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 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% Overall Response Rates Figures relate to percentage of customers in each group that responded (Overall Group size = 372)
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
Working inside out… Mark Mat Jeffreys Tom Dixon Charlotte Benge Debra Thackeray O'Callaghan Emer Moran Neil Sutcliffe Zoe Gooding Tina Judge Stephen Cripps
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 60% 56% 50% 53% 53% 40% Telephone 30% In person 25% Web 20% 17% 17% Email 14% 14% 14% 10% 8% 3% 2% 0% 2010 2012 2015
Get in touch . . . William Benson Email: william.benson@tunbridgewells.gov.uk @TWBC_ChiefExec Smarter Digital Services Andy Sturtivant, Team Manager Email: andy.sturtivant@tunbridgewells.gov.uk Online: www.smarterdigital.info @SDSProjectTeam
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