Window on the world

APPENDIX 1 Home Page Example 1

Home Page Example 2

APPENDIX 2 Customer Knowledge 14/05/2012 14:38:00 - 1 - Data Summary Data requested by Max Vaughan, Birmingham Drug & Alcohol Action Team, on 24

th April 2012.

Information and analysis provided by Customer Knowledge on 15th

May 2012, for internal use. With the exception of the Ipsos Mori data shown below, all data is copyright of Experian 2012. The information used for Smartphone analysis is household level (based on main occupier) - likelihood of Smartphone usage. General Characteristics of a Smartphone User The Ipsos MediaCT Technology Tracker (Quarter 1 2012) gives a recent context at a national level, of online usage: � The proportion of adults accessing the Internet has risen over the last year with 81% of British adults currently using the internet. 90% of those aged 15-24 or from the AB social grade have access to the web. � Smartphone ownership has risen to 42%, with a further 7% of adults surveyed planning to buy one in the next 12 months. 39% now access the internet via their mobile phone. � Social networking is still mainly though PCs/ laptops but mobile usage is rising. Profile of social networking users show: o Facebook: spread across all social grades, 42% own a Smartphone, o Youtube: in high-middle class social grades, 42% own a Smartphone. o Twitter: AB/C1 social grades, 80% own a Smartphone. o LinkedIn: AB Social grade, 72% own a Smartphone. � 17% of the adult population own an iPhone and 14% own a Blackberry. iPhone ownership is highest amongst younger males at 25% whereas Blackberry is more popular with younger females (36%). Customer Knowledge 14/05/2012 14:38:00 - 2 –

Profile of Smartphone Users by Mosaic Public Sector Segment Mosaic Public Sector Segment Group Descriptions Group A: Residents of isolated communities Group B: Residents of small and mid-sized towns with strong local roots Group C: Wealthy people living in the most sought after neighbourhoods Group D: Successful professionals living in suburban or semi-rural homes Group E: Middle income families living in modern suburban semis Group F: Couples with young children in comfortable modern housing Group G: Young, well-educated city dwellers Group H: Couples and young singles in small modern starter homes Group I: Lower income workers in urban terraces in often diverse areas Group J: Owner-occupiers in older style housing in ex-industrial areas Group K: Residents with sufficient incomes in right-to-buy houses Group L: Active eldery people living in pleasant retirement locations Group M: Elderly people relying on state support Group N: Young people renting flats in high density social housing Group O: Families in low-rise social housing with high levels of benefit need

APPENDIX 3 MY BIRMINGHAM PERSONALISED HOMEPAGE Please note that this page is provided purely to reflect content possibilities Example 1

APPENDIX 4 EVENTS MOCK UP

APPENDIX 5 Following content rationalisation, each page would have a footer… CAN’T FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR – Ask Us This would direct customers to a newly designed ‘Contact us’ page, where they can open a live chat with an advisor at the Contact Centre who can answer their query or guide them to the form or page that they are looking for. This is a cost effective way of using Advisors as with web chat they are able to conduct multiple web chats at the same time. (Requires costing)

APPENDIX 6

Mapping options for Birmingham.gov Birmingham.gov needs to be able to make widespread use of postcode search and high quality maps throughout the site to enable better access to services and to provide a more engaging customer experience. Birmingham.gov currently uses ‘Local View’ to provide a ‘Find My Local’ service. Although this does work, the maps are not very good quality and the results cannot be displayed intuitively on local pages, e.g. a map showing the schools in a ward.

• A good ‘Find my nearest’ can make a complicated task much simpler to complete ad will enhance the customer journey

• For around £13,000 per year a new base mapping product could be purchased to

improve the quality of the maps displayed on the web site. The GIS team should be engaged to put together a proposal

• Further work should be carried out by the web and GIS teams to identify

alternative mapping interfaces – Brent in the example below use Google maps

• Work should be prioritised with Service Birmingham to enable local maps to be embedded in web content for local services

• Mapping and find my local content should be more visual from the

Birmingham.gov home page through a ‘My Local’ portal See below a comparison of mapping on the Birmingham.gov and Brent websites. Birmingham.gov Here is the current Birmingham.gov, ‘find my local / post code look up' service, which shows the results from the postcode B73 6UH

Brent Council

Here is an implementation using a better interface and higher quality mapping. The information for each service can be shown directly on the same page, e.g. waste collection day details. In addition when the customer requests something to be displayed on the map, such as planning application, the final map is higher quality

APPENDIX 7 Review of website best practice Socitm Better Connected 2012 is a snapshot review of best practice for all local authority websites. It uses a star ranking system (1–4) and reviews each local authority based on what it considers to be best practice for the year. It includes accessibility and usability and this year was particularly focused on ‘Top Tasks’. There is an element of subjectivity in the report as different reviewers review different sites and also this is what SOCITM think is a good site and not just customers. Customer Service has reviewed all of the 4 star sites and some of the higher rated Core City websites to see where their websites deliver a better customer experience or are using more innovative ideas. Where good ideas or practices have been identified, we plan to do a more in depth review leading to recommended improvements for Birmingham.gov. Many of the findings are already covered with our website improvement plan for 2012/13 including

