Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC has implemented a three-year customer care strategy aiming to enhance access to services and improve customer satisfaction, illustrated by its innovative web services and CRM integration. With a significant increase in web transactions and high customer satisfaction rates resulting from this strategy, the council has shifted service delivery towards digital channels, leading to operational cost efficiencies. Future improvements include expanding online services like leisure bookings and pilot schemes in collaboration with local health and government agencies.

1. SOCITM 2010:
“Tomorrows Public Services Today”
Web Improvement
&
Channel Shift
Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC

2. Introductions
Leigh Gripton
Director of Customer Care & ICT
Ceri Evans
Service Development Manager
(Customer Care)

3. Rhondda Cynon Taf - Context
• Unitary Local Authority
• 2nd largest in Wales :
14,000 Staff
Annual Revenue Budget - £858m
• 234,000 Population
• 105,000 Households
• Spread over 3 Valleys, spans
164sq Miles

4. Strategic Customer Care
• Initial 3 year Service Strategy developed in 2005 – “Delivering Better
Customer Contact”
• Key Council Improvement (WPI), with deliverables under 3 specific
themes . . .
a) Customers can easily access Council information and services
when they need to and receive a quality response based on
timeliness, satisfaction and resolution of enquiry.
b) Collect information once and use numerous times to the benefit of
customers, whilst understanding customer needs and
preferences.
c) Ensure Customer Care arrangements support strategic
collaboration and business development with partners

5. Customer Care in Practice
• 1.5m contacts per annum into multi-
channel access channels
• 24/7 Contact Centre, the Largest in Wales:
800,000 Contacts, further 300,000 LHB.
(Customer Satisfaction 98%, Wales 91.5%)
• 4 One-Stop-Shops across the 3 Valleys
with wide range of partners < 6 miles.
(Customer Satisfaction 99%, Wales 95.5%)
• One of the first Digital TV Sites in Wales.
• Wales “pilot" area in collaboration with
Merthyr CBC on “Tell Us Once” project
• Services underpinned by Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) system

6. A Tactical Switch?

7. A Tactical Switch?
The Website was realigned to Customer Care in 2008
Why…
• To form part of the Council’s Customer Improvement Programme
• Manage & Measure as a “Customer Access Channel” as opposed
to a technical resource and priority. Public appetite is increasing!
• Exploit embedded Business Processes & CRM System benefits
• Indentify Demand Points, and appropriate 24/ 7 “e” services
• Form part of Customer Information suite: Single View of the
Customer
• View to shift Services to Lower Unit and Transactional Costs
Wales Average: Web £0.17, Tel 2.43,
Face-to-Face £5.47

8. Baseline Position
• Aging Technical Architecture: CMS - Search engine, Lack of GIS.
• Web Structure in need of “Refresh” - Page Design, Navigation, A-to-Z.
• Site was Information based, with little or no Transactional Services.
• An “Unfriendly” Web Address
• Minimal or little Baseline Customer Management Information
• Site tended to be Service, not Customer lead.
• Benchmarking Results Poor (19th in Wales, lower Quartile UK) (Better Connected)
• Only 7% of Service pages in Welsh.
• 34 Departmental or “silo” sites in existence, a content spread?

9. Key Improvements …
• Key Customer insight information collated Informing Improvement Roadmap
• Technical Infrastructure updated (CMS, Search Engine, Mapping, Find My…)
• New Council Policy & Web Strategy endorsed by the Chief Executive
• Navigation, A-to-Z, Search improved– introducing on-line services
• Redesign of the whole site, with images, multi-media bringing popular services
to the fore
• Integration with the Council’s CRM system (customer & properties).
• Introduced a shorter Web Address www.rctcbc.gov.uk
• Over 60 Self Services options on the
site, more on this later . . .

10. The Results
• Positive Benchmarking Results. 3rd in Wales, Top Quartile in UK.
• Rated as a 3* or Transactional Website
• Customer Satisfaction has increased to 79%
• First Point Resolution for web Enquiries improved to 75%
• Website Accessibility & Compliance: Average 2nd Wales, 34th UK
(2009/10 Site-Morse Review)
• Site Available – 99.6% (Including planned downtime)
• Content volumes improved by 10% each year, Welsh now at 78% (7%)
• Usage increased by 18% since 2008. On average, 51,996 Unique
Visitors per month (pages viewed 357,983), peaked at 135,181 in
January 2010.

