Deciding on opportunities to improve resident contact

A Customer Services Discovery

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

1. Meet the team
2. What we did
3. Findings
4. Ideas and next steps

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Meet the team

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Core project team

Marium Ladha�Service Designer

Sam Whitlock�Lead User Researcher

Winston Mullings�Associate User Researcher

Joseph Asiamah�Data and Insight Analyst

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

The Customer Experience Team want to create quick, simple and joined-up services for residents

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We needed a shared understanding of Customer Services as a whole

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• What is Customer Services?
• How well does it work?
• What are the opportunities to improve it?

What we did

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The steps in our discovery

Previous user research

Interviews and shadowing

• We conducted interviews with 5 key stakeholders
• We carried out contextual interviews with 5 customer services officers
• We carried out observations with 5 residents who needed digital support

Interviews and shadowing

Spoke to 5 key Customer Services colleagues for context

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Observed 71 resident visits to the reception desk

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Observed 21 resident Benefits and Council tax appointments

Observed 5 residents who needed digital support

Data landscape

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• What data we collect
• When we collect it
• Why we collect it
• How we collect it

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Consolidated data map

Why we did a data discovery

Explore:

• How to derive a better understanding of resident data
• Identifying relevant data sources
• How we use data to understand the needs of residents

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Improve:

• How we manage data in customer services
• Transparency of resident data
• Data quality
• How we collect feedback from residents

Service mapping

• We conducted mapping workshops with:
• Repairs
• Benefits
• Council Tax
• Housing Advice
• And then brought this all together in one map!

Snapshot of the Repairs map

Findings

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

1. Letters, forms and the website are difficult to understand and use

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

2. We might process information and documents many times in one interaction

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The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

3. Switching between unrelated services and systems is slow and challenging

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The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

4. After contacting us, residents need to know what will happen, when and if they need to do anything

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5. Residents do not know how long they’ll wait and we might not know who's next or who has an appointment

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

6. It can be slower to resolve difficult conversations when you have to liaise with other teams

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

7. Long waiting lists mean you can wait weeks for an appointment

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

8. Staff experience many issues with unreliable and inefficient IT systems

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

9. We do not understand our assisted digital offer well enough to manage it effectively

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

10. Data for resident contact is variable and limited

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

11. Measures of success are not defined or consistent

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Ideas and next steps

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Snapshot of the Customer Services map

Idea generation workshops

• Using insights brought together from data, design and research…
• We conducted 3 idea generation workshops with:
• Our Discovery team
• The Customer Experience team
• Customer Services colleagues

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Snapshot of the idea generation workshop output

The original scope of the project was huge - the first task was to define what we meant by accessibility and the overall aims of the Discovery.

How might we make it easier to answer enquiries across channels and services?

Define how Customer Services should work

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Prioritise the redesign of hackney.gov.uk

Make sure the new contact centre telephony solution meets user needs

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What we’re doing next

• We need to make a plan for how we’ll proceed with each recommendation
• We need to answer questions such as:
• What are the details of what we’re proposing?
• Who needs to be involved?
• What are our dependencies and constraints?
• What benefits will this approach deliver?

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Thank you for listening!

Any questions?