Download John Springett Welcome to Customer Services and Communications

Channel Shift
The Poole Experience
Public Sector Forums
7th February 2012
Chris Angell
Service Improvement Manager
Aim
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Share Poole’s approach to driving channel shift via the web
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Discuss key topics such as:
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Use of Telephony & CRM data
Communicating To Reduce / Redirect Contacts
Improving Web Content
‘Quick Wins’ to Drive Immediate Channel Shift
Web / Self Service Promotion
Establishing ‘Cost to Serve’
Developing a Business Case
Channel Shift Targets
Key Poole Statistics
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Unitary Council on the Dorset coast
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Part of a defined conurbation, inc. Bournemouth & Christchurch
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Around 138,000 customers & 64,000 households in 65 square km
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40% of population over 50 (national average 33.4%) & growing fast
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Predominately white British population – 4% other ethnic groups,
although seen recent influx of Eastern European workers
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Generally successful & well-rated Council for many years (4 Star in 2007)
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71% of our population already use the internet – and still increasing
A number of years on…
1998
2005
New Website 2010
Web Usage
2000 – 58,000 unique hits
2008 – on track for 1,000,000+
Unique Hits
1000000
900000
800000
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Web Usage
2008 to 2010 Unique Visitors = approx 1m pa.
Unique Hits
1080000
1060000
1040000
1020000
1000000
980000
960000
940000
2008
2009
2010
Web Usage
2008 to 2010 Total Hits - Reducing
Total Hits
8000000
7000000
6000000
5000000
4000000
3000000
2000000
1000000
0
2008
2009
2010
Role of Our Website
FOR CUSTOMERS:
 Accurate & readily accessible info for residents, local businesses / partners & tourists
 Portal to other local services of interest – eg. tourism, medical, jobs, etc?
 Convenient & easy to use transactional self service facilities, available 24/7
FOR US:
 Ready access to key service information for officers to effectively support customers
 Cost-effective self service channel integrated with other access channels
 Support for the general promotion & development of Poole town / area
Typical costs / transaction (LGN 2011)
F2F £14.00, Phone £5.00, Web £0.17
Our Web Vision
• Seek to package and present Council service information / content intuitively
• In ways that help to solve users’ problems &/or better support their lifestyles
• Be attractive & easy to use for the vast majority of users, regardless of age or disability
• Encourage and deliver significantly enhanced self-service activity
• Substitute use of other (more costly & less flexible) delivery channels
• Integrate effectively with our other access channels & selected partner websites
• Strive for national excellence in design, functionality & content
• Ensure our Web / online presence supports our Customer Service Strategy
Quick Wins
• Set challenge to improve our offer in two months – and spent just £3k
• Reviewed telephony & CRM data to identify best candidates for channel shift
• 14 titles changed & 47 ‘Also Known As’ titles created
• 94 bespoke forms created (previously one generic).
• 72 new titles created. ‘Bin Swaps’ alone will save at least 500 calls p.a.
• Changed from long A-Z lists to clustered services to ease navigation / selection
• All core service pages now have updated & more prominent self service links too
• Pages meta-tagged so can be found direct from Google
• Validation / multi section e-forms added to reduce spam from ‘spiders’
Telephone vs Web
TELEPHONE:
 Reduced Telephone contact by 25% since 2007/8 (100k contacts )
 Removed avoidable contact by accurate signposting
WEB:
 Increased E-form usage since 2007/8 up by 82% (60k plus)
 Improved e-forms with embedded logic has reduced avoidable contact
Top areas are “Report It”
and “Pay”
Previously these were A-Z Lists
– not easy to find
More options below
Logic in E-forms is important,
as is integration to CRM with
high volume forms
Yet to be updated
Scope for major work
A recent success is Green Waste.
40% plus online applications
Our on line booking is an area that we still need to develop
Gradually replacing documents with online e-forms
Next Steps
 Continue to promote new facilities internally to officers and members
 Limited external promotion – mainly via email marketing, libraries & adult learning
 Customer focus groups to review new facilities & identify further improvements
 Agree ‘cost to serve’ formulae – for fully & partially automated web transactions
 Continue to prioritise development
 Extend CRM ‘Self Service’ integration to enable customers to create cases
 Develop more ‘Pay for It’ & ‘Book It’ facilities (eg. weddings, beach huts, pest control, etc)
Summary
 Channel shift is achievable – and quickly too. 10% less calls in 2011/12
 Review your CRM & telephony data to quickly identify key opportunities
 Improved communication can reduce overall contact volumes immediately
 Focus on accurate & well structured web content – and use Plain English!
 Identify & address ‘quick wins’ for immediate benefit whilst you develop more functions
 Promote website / online facilities actively – in publications, through staff, campaigns etc
 Understand your ‘cost to serve’ dynamics
 Use these to build a business case for further investment & development
 Set clear channel shift targets for your front-line staff & involve them in design work
Thank you