Improving Service Delivery@ East Herts

Neil Sloper

Head of Customer Service

Agenda

• East Herts• Drivers• Customer Service

Improvement• The Story So Far• Questions.

East Hertfordshire• 14 miles north of London• 184 sq miles, rural, 5 market towns

• Population 131,000, only 2.8% minority groups

• Low levels of deprivation, 346 out of 354, some pockets of relative deprivation.

• 1% unemployment local economy mainly service

• Conservative cabinet system• Judged 'good' in 2004 CPA• 350 employees.

Hertfordshire

Our Strategies

• Promoting prosperity and wellbeing; providing access and opportunities

• Fit for purpose, services fit for you• Pride in East Herts• Caring for what's built and where• Shaping now, shaping the future• Leading the way, working together.

Overall aim:

‘To improve the quality of people's lives and preserve all that is best in East Herts’

Drivers for Improvement

Transformational Government

LGA - Closer to People and

Places

Shared Services & Pathfinder

More for less!!

Local

Challenges

Lyons Enquiry

Local Government White Paper

Comprehensive Spending Review

Public Service Reform

Avoidable Contact

NI14Efficiency NI179

Sustainable Communities Act 2007

Vision

Delivering the same excellent level of customer service regardless of how and where customers contact us, to deal with 80% of enquiries at the first point of contact.

Strategy - Key Themes

Standards & SatisfactionCorporate StandardsConsistent MonitoringCorporate comments, compliments and complaints

Customer AccessSimplifyAccess for allInfluence ChoiceBetter facilities for Customers

Customer InsightSatisfactionService UseCustomer ProfileTake UpService Planning

ChangeBusiness process improvementInvesting in self-serviceCost to serve

Customer

Service

improvement

Customer Service EffectivenessEfficient OrganisationEffect use of technologyImproved process

What Does That Look Like?

A Responsive Council

Efficient response

Citizen Driven CouncilSelf-service,

Engagement in service design and delivery

A Customer Focused Council

Reduced cost of contact, Joined up services,

Service development based on customer use

Reducing Costs and Improving Service

Modernising Service Delivery, Access Channel Management, Joining up Services

Dynamic Customer Feedback, Community Discussion Portals

Know who is contacting us and why.Move simple transactions to self-service.

Giving customers choice of modern access channels.Development based on demand.

Real-time engagement and feedback. Matching service innovation to customer need.

Council Focused Customer Focused

BenefitsImproved/consistent access through a single co-ordinated service.Efficiency dealing with simple enquiries/transactions, releasing professional staff from administration.More cost effective service, movement towards self-service.Customer insight by capturing, recording and evaluating customer contact, use and satisfaction.Knowledge about customers and their needs to target investment and ensure equality of access.

Strategy into Action

• Are you an observer of transformation?

• Do you think outside the box?

Which Way?• Choice of technique? –

Fashion

• Method of change? –Structure not ideas

• Technology?A faster mess?

How do we get there?

Customer View

Resources

Parts

Goal

Route

Information

Can’t do it to people, only with people!

Improvement Package

• Customer Service Function• Website Development• CRM Development• Telephony Development• E-Form Development• Process Improvement• Baseline Cost• Information

Service

Specialist IT Services

Customer Information

• Self-Service• Assisted Service• Professional Service80% @ 1st Contact

Increased Customer Satisfaction + Organisational Efficiency

Customer Contact

• Measurement system

• Data: who, what, where and when

• Service delivery & availability

• Analysis: value and NI 14.

Contact

Customer Contact

telephone, 24000, 38%

face to face, 5000, 8%

website, 12000, 19%

post, 21000, 33%

e-mails, 1000, 2%

74% sample could be self-service

•74% answered in 10 seconds

•35% lost calls

•Average Call 2 minutes

Call Volumes

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Janu

aryFeb

urary

March

April

MayJu

ne July

Augus

tSep

tembe

rOcto

ber

Novembe

rDece

mber

Months

Num

ber o

f Cal

ls

Calls Offered

Calls Answered

Customer View

• A transaction is a journey

• What do we know?

• Scale your research

• Staff View

• Customer View

(GovMetric, Survey, NI14).

Customer View

Basic Journey Map

Penalty Charge Journey Map

Process Improvement• Software

• Customer ‘touch-points’

• The customer’s need?

• Follow transactions

• Asking silly questions

• Validate - Talk through

• Value/no value (NI 14).

Review

ESD Cost Architecture

Costing and Time

• Authoritative Source

• Timing ‘spot on’

• Working with others

• Customer focused approach

• Consistency

• Transparent

• Factual.

Cost of Transactions• Transactions fit broad categories• Including all costs• A baseline• Validates efficiencies• Validates business cases

£4.62

£12.69

£0.17

£12.16

Outcomes• Cost per transaction per channel

and cost to serve awareness

• Customer focus on design and decisions

• Clear case and evidence to support change

• Able to demonstrate our workings and efficiencies!

The Story So Far – The ReviewParking Services

• Trying it out• Review took 21/2 months• 63,000 customer interactions• 7 key process maps• 3 customer satisfaction maps• Cost to serve.

The Story So Far – The Options

Parking Services

• 34 recommendations for improvement

• Efficiencies (cashable and non-cashable worth £48,000)

• NI14 – initial sample 74% of contact could be self-service.

The Story So Far – To do better

Council Tax

• NI14 more robust, GovMetric sampling

• Split calls direct to service from switchboard transfers

• Analyse specific web page sessions.

Final Thoughts - Transformation

• Paint your receptionpink!

• Caterpillar to Butterfly –amazing or predictable?

Discussion

Neil Sloper, Head of Customer Service

neil.sloper@eastherts.gov.uk

01992 531611