11. The Old to the New….

14. The Move to
Transactional
Services…

15. Can Web Transactions Save Money?
The Potential . . .
2009/10 Unit Costs
(Per transaction)
Channel RCT Wales * SOCITM **
Face-to-Face £4.49 £5.67 £7.40
Telephone £1.47 £2.43 £2.90
Website £0.09 £0.17 £0.32
•Citizen Access Position Statement 2009
** Channel Value Benchmarking Review 2010 (5 LA’s)

16. Case Study (1) - Bulky Waste Collections
Why?
• High Volumes 55,000 Customer Requests per annum
• 43% of all Environmental Services Calls (2009/10)
• Appointment based / Slot booking collection system based on item and
location.
• Postcode intuitive
• Managed via the CRM System (supporting LLPG) and Business
Processes already running effectively.
• Single View of the Customer
• An “end to end” process (deep into the system) . . .
• Note this service is currently free to citizens

17. Access Channel Collection Process
“End to End”
Collection
CRM
Bulky Waste - Clip

18. The Findings
2009/10 was the first full year of the Web Service...
Channel Share: Household Waste - Special Collections
2%
7%
(0%)
(2%)
• A shift of 7% from Phone to Web
• F2F remains Static
• Slight Demand Increase 3%
91%
(97%)
F2F Telephony Web
Current Position: 2010/11 Update…
Channel Share: Household Waste - Bulky Collections
2% • Shift increases to 12% (Web)
12% (2%)
(7%) • Overall demand down 2%
• Forecasts highlight 16% year
end
86%
(91%)
F2F Telephony Web

19. Case Study (2) Street Care & Waste
Services
Currently 20 Web Enabled transactional services available.
The Bulky Waste Collection Service trend continues for these 20 . . .
• A shift of 8% from Telephone to Web in 2009/10 compared to previous
year
• There was no drift from Face to Face to Web during this year
This year (to date) shows further growth and consistency . . .
• An additional 3% Web increase in market share
• The “drift” has been from the Telephone Channel
• Overall an increase to the web of 11% within 2 years !

20. Case Study (3) – Payments
2009/10 was the first full year of the Web Service...
2% 11%
(0%) (4%)
20%
(17%)
17%
• A 13% shift from F2F payments
(16%)
We b
Te le phone • Introduction of Self Payment
Face 2 Face
Touchtone
Kios k
Kiosks
• 7% improvement to Web
50%
(63%)
Current Position: 2010/11 Update…
9%
(2%)
16%
• Further 9% decrease in F2F
(11%)
19%
• Kiosk take-up increased to 9%
(20%)
We b
15%
(17%) Te lephone • Overall a. . . 23% shift to Self
Face 2 Face
Touchtone
Kiosk
Service
41%
(50%)

21. Summary of Case Studies
Emerging Themes. . .
1. An appetite for transactional web services does exist
2. Telephone remains the most popular channel
3. Experience suggests for “simpler” transactions
4. The “drift” is increasing, from the Telephone to the Web
5. RCT: Telephone £1.47 ‘v’ Web £0.09
6. Drift Volumes since 2008/09 identify 34,005 transactions
have moved to self-service channels for these case
studies alone, increasing each year between 3% > 9% !

22. How did we “Encourage” Channel Drift
1. Use of consistent shorter URL - www.rctcbc.gov.uk/payments
2. Use of Promotional Images, Home, Landing, Service Pages, Transactional Navigation
3. Exploiting the use of Contact Centre Queue and Out of Hours Call Messaging
4. Pro-active “sign-posting” to the Web via Face-to-Face and Telephone Advisors
5. Animated Video Feeds on Plasma / LCD Screens at One-Stop-Shops.
6. Use of Public Access Kiosks (20 across RCT)
7. News Articles in “FREE” Council Newspaper “Outlook”
8. Pro-active Press Releases to the local media
9. Using key customer insight information, to pro-actively highlight services based on
trends (e.g. Seasonal)
11. Previous community website assisted by better equipping the “supply” of ICT in the
community, training and the concept of content ownership
12 Pushing Transactional Services through the Search Engine…
“Recommended Results” or “Suggestive Search”

23. So, What Next?
a) Customer Care – Wales Programme for Improvement
• Extend our partnership with the Local Health Board for their
“Communications Hub”
• Co-location of HMRC “Inland Revenue” at our One4all Centre
• Work with Environment Agency to pilot “Flood-line” as one of 4 test
areas in Wales
• Launch Tell Us Once pilot for Bereavement Services for Wales, with
a view to Births and Change of Address next
• Pilot integration of our CRM system with key back office
applications using a new ‘Middleware’ toolset
Note: to realise cash & non-cashable benefits of “channel shift” on-
going collaboration with Accountancy colleagues is key

24. So, What Next?
b) Remainder of 2010/11 Web Improvements
• Opening up Leisure Bookings & Payments to the public
• A pilot of on-line School Admissions
• Ability to view Planning Applications on-line
• For this Winter, a new real-time School closure system
• New “Children & Young People” theme for the Website
• Ability to view Public Health Inspection ratings for Food Premises
(Restaurants, Take-Aways etc) - a scheme known as “Scores on
the Doors”
• Measure & realise new “drift” benefits for Revs & Bens (Discounts),
Leisure Bookings & Pest Control services

25. Thank you !
Any Questions?

26. For Further Information, please contact . . .
Leigh Gripton
Director of Customer Care & ICT
Tel: (01443) 444400
Mobile: 07799 116571
email: leigh.gripton@rctcbc.gov.uk
Ceri Evans
Service Development Manager
Tel: (01443) 444403
Mobile: 07795 391758
email: ceri.o.evans@rctcbc.gov.uk