• Development of an integrated strategy for the whole council web estate • A content Strategy to rationalise and prioritise content and improve access and

user experience • Further developments to the flexibility of the home page and its associated

content • Improvements to how home page content can be populated and delivered, e.g.

through feeds from other web sources. • Segmentation to the main home page to improve navigation and structure and

make the overall experience more tailored to the needs of distinct identified customer groups, such as businesses and visitors

• Mobile website improvements and mobile apps access to top tasks • Personalisation of the home page options – my home page

Sample of good practice amongst Socitm 4 star local authorities Edinburgh.gov.uk

• http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/ • Uses the Jadu Content Management System • Browse the site by Audience / Browse by Topic – similar to our segmented home

page plan • A-Z at top of page above the fold • Mobile App planned to aid people use attractions, specifically parks and

monument information • Local content - ‘In your area’ – same as our ‘My Local Information’, but is

featured more prominently • Have your Say – to include consultations, local issues and contacts

Home Page, use of maps and have your say

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/

Brent

• http://www.brent.gov.uk/ • Excellent access to content through their Mapping software • They have a similar product to find my local, called ‘what’s near me’ a post code

look up for service near by available from the home page • Map based links to planning Applications uses Google maps • Makes use of Feeds from other websites to get their content onto other sites -

http://www.brent.gov.uk/RSS - we want to do that and the reverse to get content such as press releases and events onto the Birmingham.gov site

Cambridgeshire County Council

http://www.brent.gov.uk/

http://www.brent.gov.uk/RSS

• http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/ • High maps presence with lots of layer options • Includes RSS content feeds and Consultations

http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/

Herefordshire

• http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/ • Use of RSS feeds for events plus their own content • A-Z top half of page • Clean design • Top Task focus

http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/

Manchester • http://www.manchester.gov.uk/ • Uses Jadu Content Management System, providing a good clean modular design

of all pages. • My Area prominent on the home page • Fits on a single screen • Uses tabs for Most popular / Make payment / Report a problem, etc • Includes a ‘was this information helpful section’ at the foot of each page

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/

Liverpool City Council

• http://liverpool.gov.uk/ • They have implemented a similar segmentation idea to the one we want to

develop, using Resident, Business, About the Council and Mayor • Use of icons to illustrate activity

http://liverpool.gov.uk/

South Tyneside

• http://www.southtyneside.info/article/167/Home • Very similar to Birmingham.gov but they are a council and community website

although there didn’t seem to be a particular emphasis on community other than a link containing mostly council information

http://www.southtyneside.info/article/167/Home

Merton

• http://www.merton.gov.uk/ • 4* similar links to Birmingham.gov but not as well focused or clear, illustrating

how the SOCITM star system isn’t always consistent

Lewisham

• Flickr account • 'Find my nearest' widget on home page • 'Recently viewed pages' section – automated personalisation • webteam email address on 'contact us' page • 'login/register' link - better call to action than 'my account' • Segmented home page • Large font size - easy to read

http://www.merton.gov.uk/

Kensington and Chelsea

• Govmetric 'smiley/neutral/sad face' rating system • Text size links for users with impaired/poor vision • Locate a service widget on homepage (map icon draws the eye to mapping

section • Uses Google maps • Plain English accredited • Limited number of colours in colour scheme • Social media links visible in middle of the page rather than below the fold

Examples of private sector websites that provide good customer engagement BBC

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/ • Currency of content • Media rich with sound and video from the home page • Engaging with questions ‘Is it worth it?’ • Local News - ties in with localisation • Navigation that scrolls across screens ( see left / right arrows) • Navigation that expands or hides content

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Amazon

• http://www.amazon.co.uk/ • High levels of account functionality and personalisation, tailored content • Sign in for personalisation, recommendations, wish lists • Recommendations are useful, if you’ve used an online service before it will

recommend you use it again • Your recent history – could be useful, making it easy to access the content you

regularly use • What other customers are looking at now feature • Other people who booked an online ‘bulky waste’ also ‘paid their council tax’… • Easy for you to use service – one click transactions • Product reviews – customer reviews are trusted • For another example, see Trip Advisor for the power of customer reviews and

also Facebook login – ties your Trip Advisor Account to Facbook so as you can share experiences / recommendations

http://www.amazon.co.uk/

APPENDIX 1 Home Page Example 1

Home Page Example 2

APPENDIX 2 Customer Knowledge 14/05/2012 14:38:00 - 1 - Data Summary Data requested by Max Vaughan, Birmingham Drug & Alcohol Action Team, on 24

th April

2012. Information and analysis provided by Customer Knowledge on 15

th May 2012, for internal use.

