Impact of CSR07 on online services

1
Impact of CSR07 on online services

• Martin Greenwood,
• Socitm Insight programme manager
• 22 November 2007

2
Critical stage in e-government journey

• In recent years
• We have had
• e-government
• We have had the efficiency regime
• We are having transformational government

• And now
• CSRO7
• (1.25 to 3 cashable efficiency gains)
• On top of meagre increase in gross revenue budget

3
Recent policy context

• Varney report on service transformation
• NeSDS standards for customer service
• Transforming Services beacon programme
• Customer service protocol (LGA/IDeA)
• Performance management framework
• (Cabinet Office)
• Customer profiling (esd-toolkit)

4
Recommendations (Varney)

• Two examples
• Reduce the number of information requests handled
  by telephone by 50
• Make the web the primary access point for all
  simple information and advice requests

5
Channel strategy principles (Varney)

• View channels not in distinct silos but as
  components of an overall contact strategy that
  understands the true value and purpose of contact
  and employs an end-to-end delivery whole system
  approach
• Identify realisable savings in terms of both
  contact and cost (for both yourself and the
  citizen or business) through end-to-end,
  cost-to-serve, and customer journey analysis
• Analyse likely future business and citizen
  behaviour patterns, channel preferences and
  information technology developments to inform
  longer-term strategic decisions

6
The new indicator for local government

• Avoidable contact The average number of
• customer contacts per received customer request
• (Ref NI 14)
• New Performance Framework for
• Local Authorities and Local Authority
  Partnerships

7
The new indicator for local government

• In common with other service providers, the
  public sector faces a constant and significant
  battle with managing failure demand contact
  from citizens which would be unnecessary if we
  could
• get things right first time
• join-up parts of the public sector for the
  customer so that they do not need to make
  multiple contacts
• manage signposting and referral both within and
  across agencies and,
• set clear expectations at the outset so that
  the customer knows what to expect when and does
  not need to chase us
• etc etc

8
Importance of CSR07

• Senior management response
• ICT management response

9
Costs of main channels

• Context of transaction costs
• face-to-face delivery 7.81
• telephone 4.00
• web 0.17
• Estimated costs when systems are fully
  integrated.
• Source NWeGG

10
Management of customer service

• Development of self-service is key strategic
  issue
• Councils should have director of customer service
• That person should have overall control of all
  channels of service delivery
• Organisation must be structured to respond to
  this
• Councils should develop multi-channel customer
  access strategy for encouraging self-service
• Measurement of customer satisfaction critical
• Strong performance measurement is essential to
  underpin channel management

11
Which person in your organisation is responsible
for bringing these issues together?

• Managing web and phone?
• Promoting online services?
• Measuring take-up of online services?
• Ensuring a really usable website?

12
Opportunity for ICT management who else is
going to advise on?

• Providing business case for channel shift
  
• Managing shift of work between channels
• Providing baseline of performance
  measurement
• Developing benchmark of good practice

13
You might be pushing at an open door

• ICT in this council is seen fundamentally as a
  support
• service (assess on a scale of 1 to 7)
• Chief executive 4.55
• Head of ICT 5.03
• Gap in perception -0.49
• Source Socitm survey July 2007

14
You might be pushing at an open door

• ICT should be at the forefront of a
  transforming authority, challenging traditional
  methods of service delivery in terms of
  capitalising on the investment in new technology
  and adopting modern methods of working.
  Unfortunately, in this authority the drivers for
  change seem to be all too often lie within the
  senior management team
• Chief executive, shire district

15
You might be pushing at an open door

• Create much better understanding of customer
  service needs into the future and be more
  pro-active in offering options to secure VFM and
  improved customer service
• Chief executive, another shire district

16
You might be pushing at an open door

• Much more strategic input and direction rather
  than a support service how can ICT modernise
  services rather than respond to services that
  wish to modernise.
• Chief executive, North Wales

17
Issues facing council web teams

• CSR07 marks critical stage in role of online
  local
• public services
• How can councils
• improve take-up of online services?
• manage content better?
• improve usability?
• respond to new ways of accessing the web?

18
Issue of take-up

• Why are most councils failing to convert
• to selfservice in large enough numbers?

19
Key messages from recent research
20
Joining up phone and web services

• Phone contacts on website
• Just 8 councils out of 468 match
• our best practice model
• What is this model?

21
Model for telephone contact details

• Telephone number on home page
• Well-signposted Contact Us link on home page
• One telephone number on the Contact Us page,
• or, if more than one is given, clear indication
  of
• which is main number.
• On Contact Us page either separate out-of-hours
  
• number or at least one number for emergencies
• Information for people with hearing difficulties,
  
• such as Minicom or similar options
• Standard telephone opening hours

22
Joining up phone and web services

• Out-of-hours messages
• Just 21 of councils refer callers
• to website
• Six months later, still the case
• in 16 London boroughs with
• out-of-hours message

23
Joining up phone and web services

• Experience on the telephone
• Initial contact person rated as 'very good' or
• satisfactory in 33 of 50 councils contacted
• 56 of education advisers reached to discuss
• school admissions rated very good
• 37 of planning advisers reached to discuss
• home conversion rated as very good
• BUT..

