach under the “PlayNow” brand, to proactive engagement with high-value players.
Problem
Before implementing Hiya’s Branded Call, calls frequently went unanswered — even calls made in response to direct inquiries or account-related business.
- Unidentified phone numbers: Calls displayed as unknown numbers or with numeric-only identification — often misidentified by CNAM or carrier systems, leading to diminished trust.
- Repetitive dialing: Agents were forced to make multiple attempts — sometimes 5-10 calls — to reach the intended contact, especially in teams like Retention & Rewards, where connection rates were as low as 3%.
- Trust gaps with high-value gamblers: Calls to elite players lacked credibility without proper branding, affecting both engagement and retention.
- Operational inefficiencies: Repeated calls redirected time and attention from core inbound support and sales functions.
- No visibility into spam or call blocking: BCLC couldn’t identify whether calls were flagged as spam, blocked, or ignored, limiting insights into what was working and what wasn’t.
Solution
Calls were branded as “PlayNow” or “BCLC” to improve communication with BCLC’s nationwide lottery dealer network and with high-value players.
- Lottery dealers recognized the PlayNow name immediately, increasing pickup rates and shortening back-and-forth cycles.
- In the first 8 months of implementing Hiya’s Branded Call, BCLC was able to increase revenue by CA$1 million, which they attribute to identifying their calls.
- Product launches and sales campaigns were executed more rapidly with fewer failed attempts.
- Agent teams reduced total dials per retailer, boosting agent morale and productivity.
- Agents had more success reaching VIP gamblers. Some of these individuals gamble more than CA$1 million per year, so retaining them is very important.
- BCLC reduced the risk of losing high-value customers to non-Canadian competitors due to missed calls.
By using the Hiya Analytics Console, BCLC gained deeper visibility into:
- Answer rates, call durations, and time-of-day patterns.
- Script effectiveness based on call performance.
- Real-time feedback for optimizing call strategy.