With the exception of the Ipsos Mori data shown below, all data is copyright of Experian 2012. The information used for Smartphone analysis is household level (based on main occupier) - likelihood of Smartphone usage. General Characteristics of a Smartphone User The Ipsos MediaCT Technology Tracker (Quarter 1 2012) gives a recent context at a national level, of online usage: � The proportion of adults accessing the Internet has risen over the last year with 81% of British adults currently using the internet. 90% of those aged 15-24 or from the AB social grade have access to the web. � Smartphone ownership has risen to 42%, with a further 7% of adults surveyed planning to buy one in the next 12 months. 39% now access the internet via their mobile phone. � Social networking is still mainly though PCs/ laptops but mobile usage is rising. Profile of social networking users show: o Facebook: spread across all social grades, 42% own a Smartphone, o Youtube: in high-middle class social grades, 42% own a Smartphone. o Twitter: AB/C1 social grades, 80% own a Smartphone. o LinkedIn: AB Social grade, 72% own a Smartphone. � 17% of the adult population own an iPhone and 14% own a Blackberry. iPhone ownership is highest amongst younger males at 25% whereas Blackberry is more popular with younger females (36%). Customer Knowledge 14/05/2012 14:38:00 - 2 –

Profile of Smartphone Users by Mosaic Public Sector Segment Mosaic Public Sector Segment Group Descriptions Group A: Residents of isolated communities Group B: Residents of small and mid-sized towns with strong local roots Group C: Wealthy people living in the most sought after neighbourhoods Group D: Successful professionals living in suburban or semi-rural homes Group E: Middle income families living in modern suburban semis Group F: Couples with young children in comfortable modern housing Group G: Young, well-educated city dwellers Group H: Couples and young singles in small modern starter homes Group I: Lower income workers in urban terraces in often diverse areas Group J: Owner-occupiers in older style housing in ex-industrial areas Group K: Residents with sufficient incomes in right-to-buy houses Group L: Active eldery people living in pleasant retirement locations Group M: Elderly people relying on state support Group N: Young people renting flats in high density social housing

Group O: Families in low-rise social housing with high levels of benefit need APPENDIX 3 MY BIRMINGHAM PERSONALISED HOMEPAGE Please note that this page is provided purely to reflect content possibilities Example 1

APPENDIX 6

Mapping options for Birmingham.gov Birmingham.gov needs to be able to make widespread use of postcode search and high quality maps throughout the site to enable better access to services and to provide a more engaging customer experience. Birmingham.gov currently uses ‘Local View’ to provide a ‘Find My Local’ service. Although this does work, the maps are not very good quality and the results cannot be displayed intuitively on local pages, e.g. a map showing the schools in a ward.

• A good ‘Find my nearest’ can make a complicated task much simpler to complete ad will enhance the customer journey

• For around £13,000 per year a new base mapping product could be purchased to

improve the quality of the maps displayed on the web site. The GIS team should be engaged to put together a proposal

• Further work should be carried out by the web and GIS teams to identify

alternative mapping interfaces – Brent in the example below use Google maps


• Mapping and find my local content should be more visual from the

Birmingham.gov home page through a ‘My Local’ portal See below a comparison of mapping on the Birmingham.gov and Brent websites. Birmingham.gov Here is the current Birmingham.gov, ‘find my local / post code look up' service, which shows the results from the postcode B73 6UH

Brent Council

Here is an implementation using a better interface and higher quality mapping. The information for each service can be shown directly on the same page, e.g. waste collection day details. In addition when the customer requests something to be displayed on the map, such as planning application, the final map is higher quality















Brent









Herefordshire










South Tyneside




Merton



Lewisham









Amazon






APPENDIX 4 EVENTS MOCK UP

APPENDIX 5 Following content rationalisation, each page would have a footer… CAN’T FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR – Ask Us This would direct customers to a newly designed ‘Contact us’ page, where they can open a live chat with an advisor at the Contact Centre who can answer their query or guide them to the form or page that they are looking for. This is a cost effective way of using Advisors as with web chat they are able to conduct multiple web chats at the same time. (Requires costing)















Brent









Herefordshire










South Tyneside




Merton



Lewisham









Amazon






BIRMINGHAM – A WINDOW TO THE WORLD 1. BACKGROUND The first phase of the Customer First transformation programme went live in 2010. Roll out 1 primarily included those services already in the Contact Centre and Neighbourhood Offices; Council Tax, Housing Benefit, Neighbourhood Offices, Household Waste Management, Fleet and Waste Management and Recruitment. The roll out concentrated heavily on the Face to Face (F2F) and Contact Centre channels (CCC). Although elements of channel shift had been achieved through Self Service, including increased PC use in Neighbourhood Offices, increased activity to the phone, the introduction of self service kiosks and Fleet and Waste Management forms on the web; channel shift to the web has remained low level. However with the advent of social media, the demand for web based and smart phone services and changes to the economic landscape, has resulted in greater focus of the Self Service Channel (SS). These have all added to the urgency to make self service and channel shift work. This report will describe the work undertaken thus far, our plans for the future and the requirements of service areas and corporate support required to deliver the objectives. 2. WHERE WE ARE Web site improvements – phase 1 A number of issues were identified with the old birmingham.gov home page. There was no logical layout, changes were either impossible or cumbersome and it wasn’t suitable for Corporate Communications campaigns. In November 2011, as part of our website improvement plan, Customer Services worked closely with Service Areas to identify the top web tasks and improve the customer journey, including:

• review and editing of previous content to improve the user experience

• a top tasks structured home page using the ‘connecting wall’ to take customers directly to key information and services

• improved and de-cluttered level one landing pages, such as business, tourism, council

• improvements to how customers find information through Google search and the A-Z

The new layout and functionality enables;

• a better flow of information for the customer • more transactions available on line • improve the campaigns experience • enable greater flexibility over home page content. • freshen the design in line with the current corporate brand

Feedback to the changes was positive and website customer satisfaction increased from 72% in June to 79% in November

2.1 Customer Satisfaction Birmingham.gov.uk is continuing to improve in terms of the number of visitors and we are currently averaging 633,924 per month compared with 594,876 in the previous year.