24
Joining up phone and web services

• Experience on the telephone
• Often passed on to other individuals
• or organisations, or called back,
• when information being sought was
• actually available on the website
• Example
• Senior specialists in areas such as planning
  often seemed
• unsure about what their websites offered.
• Hardly anyone knew they had all the information
• I needed on their website. Reviewer

25
Joining up phone and web services

• Overall findings
• Little evidence of fully integrated
• view of customer service across
• activities
• Dangers of new silos based on channels

26
Issue of take-up

• What might be the secrets to high take-up of
  online services?

27
Approach to research

• Initially we sought examples
• of successful marketing campaigns
• Later we looked at examples of
• high take-up and then investigated
• how they were achieved
• We researched 16 case studies in total
• High take-up was rarely result of marketing
• as generally understood in the public sector

28
Better marketed achieving success with take-up
of online services

• Some service-specific successes
• 58 of Bristol City parents
• applying for school places in 2007
• did it electronically.
• Leicester City is now getting 85
• of its job applications online.
• In South Oxon DC, 55 of applicants for new
  recycling bins ordered online.

29
Better marketed achieving success with take-up
of online services

• Some more service-specific successes
• Walsall MBC received more than 50 of
• planning applications in February online.
• In Warwick DC, more than 70 of choice-based
• letting bids now made online
• Westminster City is now receiving 60 of
• parking revenue in two pilot areas through its
• pay-by-phone scheme.

30
Better marketed achieving success with take-up
of online services

• Two valuable corporate initiatives
• THINK WEB! campaign in Bristol City
• for all service managers
• Website marketing plan by Gloucestershire CC
• inc two specific campaigns for the driving
  public

31
Better marketed achieving success with take-up
of online services

• These stories have not been easy to find.
• They have often had other drivers than
• just increasing take-up.
• Extensive promotion is not a major feature

32
Message 10 Collect good data about usage of your
website and use the information for
decision-making

• Do senior decision makers appreciate extent
  of service
• user migration to the web, mobiles and
  texting?
• Is knowledge and understanding widespread
  about usage
• of website and its growth?
• Do decision-makers know how well used their
  website is
• compared with other, similar councils? And
  how fast usage
• of council websites is growing?
• Is it possible (like Leicester) to reach as
  many through
• the website as through paid-for media?

33
Building usage of council websites

• One ICT contribution..
• ICT team should provide database
• about usage that can be used as basis
• for assessing impact of any take-up
• initiative
• Statistics by month and year
• Expressed in terms customers
• understand (eg unique visitors)
• Comparable with others
• Also important to understand
• peaks and troughs of annual cycle
• overall rate of increase from one year to the next

34
Building usage of council websites

• One example
• Unique visitors per month
• much more useful if related to size of
• local population and to visitors who are
• local residents than just the raw data

35
age of local residents using website in month

• Doing better than others
• Warwickshire CC 18.40
• Leicestershire CC 17.89
• Dorset-for-you 15.28
• Shropshire CC 14.46
• Norfolk CC 13.20

• Doing less well
• Another county 8.69
• Another county 8.61
• Another county 8.16
• Another county 7.58
• Another county 5.89

36
Usable websites lead to higher take-up

• It was easy, very straightforward.. anybody
• could have done it
• You do not have to know how to work
• a computer.
• It was very simple.. just took 5 or 10 minutes
• I always recommend to my family and friends
• to apply online.
• It saves time and effort especially because
• of the hectic schedule we have nowadays.
• Thanks for making our life easy.
• Feedback from Hertfordshire mums using
  e-admissions

37
Usable websites lead to higher take-up

• Online school admissions
• For every example of good practice we
• found an example of poor practice.
• Sometimes, facility was not well integrated
• (eg visitors taken to third party supplier
  site
• without being able to return) gtgtgtgt impression
  
• that council website is not well managed.
• Sometimes, facility was just very hard to find.
• On occasion, council gave impression of not
• wanting to let go of telephone as main
• point of contact.
• Lack of care given to customer journey from start
  to
• finish and lack of proper testing.

38
Accessible websites lead to higher take-up

• Evidence from panel of disabled users
• Third-party software

39
Accessible websites are more usable for all

• What 24,770 visitors said
• 13 councils that conform with
• Level A (WCAG 1.0) have
• much higher levels of
• visitor satisfaction on these
• five elements of customer
• experience than 57
• councils that do not
• (Website take-up service Feb 2007)

40
Our first movie

• Now showing..

41
Importance of CSR07

• Self-service must become strategic issue for
  all
• local public services.
• Critical to engage service managers (and their
• managers)
• Web teams must be ready for this, as must all
  those
• who direct, manage and influence them.

42

• Any comments or questions?

43
Impact of CSR07 on online services

• Martin Greenwood,
• Socitm Insight programme manager
• 22 November 2007
• Thank you for your time