The solution
Transforming how customers connect to the council: digital first customer journey.
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Transform the customer journey so that it is digital first (wherever possible)
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Transform our own internal technology and systems and processes
Through the use of voice automation, webforms, AI, etc, we will create a single point of contact for all service areas with high levels of external customer interaction.
Transforming how the council connects to itself: coherent, consistent, cross-council tech, systems and processes.
The DDU will align tech across service areas so that different areas connect to one another seamlessly.
This will dramatically reduce the time (and money) spent dealing with all resident requests, reducing unnecessary admin, and giving teams the time they need to focus on what really matters.
In turn, this will enable important information about resident needs to be shared and disseminated, thereby reducing failure demand.
Joining up our tech means we join up our services
The problem is that, at the moment, different teams use different tech, which means our tech isn’t joined up properly – which means that our teams aren’t joined up, either, causing inefficiencies internally, and in many cases, preventing us getting the right services at the right time to our residents.
To fix this, we will align tech across service areas so that different areas connect to one another seamlessly.
This will dramatically reduce the time (and money) spent dealing with all resident requests, reducing unnecessary admin, and giving teams the time they need to focus on what really matters.
In turn, this will enable important information about resident needs to be shared and disseminated, thereby reducing failure demand.
What will a ‘digital first’ customer journey look like?
As the work of the DDU progresses and goes live, our customers will – literally – see a number of important changes.
We’ll be changing our webpages. Whereas previously customers had multiple ways to contact us, now they’ll see easy to use webforms, as well as voice automation using AI.
But what if a resident can’t access the internet?
We’re absolutely aware that some residents, especially those who are vulnerable, may not be able to access the internet. For many of them, picking up the phone and calling us will still be how they contact us.
Yes, we’re all about being ‘digital first’ – but only whenever possible. We will never exclude residents who have to call us, or contact us in a different, non-digital way.
And by transforming how more digitally-enabled customers contact us, we’ll free up capacity for vulnerable customers.
Do we need to change our culture?
‘Culture change’ can be a bit of a cliché, but in this case it’s true. For too long, we, as a council, have been working in silos. Instead, we all need to think how what we do – as services, teams and individuals – affects other services, teams and individuals. When a customer contacts us, what do they really need? What do you need to do to make that happen? How does your team work with others?
Timeline
The DDU aims to transform the following areas by end of 2024:
• Complaints
• FoI
• Housing
• Licensing
• Revenues and Benefits
• Waste
• Adult Social Care
In 2025, the programme will be extended: due to replications and learnings, we expect the second tranche of work to be completed much quicker.