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Improving the access and availability of information available on council websites could just help lower costs and reduce the need for people to have direct contact with their local authority, writes Dermott Calpin Councils could make major savings by having rather less to do with the people they serve. That is at least one of the key messages to emerge from a new research study from Socitm Insight, the local government information technology and communications organisation. Research for its Better served report concludes that councils should concentrate on developing a ‘digital default' for access to services and information and, wherever possible, reduce avoidable direct personal contact with residents by reorganising the way they deal with public inquiries. It recommends that wherever possible, all front office contact with customers – whether face-to-face, by phone, e-mail or letter – should be brought under a more centralised management framework which can secure an enhanced standard level of service by improving and making better use of council websites. Reducing ‘avoidable contacts' and the need for customers to contact the council directly by providing better access to good-quality information is seen as critical to the digital default strategy. Dermott Calpin: ‘ Savings can be made by simply reducing the volume of phone calls and face-to-face queries '. (Pic: Shutterstock/Dedugan) But Socitm also calls for greater efficiency in handling personal contacts to resolve queries speedily, with better-trained, more professional staff helping move customer services away from relatively-high, cost-to-serve channels such as phone, mail or face-to-face queries. Where, traditionally, planning, housing, education, social services and other local authority departments have dealt with their own customers, the study suggests that costs can be reduced and services improved by developing a more central system of customer contact. Although it acknowledges that recent moves to improve efficiency by splitting front and back-office management tasks have helped drive efficiency, researchers also found most interaction with customers was confined to individual departments and covered only part of the full range of information and services available from councils. Socitm found few councils currently able to produce comprehensive customer inquiry data, with widespread variation in the way councils recorded and monitored customer contact, and the study suggests they will be unable to secure significant savings or identify strategies for service improvement until they have better-quality information. Where data does exist, Socitm's Channel Value Benchmarking service found one unitary council which received just 0.24 face-to-face contacts per head of its population, while another unitary was recording some 1.76 contacts per head. Differences in spending based just on face-to-face contact with customers varied from between £1.80p to £13 per head of population, with the average costs running at a hefty £7.40p. Even just a 50% reduction in face-to-face customer contacts could help save the higher-cost council some £1.6m a year. The report author, Vicky Sargent, believes councils still have much to learn when it comes to customer services and stresses. She says: ‘It is impossible to benchmark services unless one has accurate data on how they are being run, and then make the best-possible use of that information. ‘Simple savings can be made by simply reducing the volume of phone calls and face-to-face queries that one has to deal with, but real, long-term gains can be made by improving the range and quality of information that is easily available to people, and making sure they can find it quickly and easily.' She is equally clear that real, long-term savings are unlikely while too many council websites are less than excellent, and says that latest data from Socitm's website ‘take-up' service shows that, currently, between 8% and 35% of all web inquiries to council websites fail. These finding are echoed in the organisation's annual Better connected survey of all council websites which found some 22% of all visits to council websites failed completely, and concludes: ‘Most councils are still to recognise that digital delivery is faster and more convenient for the public as well as cheaper for the taxpayer.' Only nine councils – Brighton and Hove City, Bristol City, East Sussex CC, Eden DC, Edinburgh City, Lewisham LBC, Richmond upon Thames RLBC, Salford City and Surrey Heath DC – achieve the survey's top, four-star rating, and it urges councils to take action to reduce visit failures, and make access to information more open to mobile and online users by making greater use of social media and neighbourhood websites. Socitm's president, Jos Creese, says: ‘The web is no longer about technology. It is about delivering lower-cost services designed around the user. Any public service organisation which is not fully integrating the potential of web delivery in financial and customer service strategies is likely to be under-performing in both areas.' It is an emphasis backed by the chair of Consumer Focus, Christine Farnish,

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WHITEHALL

Why less is more

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