• 13,800 online SOCITM surveys completed by customers last year giving important information to help improve the website

• 76% of customers were satisfied overall with the website • 88% of customers stated they were likely to return to the website. • 83% of customers were satisfied with the look and feel of the website

During April 2011 and March 2012 we received over 7million hits to the website. Net Satisfaction as a comparison with core cities –

Leeds

Manchester

Liverpool

Sheff ield

Bristol

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May

Net

sat

isfa

ctio

n (%

)

Birmingham

2011 2012

Net satisfaction

2011 2012 Star rating

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Leeds 34.00 34.24 31.22 41.27 N/A N/A N/A N/A 3* Manchester 33.74 46.11 40.94 35.91 33.33 27.27 37.72 32.50 4*Liverpool 27.20 46.01 54.01 53.67 45.67 34.60 47.30 46.45 3*Sheffield 40.37 20.64 28.77 29.67 26.94 24.36 27.33 36.88 2*Bristol N/A 24.33 15.56 26.32 32.61 28.70 28.71 34.60 1*Birmingham 31.16 33.24 33.04 27.48 21.68 26.90 30.15 28.89 1*

Outcomes from the grid reveal that Birmingham has on occasion received a high net satisfaction in comparison to other core cities. More work is required to understand why such peaks and troughs exist. Net Satisfaction: = very satisfied plus quite satisfied minus quite dissatisfied and very dissatisfied giving you a net satisfaction rating. In relation to Birmingham, the grid below represents the net satisfaction based on Socitm outcomes with specific sections of the website. Those in pink represent the highest levels of dissatisfaction.

O v e ra ll s a tis fa c tio n s e g m e n te d b y s e rv ic e a re a c o m p a re d to a v e ra g e (2 0 1 1 )

H e a lth

P a rkin g

L ib ra rie s

T ra n

F a m i ly H isto ry

Jo b s

En v H e a lth

R u b b ish

H o u sin g

Ele

C o u n ci lB u sin e ss

P la n n in g

C o u n T a x L e isu re

fa c i l i tie s

Eve n ts

S ch o o ls

A d u ltEd

B u sin e ss

S o c C a re

c R e g

H ig h w a ys

-4 0

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-1 0

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3 0

4 0

Net

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)

One such service area is parking. Parking has been used an example as it has high dissatisfaction and task failure rates, but clear opportunities to reverse this trend. Clearly from the first graph it is evident that Highways, Planning and Transport are also significantly under performing in terms of customer satisfaction.

Overall satisfaction

Parking satisfaction

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M

2011 2012

%

Trendline shows satisfaction is decreasing for customers whose main service interest is 'Parking'

Trendline shows a gradual increase in overall satisfaction with birmingham.gov.uk

Parking – task failures The following represents the information that could not be found

• Unable to find information - 30% car park map; car park charges; overnight parking; contact details; and map of disabled

spaces

• Unable to appeal/pay parking ticket - 30% – unable to find link – 20% – technical issues – 10%

By establishing a more intuitive and interactive mapping system on the site, 30% of parking task failures could be resolved. Customer Services has provided recommendations to rationalise pages, reword content (content should be written to the reading level of a 9 year old). An action plan for implementation has been agreed to resolve these issues. As an example, CS has recommended the use of a more intuitive Google map of city centre council car parks to provide customers with details of charges, disabled spaces, motorbike parking locations etc .This has since been actioned. Customer Service will monitor the satisfaction ratings for these pages and the changes are made. Dissatisfaction that we cannot influence When reviewing levels of dissatisfaction it’s important to note the outcomes that are beyond our control. For instance ‘Recruitment’. A service of significant demand; which has one of the highest dissatisfaction rates. If you were to take the statistics as face value ‘task failure, couldn’t find what I was looking’, the conclusion would be pretty damning. UNTIL you review the free format comments from customers that sit alongside this statistic. “ There were no jobs available”. Obviously this is not a task failure as it first appears but dissatisfaction with the outcome of the search. 2.2 Best Practice Website Review Customer Services has undertaken a website review of a number of local authority websites including Liverpool and Manchester. Both of these sites are rated 4* with Socitm. From the grid above, Birmingham has in some months, had a higher net satisfaction level than a number of the 4* sites. Birmingham has consistently achieved a higher net satisfaction rate than Lewisham, another 4* site. Customer Services has identified a number of ‘best practice’ elements from each site that we would like to include as part of our own website redesign. However we have clearly evidenced that emulating a 4* site is not necessarily the appropriate course of action, but to emulate the sites with the highest net ratings such as Liverpool and Manchester. Please see Appendix 7 for the outcome of this review. Your Views Level 4 complaints compliments commentsBCC Website Access Issue 19 10 34BCC Website Broken Links 11 1 24BCC Website Content Issue 25 31 97BCC Website Incorrect Information 12 6BCC Website Payment Issue 7 2 10BCC Website Search Issue 2 3Self Service Account Issues 20 11

