Promoting citizen self service efficiency through improved web experiences

With the publication of Socitm's report - Better connected 2010 - it is pleasing to see this level of scrutiny afforded to local authority websites.

Written by Rob McCarthy, Managing Director, GOSS Interactive

While private sector counterparts are often seen as leading the way, this report highlights how sites such as Exeter City Council, Gloucestershire County Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Chichester District Council are representing the latest developments in useful, usable and used websites.

The current financial pressures on local government and the pending general election, has put local authorities under increasing pressure to do more with less.  And central to this strategy is the ability to increase the number and volume of services delivered online – self service is the key to driving efficiencies. 

But, how can a local authority encourage citizens to use its website and effectively serve themselves, instead of picking up the phone?

The journey
As a rule, people visit local authority websites for a purpose; they want to carry out a transaction or find a specific piece of information.  People are impatient and, if the information required cannot be easily accessed, they are likely to turn to the contacts page and pick up the phone.
 
This suggests that the most popular user journeys should be the shortest and easiest to make.

Putting the most popular services on the home page so that they can be accessed and completed quickly will encourage user engagement.

Testing
How do we know that people are finding what they're looking for?

Continuous testing is the key to user insight. Understanding user traffic and testing user journeys with web analytics packages enables local authorities to answer some important questions: are users hitting the correct site landing pages?  Are they taking the anticipated routes?  Are site users failing to find content?  Ongoing web insight reports will show the way people navigate their way around the website, allowing you to adapt and update the site according to customer needs.

Concentrate on the core, but not only the core...
A broad spectrum of information is mandated for a council website and is constantly evolving. For example, by April 2010 all local authorities have to provide ePetitions on their websites. All site content must remain current, accessible and available, to provide the same level of services across the board without prejudice. Using automated, scheduled tasks will enable web teams to keep track of all of the content.

How to search
Offering a user-postcode/street name search is a really useful way of targeting users with only the information that concerns them. These searches will generate specific results depending on where you live – bin collection times, tax bands and planning applications, for example. Similarly, map-based information allows local amenities to be displayed, centred on the home postcode of an individual citizen.

Faceted search offers an alternative way of finding information, allowing users to explore by filtering available information. Perfect for finding specific details for planning applications or car parks.

The ultimate goal, in many cases, is an integrated citizen account experience, where services are not just displayed on a map, but all council data is presented on the user's home page – council tax balance, outstanding fines, doctor appointments, items on loan from the library and when the bins are next going to be collected. This is not a one-way information provision, but should allow for two-way online service consumption by the citizen.

Driving Traffic
Social networking sites are a great way to target younger and niche users. But other digital awareness raising methods still have a role to play as well as off-line communications to help direct local people to the site.

Reducing costs; improving services
Socitm estimates the cost of each customer face-to-face contact at £8.23 and each telephone contact at £3.21.  Meanwhile each web transaction is estimated at a cost of £0.39.  So by converting from face-to-face and telephone contact to web contact, it can be argued that local authorities could save up to 97 per cent of their costs.

Encouraging citizens to engage with a local authority website, and carry out tasks for themselves, will no doubt increase the time and money a local authority can save. Not only that, users will be provided with an improved, faster service; call waiting times will be reduced, leaving more time for contact centres to deal with complex issues, and therefore provides users with a better and more efficient  service.