User Research�Summary Report
Improving Council Tax Collection
Contents
Background
Background
North Lincolnshire Council signed up to the Local Digital Declaration committing the authority to contributing to the declared ambition of designing services that best meet the needs of citizens.
We constituted a new 3 member Service Design Team in 2020 to help drive our digital maturity ambitions and learning through exemplar projects separately from our IT transformation objectives.
We identified and prioritised potential exemplar projects that would help prove the value of service design, solve real world problems and deliver opportunities for learning through doing.
We conducted an inception workshop with key service stakeholders with support from our delivery partners dxw to shape a vision for the work and identify our top priority for delivery.
We commenced delivery of an exemplar project to improve Council Tax collection in July 2020.
Background
This report focusses on the user research elements of the exemplar project although the broader programme of work with dxw included sharing of knowledge, methods, tools and templates and the values and methodologies of doing user research.
The exemplar project consisted of two phases of delivery:
We delivered the project entirely remotely during the pandemic and made use of the capabilities of the following products to deliver and record our work:
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
All findings are based upon user and stakeholder interviews within the discovery and alpha of a project to improve the collection of council tax at North Lincolnshire Council.
Our vision for the project was to
improve the timely collection of council tax and business rates, so that the council receives more tax at the right time - in year - and less people get into debt
Our goals for discovery were:
Our research in discovery identified opportunities to improve in four areas:
Executive Summary
The focus of our alpha project was “earlier engagement and the right channel”.
Our vision and hypothesis for alpha were a service that supports and enables people to pay their council tax on time and that more people will pay if they are engaged early, on the right channel for them
We carried out a controlled SMS and email pilot using GOV.UK Notify to understand the impact of targeted and untargeted social media, SMS and text messaging on earlier engagement and considered wider opportunities to enhance service provision through more timely targeted intervention.
Through our research into alpha prototype messages we were able to draw some conclusions that we used to inform message (SMS and email) design.
Discovery
Discovery
We used an inception workshop based around dxw’s good questions to kick off a discovery to design our overall approach to research around our vision and outcomes for the discovery.
Our vision for the discovery work was
Our outcomes for the discovery were:
We spoke to users and stakeholders in discovery to
Discovery
Understand the end-to-end council tax approach, as it is now
We contacted members of the council tax team and conducted group and 1:1 remote interviews with:
We asked them to talk to us about
We also conducted desktop research:
Discovery
We conducted group and 1:1 remote interviews with:
We asked comparator councils to talk to us about
Discovery
Understand the challenges and opportunities from the experience of tax-payers and stakeholders
Discovery
We asked stakeholder organisations to talk to us about
We asked customers to talk to us about
Discovery
Understand the challenges and opportunities from the experience of tax-payers and stakeholders
Discovery
We recruited participant organisations through service contacts and council tax customers through the councils residents panel. We screened respondents to prioritise conversations with households and residents who:
We also wanted to speak to people across a range of demographics and who may have had lower literacy, or lower digital skills or access.
We learnt a number of lessons during recruitment of people who pay council tax for our research.
Discovery
Understand the challenges and opportunities from the experience of tax-payers and stakeholders
What we found�from the Council Tax perspective
Good advice and support is available to customers that call us, but they aren't always aware what help is available before they call
Telephone call and ‘processing’ are competing priorities
Some customers don't know what they spend their money on
An analysis of recent bill reminder language changes
The Covid-19 pandemic afforded an opportunity to accelerate plans to improve the way authorities communicate with Council Tax customer who do not pay. A revised suite of letters was created with advice from an expert in behavioural management.
The revised reminders did see a desirable increase in customer calls when they were initially implemented.
It may not be possible to quantify impacts and draw conclusions as there is too little data at this time and an it may not be possible to identify an effective comparator due to the impact of Covid-19.
What we found�from the experience of users and stakeholders
We heard about some positive experiences about the service
Some people aren’t always aware that Council Tax is a priority debt
Some people don’t know that they may be eligible for some help with their bill
The customers we interviewed often found out about support through contact with non Council sources
Some people don’t have the financial awareness and budgeting skills they need
Reminders sometimes do not result in the response from customer we would prefer
Services and Organisations who support customers want a relationship with Council Tax that works to everyone's advantage
People don't always know why Council Tax is paid, or how the money is used
People's attitudes to paying Council Tax may be influenced by their access to, and use of, local amenities and council services
We’ve heard interesting stories about how the use of data and technology has helped other councils to improve
We heard from councils that CTSS may have some effect on collection rates, but there are wider contributing factors
What we recommended�opportunities for Alpha
Discovery
We synthesised our discovery findings from our interviews and desktop research to produce a coherent set of discovery findings.
We identified a series of insights concerning communications
We identified a series of insights around advice and support
Discovery
We identified a series of insights around managing the process
Discovery
We co-designed a set of prioritised opportunities using knowledge and expertise across the team and service to produce a set of actionable opportunities to take forward to an Alpha.
We identified an opportunity for bill redesign using content design principles. We would research how other authorities have implemented custom design templates and identify authorities appetite for collaboration and current vendor appetite for flexibility.
