Customer Experience Strategy 2021 - 2024

What we want to achieve

An organisational culture that focuses on the customer and a consistent quality of service

• we will work as one organisation offering a clear and consistent experience
• our staff will have the knowledge, skills, capability and tools to deliver a consistent and high quality of service wherever and however our customers interact with us
• through understanding the customers’ requirements, the customer experience will be right first time, delivering what they need at the first point of contact. As a result, they will benefit from a quick, efficient and responsive service
• our services will be available in a way that allows all our customers to access clear information
• customers will be provided with information which clearly sets out our services, access routes and waiting times and will be kept informed of progress so they don’t need to follow up enquiries unnecessarily
• to be seen as approachable by our customers, welcoming feedback, being willing to admit our mistakes and always learning from these

By 2022 our Customer Experience Strategy will be adopted across the organisation. We will have an agreed set of standards and will have a baseline of our current position across all services.

We will review the training we provide to all staff, embedding the values contained within our Customer Experience Strategy and ensure they have the knowledge and skills to deliver this.

We will have a culture where the needs and aspirations of customers are considered at every stage of our service design and delivery, where staff are encouraged to be innovative and to continuously improve the customer experience and where there is clear ownership of the customer experience across the organisation.

Services that are based on our customers’ needs

• we will use customer feedback and data to design and offer services based on what customers need and what works for them. Customer Feedback and data will enable us to continuously assess our services and influence the design of policies, services, systems and processes
• we will work with partners and residents to co-design services ensuring we maximise the skills available, supporting people to help themselves and creating a seamless customer journey
• we will review our existing services so we fully understand the customer journey from the customers perspective and will redesign these to make them simpler and easier for customers to use and for us to administer
• we will listen to what our customers are saying when they contact us and respond quickly. Customers will have timely and information and advice
• sometimes our services are required to protect individuals or our environment. These will also be delivered in a clear and consistent way which makes it easy for customers to understand
• through a better understanding of our customers, we will proactively identify and offer services that individuals might need from the council or our partners. We will provide them with the support they are entitled to and reduce the need to be reactive to situations which could have been prevented
• when things go wrong, we will learn the lessons and make changes to ensure they do not happen again
• we will have a transparent relationship with our customers where they will have the opportunity to assess our performance and will be provided with information to understand how money is being spent and how decisions are made. They will feel listened to and that their opinion counts
• we will also focus our efforts on preventive services providing recreational, educational, informative and informal services which improve our customers well being

By 2022 we will have:

• completed an in-depth review and re-design of those services where feedback from customers has identified the need for an improved customer experience and we will have developed plans to review our remaining services
• reviewed our customer engagement processes to ensure a wider participation and greater access to real time feedback
• improved the information we provide to customers giving greater clarity on decisions made and how money is spent
• created a customer insight tool where information can be shared across the organisation and with partners where appropriate to help to shape service design and delivery
• developed an approach to personalised contact, enabling customers to receive proactive information on topics of interest to them or to their local area
• reviewed our approach to complaints management ensuring all lessons learned are widely shared

Solutions that promote self-service and help staff in providing a consistent, quality customer experience

•  We will improve our digital offering for customers, enabling the majority of our services to be accessed easily on-line
• We will promote digital as the access channel of choice for most services, enabling customers to help themselves through self-serve first
• We will focus our resources on the more complex enquiries, where digital may not be appropriate and for those customers who are unable to use digital channels
• We will improve the technology that supports our Contact Centres, ensuring staff have the tools to support customers
• We will use innovative technologies to improve the customer experience and to provide value for money for customers

By 2022 we will have a new website, providing easy access to council services 24/7

We will have a “My Account” allowing customers to access personalised data and to track service requests

We will have updated technology within the Contact Centre that supports customer contact through a variety of methods

By 2023 we will be using technology in several ways to pro-actively identify and resolve issues, to reduce the cost of administering our services and to personalise our services