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2/21/2016 From concept to reality – delivering the best experience by design | Advertorial | Local Government Chronicle

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From concept to reality – delivering the bestexperience by design18 June, 2015 By James Neill

First, tentative steps were taken in cutting waste to help maintain servicesfor the public.

Then, the first murmurings of channelshift marked the arrival of a more convincingand collective effort to maximise cost efficiencies while protecting frontlineservices. New technologies and new working practices then began to surface intown halls across the land as many local authorities edged away from conventionand – often with the help of experienced partners – prepared to embrace serviceand operational transformation on an unprecedented scale. Whatever yourviewpoint and whatever your role, austerity has had a huge impact on the wayeveryone goes about their business.

Austerity has certainly forced a faceup to inertia and opened eyes but there havebeen differences between the starting points and priorities of every local authorityand the experience has not been restricted to a oneoff ride on the austerity rollercoaster. It has been an evolutionary experience that continues to evolve anddevelop within every local authority and in practically every other corner of publicservices.

Councils may be at different stages along the evolutionary cycle and, for some,painful decisions still need to be taken but I believe the evolution is showing signsthat it has now gone full circle. We are now moving away from a purely financialimperative and back to the core premise of providing the best possible service forour local communities. The guiding light is now very much a case of ‘citizenexperience’.

This is not just a consequence of austerity. It also reflects the changing dynamicsand expectations of today’s society, new mobile technologies, the rise of socialmedia and the burgeoning opportunities for online interactions.



Now we’re not just talking about customer satisfaction at a particular moment intime. We’re not talking about different channels and the accessibility of services.We’re not even talking about codesign of services, the key touchpoints when acitizen interacts with a local authority, or a fixed target on which to set our sights.Rather, we’re talking about all of these attributes as well as the cumulative effect ofeverything else that can influence the different experiences of all individuals andthe type of relationship and emotional connection – actual and perceived – thatthey have with their local councils.

Put simply, we’re now focusing on what matters most. Bringing customerexperience to the fore, we’re listening and responding to the real recipients ofservices and demonstrating our commitment to provide citizens with what theyneed, when and where they need it, how they want it. It means we’re doing thingsin a way that delivers the best opportunity for positive outcomes and greatexperiences.

It’s a significant shift of emphasis. To achieve it a council needs to develop theright operational model that will provide a better understanding of citizen needs. It’sthis knowledge and insight that enables a local authority to take decisions from aposition of strength – ensuring the right steps are taken to provide a sustainableand effective solution for meeting those needs within an everreducing budgetenvelope. It also creates the scope for much more intelligent application ofpreventative services. And it’s here that the new opportunities lie for developing amore flexible delivery platform – one that can provide more responsive and easierforms of interaction for citizens, flex to accommodate changes in demand andpriorities while also improving the targeting of investment in community bodies.

This developing focus on citizen experience is fuelling a new strategic, and moremature, mindset where the emphasis is on reducing demand, increasing selfservice, facilitating channel shift, increasing query and transaction resolution at thefirst point of contact, and minimising avoidable contacts. The new focus is alsohelping to inform other deliverables and operational factors such as ongoingservice transformation, the adoption of new digital capabilities, new customerservice initiatives and the way a local authority interacts with its strategic partnersand the voluntary sector.

That’s not all. It’s also helping local authorities to address a major shortcoming ofearlier delivery models. While a citizen may have been pleased with the ease withwhich a benefits transaction was completed, their experience of delays andcontradictions in the processing of a planning application might be far less positive.As a result their overall experience would be seriously undermined. A strategy thatis citizencentric from the outset will help to overcome such operationaldiscrepancies and departmental silos so that it’s possible to develop and deliverconsistency and seamless quality across all service areas, irrespective of serviceprovider.



Only by truly understanding the motivations, preferences, behaviours andaspirations of citizens can definitive moves be made to deliver the best possibleexperience for them. Of course, this can be quite a challenge but it’s a challengethat’s well worth the effort as the benefits are far reaching. The starting point is toget to grips with the local demographics, using MOSAIC data for example, todevelop an accurate segmentation of households and individuals coveringresidents, visitors, businesses and other groups. The key segments can beidentified and analysed to determine insights such as geographical locations of thedifferent population segments, age profiles, ethnicity and language as well asaccess and use of the internet.

Direct citizen feedback and behavioural patterns can then be overlaid on this datato create a multilayered and comprehensive picture to define, for example, thedesire, demand, willingness and ability to engage through eservices. Developingpersonas to animate the raw segmentation data is a very effective way to create aclear and single view of the citizen and really draw out the respective needs, goalsand likely behaviours. Such an approach also enables a Council to explore thepotential and viability of new processes and opportunities for servicetransformation and redesign. This creates the opportunity to divert demand to themost costeffective engagement channels – including community provided servicesand third parties – which will help to optimise selfservice and, significantly, alsohelp to target the most appropriate preventative services.

This all adds up to a much more dynamic and progressive approach to servicedelivery where the citizen is truly at the heart of everything and driving significantcost efficiencies. It’s not a oneoff exercise, though. Nothing stands still. Socioeconomic profiles are constantly shifting in tandem with changing behaviours andtechnological advances. So the focus on customer experience really has to befounded on constantly updated and expansive citizen intelligence.

Importantly, this customer centric model lights the way towards much moreeffective commissioning of services that is driven by citizen insight and facts, notprejudgement or assumptions, nor the disparate or piecemeal involvement of thirdparties. It creates the opportunity to standardise the integration of external servicepartners and build both operational flexibility as well as capacity within the localcommunity. The focus on customer experience will also help to minimise risks andmaximise consistencies as a council moves towards a more sustainable and agileoperating model – the preventative and early intervention approach to servicedelivery, where services are designed specifically to optimise citizen experience,maximise relevance and meet real needs.

James Neill, manging consultant, Serco

Column sponsored and supplied by Serco

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