We identified an opportunity for earlier communication in the right channels though an SMS and email pilot with target groups. The goal of the pilot would be to identify how SMS and email may increase engagement, what wider opportunities exist to enhance service provision, information accuracy and the technical capabilities of such a system.
We identified an opportunity to improve debt advice and budgeting support though community hubs, front line staff and other relevant channels though a common set of standards, tools and processes that encourage self responsibility and enable communities.
We identified an opportunity to streamline advocacy and support so that they work for third parties and customers in every channel.
Alpha
Alpha
We held an inception workshop to create a project roadmap for alpha with shared vision and goals iterated from Discovery.
We asked a series of questions to help shape the scope and focus for the work and gain consensus on what to focus first.
Following the inception workshop we agreed to focus efforts on “earlier engagement and the right channel” for alpha
Alpha
Earlier engagement in the right channel
We reshaped our vision for alpha:
a service that supports and enables people to pay their council tax on time
Around the hypothesis:
more people will pay if they are engaged early, on the right channel for them
And we agreed a set of goals for alpha
Alpha
Earlier engagement in the right channel
We used the service map produced in discovery to identify opportunities for additional messages within the annual cycle. We shortlisted four messages to prototype and test in alpha.
We created a series of message prototypes following a co-design session with the service. These prototypes were designed to test our riskiest assumptions about messaging that we would research with council tax payers before commencing our pilot.
Alpha
Earlier engagement in the right channel
We conducted 30 minute 1:1 remote interviews with 10 council tax bill payers to understand their experience of communications and their reaction to the prototype messages.
We asked them to talk to us about
We also sent them prototype messages using GOV.UK Notify to their mobile phones. We asked for their thoughts on the message prototypes, in particular:
We recruited research participants through the councils residents panel and though contacts with the service. We screened respondents to prioritise conversations with households that had characteristics consistent with our target groups:
We also wanted to speak to people across a range of demographics and who may have had lower literacy, or lower digital skills or access.
Working remotely did constrain how we carried out research as we had to send ‘real’ messages, so prototyping was at a slightly higher fidelity than we would have liked. Some learning points from the research were:
Alpha
Earlier engagement in the right channel
What we heard�from prototype testing
How does language and tone of voice impact attitude to the message?
"1st one definitely not, people would say @#$%&! to you, you can take me to court and get a quid a week"
"I don't know if the threat of court action is necessary, it might rub me up the wrong way"
[message #2] "is a little more accepting...that people are struggling"
[message #2] "the second one is better. More friendly, not so aggressive"
"maybe send the second one a week after the payment was due, the first one maybe as a last resort"
Do people trust and use links sent to them in text messages and are they important?
"the gov.uk link makes it seem more legit"
"I've been told not to click on links if I don't know what they are. I'd have to wait until someone came round [to reassure me]"
[message #4 link] "says northlincs.gov.uk, it's not guaranteed but it's better"
[message 4] "I like that 'cos you've got the links underneath the info, including links to forms [on the website]"
"I'm more inclined to do something if the link is there"
How does including limited personal information influence trust and confidence?
[message #6] "The name shows it's definitely for you...less likely to be something dodgy"
Message #6 "I'm more likely to click on that one 'cos it's got my name and account number"
[message 6] "it's one of the ones I'd trust. Including the account number is helpful, more relevant"
"You're giving the account number out, which I'm not particularly happy about"
"I'm not an expert but the [personal] information was about right
Is there value in the Council signposting to debt advice and external support in messages?
"I like the links into the website, giving that extra bit of info for people. If they see that from the council, it makes people realise the council is human"
"good to know where to go for support"
"I would know who Citizens Advice are but not Step Change or National Debtline"
"Step change all they want is to consolidate debts" (IVA's)
"Council have cut [CAB] funding, it's really cheeky to put them there, hypocritical"
Other things of interest
[message #3] "I don't have a smartphone and I don't want one"
"an awful lot of people don't have a smartphone, no idea about going online"
"texts are more likely to grab my attention"
"A lot of emails go to my junk folder"
"I don't look at email regularly"
What did people say about dealing with the Council Tax team?
"They're superb. They always do what they say they're going to do"
"In their own way they are trying to help the individual, but I appreciate the Council have a job to do"
"The reminder letters are a bit scary, like all Council Tax letters"
What we concluded�from prototype testing
Alpha
Conclusions
We were able to draw some conclusions from user testing of prototypes that we used to influence our pilot message design:
Alpha
Conclusions
We also identified some additional design elements that we either incorporated into pilot message design or that could be used to influence additional message design. These insights were not explicitly tested but were extrapolated from research feedback, observations on the process and feedback received in discovery.
Feedback we received on our research
Feedback
As our first exemplar project we wanted to showcase the values and methodologies of user research to build confidence within the council that this approach results in insightful conversations with users and reduces the risk to the authority.
We made sure we:
We think this was reflected in the participant feedback we received, which was universally positive
ServiceDesign@northlincs.gov.uk
Thanks!