During April 2011 – March 2012 the total vsits to the web site was 7,213,907. Complaints as a percentage of the total equates to 0.004% 2.3 WORDPRESS – doing it in house, better In 2011/12 we introduced a new service to the council, which we call 'web in a box'. If a service area has a genuine business requirement for external website functionality that cannot be met by the Fatwire web content

management system (CMS), rather than having to go to an expensive external multimedia agency, we provide a cost effective in-house option using the Wordpress CMS. The Wordpress sites created in-house so far, including the property.birmingham.gov.uk website, have saved the council over £30,000. External sites have been set up that have not gone through Customer Services and do not use Wordpress and it is these that are not consistent with the BCC branding Customer Services need to act as the central point of contact for all decisions on new websites which will consider the best approach i.e. Fatwire, Wordpress or an external provider and will advise on quality and consistency. At some point in the future a decision needs to be made about all external websites and whether to bring them back into the main site or to leave them external but review the branding and consistency. 2.4 IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF OUR WEBSITE - MY WORK SCREEN Around 100 items of BCC web content are updated daily. In order to improve the quality and consistency of web content, an inbox - ‘my work screen’ – is being developed in Fatwire, to allow the web team to review all web content before publishing. This is essential in maintaining the integrity of the site. Customer Services continue to work Service Birmingham in the delivery of this functionality 2.5 SOCIAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT In the Better Connected 2012 Socitm review of local government websites, BCC was singled out for being the leader in the field of local government social media activity, with the highest number of active social media accounts and followers. Our social media innovations this year include:

• the corporate Twitter accounts @BhamCityCouncil and @BCCDisruption

• corporate Facebook pages at facebook.com/birminghamcitycouncil

• resurrecting the Social Media Working Group to enable cross directorate collaboration

• providing a daily monitored service for outward communications, community engagement, assisting customers enquiries and promoting channel shift opportunities

At present BCC has approximately 60 official social media Sites. These sites are independently managed by each service area or directorate. In 2011, Ofcom estimated that the number of people in the UK owning a smart phone doubled between 2010 and August 2011, and that 27% of adults and 47% of teenagers have smart phones. They also found that in 2011 the percentage of people in the UK using the internet on their smart phone rose in all age groups, with the biggest rise in the last 12 months being people aged 55 or over. Consideration is required for a more strategic, coordinated approach towards the use of social media in Birmingham. CMT Report ‘Social Media and BCC’ dated 15th May 2012, deals with this issue.

2.6 CUSTOMER ON LINE ACCOUNT There are currently over 30,000 BCC online customer accounts, we have seen a steady increase in registration from 788 registrations in September to 1947 in March. This process enables customers, through a registration process to report, track and escalate their service requests. With the introduction of the ‘My housing’ page in Roll out 3+ we would expect to see this increase dramatically. Each new letting for a council property will be required to sign up for this on line service, to enable back office efficiencies to be made with the Landlord Services Section of H&N. A number of registrations are dormant or used very little; we need to better understand why. This inactivity could be as a result of functionality, content, service failure. Reputationally this is damaging. Customer Service will establish customer focus groups to undertake root cause analysis and consider ways to better promote this service. 2.7 MOBILE WEBSITE In response to changing mobile technology and suggestions from customers, in November 2011 we launched a mobile friendly version of the website. The mobile site offers one tap access to the main channel shift areas and an easy to read version of all the content on the website. The team are currently working with Customer First and Service Birmingham on providing access to our online forms through a mobile application. A report of the BCC Customer Knowledge Team, initiated by Max Vaughan, Birmingham Drug & Alcohol Action Team, dated 24

th April

2012 summarises that: Segment G (Young, well-educated city dwellers) has by far the largest proportion of users. Segment G users are located in a cluster around Ladywood, Harborne, Selly Oak, and Moseley. Income, and therefore socioeconomic grade, appears to have no strong relation to a high likelihood of Smart phone usage. All segments have some people who are Smart phone users but the proportions vary dramatically. Please see Appendix 2 for the full data relating to the Ipsos MediaCT Technology Tracker (Quarter 1 2012) which provides recent context at a national level, of online usage. 2.8 MOBILE APPLICATIONS In terms of Mobile applications – Customer Services will deliver forms online, based on CRM statistics as the most requested services in the Contact Centre.

Form - Special Waste Collections – Large items Form - Missed waste/recycling collection Form - Waste/recycling: Bag/box/container problems Form - Public Health –Pest Control Domestic Form - Waste bag/box/container: New occupier Form – Fly tipping removal Form - Pavement and road surface defects Form - Street lighting and street name signs Form - Street cleaning

A project team has been established, that will implement mobile apps in several phases. Phase 1 of the project is to produce an iPhone application to allow users to "find their nearest". This phase will be delivered within July 2012.

