Customer insight in the Digital World folder/South...Vision Inspiring and empowering staff to...
30
Customer insight in the Digital World William Benson Chief Executive Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Transcript of Customer insight in the Digital World folder/South...Vision Inspiring and empowering staff to...
Customer insight in the Digital World
William Benson
Chief Executive
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Vision
Inspiring and empowering staff to develop and deliver digital services
Using customer insight to shape service delivery
Identifying behavioural change techniques to reduce demand and promote ‘digital by default’
The current situation
Business as usual is no longer an option
Ongoing budget cuts
Population increasing and ageing
Digital natives turning 18
Customers expectations for digital services are high
Our response . . . we must have more and better digital services
Where were we?
Data rich in terms of telephone contact, letters & complaints but had nothing on the web
Website owned by the Communications Team, neglected as a transactional tool
No one senior responsible for online services and digital work
Staff saw the web as a bolt-on to systems and processes that we have and were designed 10 or 15 years ago
Where we are now
Inspiring and empowering staff to develop and deliver digital services
Redesign services to benefit our customers
Integral part of our 5 year plan
• Digital objectives • Staff briefings • Tech Day • 12 Days of Digital • Digital Angels
Smarter Digital Services
Inspiring and empowering staff to develop and deliver digital services
Working in Partnership across Kent
Buy in from Kent Chief Executives
Jointly funded a team to provide skills and expertise working with authorities
Sharing best practice, industry knowledge and practical insights
Smarter Digital Services
Current partners . . .
Applying behavioural change theory to Council Tax collection
As at 1 December 2015 Mid Kent Revenues and Benefits had over 10,000 cases with some form of ongoing recovery or enforcement action
Customers are sent a ‘14 day letter’ offering them a final opportunity to avoid enforcement
action by making a payment or arrangement
Evidence suggests that as few as 10% of recipients respond to these letters
Applying behavioural change theory to Council Tax collection
Looking to reduce enforcement action through the use of behavioural change theory often referred to as ‘Nudge Theory’
We trialled simple ‘handwritten’ style post-it notes to letters, hoping to ‘nudge’ customers into responding
A Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) was carried out across Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells in November 2015. 50% were sent the normal 14 day letter and 50% sent the 14 day letter with a post-it note attached
Applying behavioural change theory to Council Tax collection
Overall Response Rates
Figures relate to percentage of customers in each group that
responded (Overall Group size = 372)
21.56% of customers sent the standard letter responded with some form of offer or payment
The inclusion of the post-it note increased the response rate to 31.64%
Behavioural change techniques to reduce demand and promote ‘digital by default’
Pay by Phone Parking
Ageing estate of parking ticket machines Vulnerable to vandalism and theft Fake pound coins Increasing cost of contracts to insure, collect and bank the coins Paying by phone not new but more expensive and unsurprisingly slow take up
Pay by Phone Parking
Moved to incentives - 20p cheaper to use PayByPhone
Number of first time users shot up
Marketing campaign including prize draws
Numbers of new users continues to climb month on month
More than a quarter of all parking revenue is now being taken by cashless methods and they pay more and stay longer.
Pay by Phone Parking
Pay by Phone Parking
Involving staff and users in improvements
Simple change
Draw attention to 2 hours
Continuing to promote channel shift
WiFi to address mobile reception issues
Eye Tracking
EK Services have used Eye Tracking to identify possible areas for re-design of letters, bills and web pages
Gives a real insight into customer behaviour when reading letters and web pages
SDS team will be holding an ‘Eye Tracking’ week in March 2016 for partners to evaluate their letters, bills and web pages using Eye Tracking Glasses
Eye Tracking – The ‘F’ pattern
Identifying how customers scan the content of letters, bills and web pages
Eye Tracking – Directional Cues
Identifying how a ‘directional cue’ within an advert draws the customers eye . . .
Eye Tracking – Early results for EK Services
Tackling digital exclusion
Instant Chat
Assisted self-help
Digi-buddies
Promoting online services
Tackling digital exclusion
Digi-Buddies
Since April we’ve held over 90 Digi Buddy sessions helping our customers build their confidence
Working with others
Compaid
Go-train
Learn my way
Barclays Digital Eagles
Mark
O'Callaghan Charlotte Benge
Neil Sutcliffe Zoe Gooding
Debra Thackeray
Emer Moran
Mat Jeffreys Tom Dixon
Stephen Cripps Tina Judge
Working inside out…
Digital Angels
What we have learnt
Owned and driven from the top
Test and test again - don’t make assumptions
Give staff the inspiration, skills and permission to try new things, it is OK to fail now and again
If you build it, they won’t (necessarily) come, think behaviour change
It’s not just about the web
Don’t get seduced by the ‘digital divide’ brigade (69% citizens access the web weekly and it can be worth £1,064 a year through financial savings and improved employment opportunities)
What’ s next?
Focus on areas that will have a bigger impact:
Planning - customer insight to improve services and reduce avoidable contact
Debt Recovery - behaviour change theory
Housing - Homechoice improvements through customer insight
Single Customer Account - research the need for and advantages of a Single Customer Account and obtain the ‘customer view’
The future
Proud of what we have done, but still a way to go
Digital is not a ‘bolt-on’ on or a ‘nice to have’ it is part of everything
New ways of working - user centred and agile approaches 53% 53%
56%
17%
25%
17%
3% 2%
14% 14%
14%
8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2010 2012 2015
Telephone
In person
Web
Get in touch . . .
William Benson Email: [email protected]
@TWBC_ChiefExec Smarter Digital Services Andy Sturtivant, Team Manager Email: [email protected] Online: www.smarterdigital.info
@SDSProjectTeam
