Agenda item

To consider an update on the Customer Excellence Programme including progress on developing an improved WBC website.

The Committee considered a presentation on the Customer Excellence Programme, set out at Agenda pages 27 to 34. Jackie Whitney and Sarah Zama attended the meeting to give the presentation and answer Member questions.

The presentation gave details of the aims of the Council’s Customer Excellence Programme. These included:

·           Customer experience – improved and consistent customer experience across services and ownership to be organisation-wide;

·           WBC Website – new website which centred on the needs of customers;

·           Customer Data & Insight – customer insight used proactively as part of a customer-centric strategy to drive continuous improvement across WBC;

·           Customer Journey Management – easy access to services for all, focussed on customer need. Clear organisation-wide accountability for the success of customer journeys.

The presentation highlighted a number of activities over the next 3-6 months, including:

·           bringing together Customer Excellence with the Community and Partnership Organisational Foundation Programme;

·           developing Customer Experience key performance indicators, e.g. a service reporting dashboard for Housing;

·           new website – design and develop new pages for the corporate website and six service-specific sites (to launch in July 2023);

·           new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system – review existing digital customer journeys and build improved journeys (to launch in spring 2024);

·           Customer Strategy – public consultation with a view to launch in early summer 2023 (report to the Executive in March 2023);

·           customer journey mapping – Children’s Services (SEND), Council Tax and Digital journeys ready for new CRM development;

·           Library Offer – outputs of discovery phase and engagement with library teams/customers to inform a Community Strategy during 2023.

In the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points:

In relation to customer accessibility, what steps were being taken to maximise the use of plain English in WBC services and publications? It was confirmed that three key principles were being applied: Care, Clarity and Confidence. Officers were working with CLASP to review the Council’s communications with residents. The new Customer Charter was due to be launched in the summer of 2023.

In relation to the new website, it was important to ensure that map-based pages were kept up to date.

As with all IT projects, there was a risk of project failure. If the project failed, was there a recovery plan? If the project was a success, would it raise expectations in terms of additional resources? Officers confirmed that the risk of failure was mitigated by the strength of the team working on the project.

Were there safeguards in place to control the sharing of confidential data? It was confirmed that safeguards were built into the CRM system to ensure oversight of any privacy issues.

Was the system operationally critical? What safeguards were there in case of system failure? Officers confirmed that the CRM system was not the system used by WBC. For example, Social Care and Planning had their own systems. The new system would deal with high volume enquiries such as waste and recycling.

How had the voice of WBC staff been incorporated into the development of the new system? It was confirmed that staff workshops had been held together with customer mapping exercises.

RESOLVED That:

1)     Jackie Whitney and Sarah Zama be thanked for attending the meeting to give the presentation and answer Member questions;

2)     Further updates on the Customer Excellence Programme be submitted to the Committee in due course;

3)     The draft Customer Excellence Strategy be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee on 15 March 2023.