Phase 2 will review the outcomes of Phase 1 and allow users to request the above services. Of the 550k calls to the Contact Centre requesting information, it is anticipated that 230k enquiries could be resolved by a mobile application. Mobile apps have been developed in other areas of the city and have been successful, for example, Environment and Culture have developed:-

1. A ‘Did You Know’ app for Adults and Communities, released 30 July 2010: 4199 downloads

2. Trampoline & Tumbling, to promote World Championships at Birmingham NIA, 17-27

November 2011: 1551 downloads (the app only came out 1 week before the event). Phase 3 will involve a Customer Services review, of both take up and outcomes, of existing mobile applications used across LAs and private sector. This would identify best practice and enable us to seek opportunities to further expand activity in this field. 2.9 CHANNEL SHIFT Customer Relationship Management (CRM)is the City’s preferred method of collecting, collating and reporting data. Advantages of CRM include:

• Using the BI solution we have a cross channel view of transactional data so we are able to view web, face to face, contact centre and back office. All of the information is logged in one place with a single version of the truth.

• The ability to track the end to end delivery of service from initial contact to service delivery. We are able to monitor performance of back office staff at any point in time and tis is also visible to Customers who use their online account.

• We are able to use CRM to map by location service requests. We have the ability to report on volumes/performance of service delivery by District, street and post code.

• We are able to track appointment requests from request through to the appointment taking place within the Face to Face Channel. We can report on waiting times, whether appointments started & were completed on-time.

• As we now have a customer record we are able to link with the Customer Knowledge team to produce customer segmentation reports. We can map the demographics of our customers on heat maps and use this information to plan future service delivery.

• We are able to track the route in which calls have taken through the call centre and the resulting service ticket. This information can then be used to propose new IVR's and reduce costs accordingly.

• We are able to use the Your Views Complaints system to track complaints about a specific process or service. Using the MI the service area can identify the root cause and make necessary changes to reduce complaints moving forward.

Channel Shift to Self Service Achieved - Financial Year View

Service 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

End State

Target

End State Month

Fleet and Waste 14% 17% 27% 50% Jun-12 Parks 6% 14% 15% 60% Dec-12 Highways 11% 11% 16% 30% Mar-13 Environmental Health 7% 9% 16% 30% Mar-13 Community Safety Partnership (ASB) 11% 8% 13% 40% Jun-12 Constituency Engineers 2% 2% 4% 20% Mar-13 Housing Repairs 1% 1% 1% 10% Jun-12 Overall 6% 7% 10%

Both Planning & Parking utilise separate online functionality external to the CRM system* At present, Housing Repairs has limited online functionality. Customer Service is working with the Housing Department to remedy this. Revenues, Switchboard & Recruitment have no online CRM functionality. EBENEFITS – although not reported through CRM, we have seen overwhelming channel shift success for Ebenefits. Firstly we shifted Housing and Council Tax Benefit claims to an electronic based system, improving the number of days to pay a claim from 22 to 8 days; while simultaneously channel shifting making a claim to the Contact Centre. The outcome has remained steady with over 80% of all claims being made at the Contact Centre. We have commenced phase 3 of the project, in moving this work from the Contact Centre to online. *Customer Services requires access to these and other external sites to report on channel shift outcomes for the city. Please note this is based upon service tickets raised within CRM.

Graph to Show Channel Shift By Service - Financial Year Comparison

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

Fleet and Waste Parks

Highw ays Environmental Health

Community Safety Partnership (ASB) Constituency Engineers

Housing Repairs Overall

Devolving budgets to service areas had seen an increase in interaction with Customer Services. There are action plans in place with each service which have plans in place for increasing channel shift. The responsibilities for achieving this are a combination of Service Area, Customer Services, Contact Centre and Neighbourhood Offices. Corporate Communications Team are required to embed this ethos into the organisation. There is now an element of accountability that was previously lacking. Customer Service is working to achieve at least a 50% reduction in the number of pages on the website, taking opportunities to merge content and delete pages, whilst ensuring, based on customer feedback that we create pages of interest for customers that will increase their willingness to return to the site. 2.10 CONTENT RATIONALISATION Customer Services has commenced a plan to rationalise the web pages. It is our intention to rationalise the site by at least 50% by March 2013. We currently have over 9k pages on .GOV. In order to inform this process, Customer Services has commenced a review of free format comments associated with the online user survey data provided by Socitm. It is clear from this review that the majority of complaints are about content rather than web functionality.

As an example, Environmental Health, (as shown on the right) have had their pages improved through

• re-focusing on customer content • important content prioritised and redundant content removed • landing pages re-designed giving them a brighter modern feel • one click access to the most important customer information to

help enable channel shift. There has been an increase in positive comments and the number of visits since the changes. The rationalisation review, which commenced during 2011 includes work in the following areas:-

• content inventory in terms of amount of pages and use of plain

English • ROT analysis of content • Ensuring that the prose reflects customer understanding – • Meet with service area to agree changes and allocate

responsibilities • Delete redundant and trivial content • Rewrite remaining content to improve usability • Re-engineer and simplify navigation to improve the customer

journey • Monitor survey feedback to gauge improvements

We will engage with service areas and users to inform this process. 11. Governance In February 2012, the existing Web Governance Board approved a number of key documents at web services strategy group, helping us to manage the web service more effectively, including:

• Governance Improvements document (available at http://inline/webcoordinators ), which shows how web content is managed within the council and with roles and responsibilities of the key people in each service area.

