Councils could save significant amounts of money – and increase customer satisfaction – by better understanding how citizens want to access services and enabling them to do so in the way they choose.
That's the overriding message of a new report, 'Using customer insight to drive channel shift', from Scottish Borders Council, the Improvement Service and Experian.
The report aimed to examine how customer insight can play a role in the development and implementation of 'channel shift' strategies within Scottish local authorities. The Improvement Service's Customer First programme is working with Scottish councils to encourage greater take up of services through low cost channels (e.g. telephone, online) in order to take demand and cost out of the system to protect front line services whilst meeting customer expectations.
Using data from Experian and Scottish Borders Council, the report analyses the channel preference of citizens by socio-demographic group, identifies how different groups prefer to access services and receive information, and demonstrates how this insight works in practice to help councils develop a strategy and encourage greater channel shift among their services users.
Among its findings are:
- The percentage of citizens across council areas who prefer to transact over the internet is between 54% and 63%.
- It is possible to quantify the extent to which specific demographic groups are likely to use certain channels, and which services they are likely to use them for. For example, for Scottish Borders Council, it is likely that 61% of service users are likely to use an online planning application, but only 52% of users might apply for council tax benefit online.
- The potential 'shift' and savings for a small number of key services could be substantial, ranging from 33% to 50%.
- The potential savings from channel shift to Scottish Borders Council's Waste & Recycling, Pest Control and Bulky Uplift services are between £63,658 and £83,393 a year, or between £192,000 and £249,000 over three years. If this scale of savings was replicated across Scotland, potential savings would be £11.3m over three years for these services.
- There is potential to increase customer satisfaction by delivering services through channels that are more convenient for services users, given their lifestyles and preferences.
The report also looks at the approaches of councils across the UK to multi-channel delivery and the lessons learned from these, which include:
- Integrated multi-channel strategies are crucial. For example, not all service users are either willing or able to use cheaper channels. At the same time, the prevalence of smartphones means that there is increasing demand for access through this channel. Furthermore, some services lend themselves more than others to delivery via the web or other non face-to-face options. Thus a key part of any strategy is to understand customer behaviour, preferences, and use of services and the feasibility of actually providing that service online.
- Understanding customer demand, both current and future, is crucial.
- Not all savings will come from moving customers online or via a contact centre. For example, Westminster Council has estimated substantial savings from using self-service kiosks in libraries.
- Any channel shift strategy need to be constantly monitored and refined to take account of changes in users' behaviour.
- There are some common starting points in prioritising services for the web, e.g. rubbish collection, libraries, leisure facilities, planning, housing, council tax.
Download a copy of the report.
For more information on Customer First's channel shift programme, contact Sally Buchanan on 01506 775582.
