As SOCITM Better Connected 2011 hits our inboxes and the world of Twitter goes frantic with #BC11 activity, we take a look at the highlights and lowlights from the report and see what can be done to make #BC12 a real Local Authority Web Oscar fest.
Overall the report highlights that perhaps the changes required to deliver efficient and effective government through "digital by default" has not yet occurred with statements such as "Overall, council websites have made a modest improvement with eight areas of improvement and four areas of deterioration." But does this really tell the true story? Programmes of change to result in the type of improvements required to deliver an efficient channel shift strategy do not happen overnight. I wonder how many of the sites reviewed are actually currently undertaking significant change programmes, which would not yet show in improvements in their web presence?
As the outcomes of the CSR 2010 are about to bite, the opportunity for all council's to deliver highly efficient services delivering improved levels of customer satisfaction cannot be delayed. So what are the key ingredients to ensure you walk away with your Web Oscar next year?
Channel Shift Strategy
Understanding your current website is vital if you are to learn from history and to plan for future success. Really getting beneath the bonnet of your website and understanding what information people are looking for and what transactions they are looking to complete is key. What works for them and what fails miserably? Using Google Analytics (and similar analytics tools) can provide the clarity of activity and focus on what needs to be improved. You should be able to not only present to senior management your monthly unique visitors and page views, but also the failures your visitors encounter. These may include issues with site navigation and what is causing avoidable contact through frustration with the website, resulting in phone calls to the call centre or drop-in visits to find information that should be openly available and easy to find on the website.
Once you have this level of information at your fingertips, then you are ready to plan how to improve things for the future, for both the customer's experience, but also which processes internally need to be enhanced or delivered in new ways.
Your Channel Shift Strategy therefore becomes the essential vehicle for maximising your customer access efficiencies through an excellent website integrated with all your other customer channels (and importantly, back office systems).
Be obsessed with customers
SOCITM say you should be obsessed with your top tasks, but our experience indicates you should first live and breathe customers everyday with everything that you do to ensure they are completely at the centre of what you do (and don't do) as an organisation. Keep asking yourself "will it improve customer satisfaction and reduce our costs?" If the answer is yes then implement, if not, don't.
A logical outcome of this customer centric approach is to ensure all your channel teams have the same manager so as the Channel Shift Strategy evolves, customers can be moved to more efficient channels without the inherent organisational frictions of "you are not changing my service".
Think top tasks
Next, the design and organisation of your website must reflect the understanding you have developed of your customer needs, demographics and website analytics and ensure that the top tasks that will deliver both improved customer satisfaction and maximum efficiencies are given priority and regularly reviewed for changes in trends.
Connect with customers
Ensuring your customers are engaged with the Council and the benefits that using your website will bring are paramount. Use of tools such as RSS, Twitter and Facebook as an integral part of your digital marketing strategy have become imperative and close links with local neighbourhood sites will provide valuable links back to your website.
Go mobile?
As more and more citizens acquire new smart phones, ensuring your website delivers an effective experience to this new demographic is vital. But as only a small single figure percentage of visits come from mobiles, so it is more cost effective to develop templates and forms that can display and operate on mobile devices rather than specific mobile sites.
In conclusion
Put customers at the heart of everything you do, use web analytics tools to understand them, channel shift them to the web, make efficiencies...everyone is happy. Although this won't guarantee your #bc12 Web Oscar success, it will ensure customers get what they want and you deliver as efficient services as possible.
Posted by Dave Witts on 2nd March 2011