• Web Service Strategy Group Terms of Reference • Web Creation Process – document that defines the process for a service area to create

web sites or functionality through the web team Further considerations now exist, which are covered in the second section of the report

http://inline/webcoordinators

MOVING FORWARD 2012+ 1. FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS TO WEB BASED SERVICES 1.1 Improvements to the Home Page

• Segmentation to the main home page to improve navigation and structure and make the overall experience more tailored to the needs of distinct identified customer groups, such as businesses and visitors. See Appendix 1 for recommendations

• improvements to the home page, such as news and event feeds from other web sources • Further developments to the flexibility of the home page and its associated content

including intuitive and interactive aspects of the best practice and exemplar review • Improvements to how home page content can be populated and delivered, e.g. through

feeds from other web sources. • Consultation and engagement with services and users

The key features of an improved page, based on best practice are:

• Segment Tabs for Residential | Business| Visitors | My Local | Council • Each Segment will be its own home page, but with a consistent look and feel, the default

will be the Resident tab • Key site level navigation clearly available from home page and each segment page A-Z |

Search | Topics | Most popular • Key relevant corporate and local features available from the home and each segment

page, e.g. Campaigns | Features| News | Events Popular | Topics | Social Media • Level 2 navigation for each segment is available with either direct link or slide down layer

options over the feature panel to allow more content options from the home page • Feedback and engagement orientated with Rate My Site | Have Your Say | Social Media

options on all pages • Each of the content panels can have slide or scroll options to provide additional content

where necessary • The design principles are influenced by leading Socitm 4 star designs and popular private

sector sites such as the BBC

1.2 Create ‘My Birmingham’ Page Provides a personalised landing page when visiting the site. Customer will be able to access their on line account, add local events page (drawn in from Events pages), local Councillor and District Contact details etc. This page will support our local agenda, empowering customers to engage with the city.

• Personalisation of the home page options – my home page (see appendix 3) for residents and businesses

• Providing access to District Information, my local … • Consultation and engagement with services and users • Links to work currently being piloted by Digital Birmingham (Digital Log Book) and the On

Line Account 1.3 Create ‘Ask Us’ page When customers have searched and cannot find the information they require, instead of making a landline call to the Contact Centre, customers can link up to a live chat for assistance.

• Delivery of a live chat page to ‘Ask Us’ if customers cannot find what they are looking for. See Appendix 5

1.4 Create a ‘Districts’ Page

• My local post code search or search by topic • Link to my Councillor / My district • District committees would be able to determine the kind of information that they would

want to see on their page

• A personalisation option that will display a top 10 list of events the in customers area e.g. Hall Green.

• Customers able to upload information and posters for local events and activities i.e. carnival or jumble sale

• Have your say blog linked to social media 1.5 Refresh the ‘Events’ Page Creating a more interactive and intuitive interaction for customers (see appendix 4)

• The events site will provide residents and visitors a comprehensive list of events within Birmingham.

• Events will range from major BCC lead events, large commercial events e.g. Royal ballet, and small local events run by local groups and individuals for example charity jumble sales.

• All events including the smallest can be submitted on line and once checked will appear in the main listing. The listings can be searched, by type, location and date to find events local to the customer.

• Customers visiting the events can also comment via twitter and can also review and rate them via Trip Advisor.

• Content from other sites can be syndicated into the events listings. Providing a one stop shop for all events and activities in Birmingham.

1.6 Review Existing Forms The majority of forms have been active for a couple of years now and the learning’s we have gained from customers and advisors means that we are now in a better position to be able to look at functionality, questions asked in Eforms, usability etc in order to improve the user experience and make them more efficient. This will also have a beneficial effect on average handling times in the CC.

• Customer Service will undertake a review of existing forms. Service areas are keen to undertake this review

• Improve functionality • More intuitive forms • Work with Customer First and Service areas in the delivery of new forms in line with other

projects such as Mobile Applications 1.7 Review Mobile Applications

• Review of existing mobile applications across LAs and private sector. • Establish best practice and enable us to seek opportunities to further expand activity in

this field. 1.8 Identify Advertising Opportunities Advertising opportunities could be tailored to suit the page. For instance leisure pages, could have sports equipments providers. Parks could have garden furniture etc. Local Companies could have their own pages.

• Support and seek opportunities for advertising

We would retain a specialist company to work with us and advise on the development and implementation of the whole web strategy and potentially that could be funded from advertising revenue. 1.9 Customer Consultation

• Establish and Communication and Engagement Strategy • Establish internal and external customer focus groups.

