The Head of Business Improvement has submitted a report to seek approval of the Customer Experience Strategy which provides the Council with a clear vision for the future state of customer and digital engagement and the technology required to support achieving the vision.

Recommendations: That Cabinet resolves to:

1.    Approve the Customer Experience Strategy and Action Plan 2019/22 at appendix 1 of the report; and

2.    Note and approve the Public Customer Experience Strategy 2019/22 Summary at appendix 2 of the report.

The Head of Business Improvement had submitted a report to seek approval of the Customer Experience Strategy which provides the Council with a clear vision for the future state of customer and digital engagement and the technology required to support achieving the vision.

Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Customer Facing Services, introduced the report. Customers have increasingly high expectations of their engagement with the Council.  The strategy represented an important step to becoming more “slick and professional” and included important elements to build staff skills and capabilities.  It was important to recognise that digital technology was  an enabler and not an end in itself as was the importance of ensuring that those without access to digital technology were not disenfranchised.

Rocco Labellarte, Chief Technology and Information Officer, said the strategy would replace three, separate, previous strategies. As the effectiveness and efficiency of day to day engagement with the Council improves through application of the strategy, so it would release the capacity of staff to deal with more complex and challenging cases. The last two years had seen a great improvement in the basic IT infrastructure of the Council and it was well placed to proceed with this strategy.

In response to a question about the quality of the digitisation of some planning material, he said that where large quantities of material had to be digitised a balance had to be struck between the pace and quality. Poor quality would be addressed as part of an iterative improvement process over time.

Cabinet resolved to:

1.    Approve the Customer Experience Strategy and Action Plan 2019/22 at appendix 1 of the report; and

2.    Note and approve the Public Customer Experience Strategy 2019/22 Summary at appendix 2 of the report.

At its meeting on 12 February, Cabinet will consider a report on the Customer Experience Strategy. This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the report and make such recommendations to the Cabinet as it wishes. The report will be presented by Cllr Nigel Chapman and Helen Bishop,  Head of Business Improvement.

Councillors Bely-Summers and Arshad joined the meeting during this item.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Customer Focussed Services, introduced the report. People increasingly expected higher standards of customer engagement. The proposals in this report would contribute to that. Customer feedback showed that face to face engagement with Council staff was rated very highly. Digital engagement, however, was rated very poorly by comparison. The proposals sought to address that weakness in particular. The enhanced digital offer would not replace but run in parallel with existing services. Digital services were, generally, more economical to provide than face to face. The Council continued to invest in significant improvements to the  technological infrastructure, necessary to support the strategy. The Strategy was complemented by a robust action plan.

Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement, drew attention to the considerable consultation which had contributed to the development of the strategy, as outlined in the report.

In discussion the following matters were raised or discussed among others, some of which ranged beyond the scope of the strategy.

·         The use of the term ‘Customers’ in the strategy was considered, on balance, to be appropriate in the absence of a better alternative. The term embraced the very wide range of those for whom the Council provides a service.

·         KPIs for the strategy would include: making the £465k of efficiencies described in the report; seeing an improvement in customer satisfaction with their digital engagement with the Council; and an increase in the number of people using digital from the current 40% current rate

·         It was noted that there was currently no comparable strategy for the Council’s companies

·         There would be value in seeing a breakdown of customers’ satisfaction by type (eg business/ individual) which would assist in knowing where best to devote resources for improvement.

·         Data about digital access to services would identify ‘hot spots’ and also inform future decisions about deployment of resources

·         The need to continue to provide non-digital services for members of the community who did not, for whatever reason, have access to  digital services should, perhaps, be challenged. The vast majority did have access and it was counter intuitive (and expensive) to continue to provide non-digital services for an increasingly small proportion of the population whose needs might, perhaps,  be dealt with more economically, in a different and bespoke way.

·         While some interactions with the Council could be more swiftly and effectively dealt with digitally, experience showed that face to face engagement was often necessary or desirable where customers faced more complex or intractable problems.

·         Staff who deal with customers face to face in relation to straightforward matters could, as a matter of course,  advocate the use of digital enquiries in future (where the facility exists). Staff could also use the opportunity to alert customers to any Council consultations which might be underway at that time.

·         The Council’s website was being updated to take account of new guidance about accessibility

·          Thought might be given to monitoring the effectiveness of digital  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79