2. GOVERNANCE Although strides have been made this year in establishing Governance, changes are now required. In order to full coordinate Corporate Activities, this group should be expanded to include all key stakeholders in the delivery of web/internet activities. A further change required involves the existing 300 Web editors. Customer Services requires the reduction of part time web editors. Currently the system is unwieldy in that content is written and published without any degree of sign off to ensure standards of quality and consistency, leading to further customer complaint. Web Editors are not fully trained and do not always (mostly unknowingly) that their content does not comply with Equalities legislation. Customer Services would replace the same with 20 full time skilled web communications officers, reporting to Service Areas, as account managers with a dotted line reporting into Customer Service. This would create a pool of highly skilled staff able to ensure that the highest possible level of quality is achieved and be responsive to the needs of the City and its customers. Provide comprehensive training and support to web communications officers 3. MAPPING OPTIONS FOR BIRMINGHAM.GOV As has been evidenced within Parking task failure reporting; in order to improve the customer experience and improve net satisfaction, Birmingham.gov needs to be able to make widespread use of postcode search and high quality maps throughout the site to enable better access to services and to provide a more engaging customer experience. Birmingham.gov currently uses ‘Local View’ to provide a ‘Find My Local’ service. Although this does work, the maps are not very good quality and the results cannot be displayed intuitively on local pages, e.g. a map showing the schools in a ward.

• A good ‘Find my nearest’ can make a complicated task much simpler to complete and will enhance the customer journey

• We recommend that a new base mapping product be purchased at a cost of £13,000 to

improve the quality of maps displayed on the web site. The GIS team should be engaged to put together a proposal

• Further work should be carried out by the web and GIS teams to identify alternative

mapping interfaces


• Mapping and find my local content should be more visual from the Birmingham.gov home

page through a ‘My Local’ portal See Appendix 6 for a comparison of mapping on the Birmingham.gov and Brent websites. 4. DIGITAL BIRMINGHAM Digital Birmingham is leading a number of projects that improve internet accessibility. These include: Smart City - linking information, communication technologies and infrastructure systems to provide intelligent and holistic services for citizens and businesses. Customer Services are a key stakeholder in this activity and will support the delivery of Smart City Commission and Digital Economy Catapult Centre including the scoping activities and delivery of strategies.

Birmingham Digital Connectivity Programme Customer Services can provide customer based statistics to support the continued delivery of both wired and wireless broadband in establishing next generation networks; including: The ‘Digital Districts’ programme of ultra fast broadband connectivity commencing in Digbeth; Eastside and the Jewellery Quarter. Complementing this is the development of city wide next generation high speed wireless technologies. This programme places a strong emphasis on the need for creativity in tackling digital and social inclusion. GO ON Birmingham Campaign, seeking staff suppliers and partners to become Digital Champions. Customer Services staff are champions and will work with Digital Birmingham to get friends, colleagues and relatives on line. Customer Services Training Academy are able to provide district based upskilling sessions for customers IDTV - Since records began in 2006 the average number of hits to the Birmingham pages of the site is 15k per week. (Hits is the total number of pages searched). The number of sessions commenced average 700 per week. This is relatively low level activity for Birmingham, although there is increased activity within the other microsites such as direct.gov. Customer Service would welcome a comprehensive review of functionality of IDTV to consider further channel shift opportunities, i.e. information for people who are visiting Birmingham Digital Birmingham are working on a number of strategic channel shift considerations including:

o Advising on the use of social media and developing policy to address its use for civic engagement and as a social cohesion tool

o Managing the developing of Birmingham’s Looking Local TV channel that provides a more familiar vehicle for many to access city information.

o Strategic policy exploring channel shift development of mobile apps and other tools such as the online property log book to support other city initiatives.

There are a number of departments within BCC involved in developing the online experience and the activities need to be better co-ordinated to ensure that there is a comprehensive strategy and clarity regarding roles and responsibilities. It is recommended that this is governed via the Web Governance Board. These activities need to be coordinated. It is clear that the Digital log Book currently being piloted overlaps projects being developed by Customer Service i.e. My Birmingham page and work that is cutting across the on line account. 5. OTHER DELIVERY PLATFORMS – KIOSKS BCC is progressive in their channel shift activity and wishes to move as many of its customers to online service access. Kiosks are used in Neighbourhood offices at present to enable customers to self check in. At the part time offices, this has resulted in staffing efficiencies, which has negated the need for a receptionist, for our Customer Service Centres, this negates the need to queue when visiting for a pre booked appointment In order to provide access to web based services in a central location, Customer Service are working with CF Programme to deliver a kiosk in the Council House Foyer.

6. PROTOCOLS, STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES In order to support delivery of the rationalisation and improvement plan, standards, protocols and Strategies will be required. The Web Governance Board will be responsible for ratifying the standards and protocols and Customer Services will be responsible for ensuring that the standards are enforced. The documents will include: Channel Shift Strategy Governance Look and feel Content Quality – use of Plain English Use of icons Usability; Accessibility Use of mapping and relation software Also, in working collaboratively with Corporate Communications, agreed standards in regard to Branding, marketing and advertising

Window on the world

Documents

houses group

neighbourhoods group

smartphone usage

smartphone analysis

smartphone ownership

diverse areas group

exindustrial areas group

state support group