Elevating Citizen Experience in UK Local Government

Over the last few years, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, local government organisations are delivering more services than ever before, playing a larger and more crucial role in people’s lives. And yet, while world leaders have announced an end to the world emergency, the role of local government is unlikely to return to its pre-pandemic state.

This puts increased pressure on citizen service leaders in local government as they are facing a unique set of challenges driven by a multitude of factors such as financial constraints, changing demographics and ever-increasing demands for services, all the while operating within a complex governmental framework.

We at Puzzel see a significant opportunity for citizen service leaders in local government to see these challenges as an opportunity to transform the way citizen services are delivered, elevating their organisations, as well as the citizen experience.

This eBook explores these challenges and provides insights into how local government organisations can deliver effective citizen service in this dynamic and ever-changing environment.

Elevating Local Government Efficiency

Forward-thinking local government organisations are using the cloud first mandate to transform processes and improve experiences for staff and citizens.

In fact, as recently as 2022, the UK Government recognised digital as a core driver of efficiency and a means to reducing running costs, speeding up delivery times and improving user experience. To address this unique opportunity, the UK Government has set out a series of actions to make government more productive and deliver value for the taxpayer by 2025.

Its vision for 2025 includes six cross-government missions:

1. Transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes

2. GOV.UK One Login

3. Better data to power decision making

4. Efficient, secure and sustainable technology

5. Digital skills at scale

6. A system that unlocks digital transformation

Local government organisations in particular face the unique challenge of addressing broad, complex issues with limited resources. To achieve the Government’s vision for 2025, they will need to lean on technology that helps them elevate and streamline processes and offer improved citizen experiences while minimising costs. A strategic approach to digital investments, in particular in website and contact centres, can help address a number of the cross-government missions.

Case Study - Newlon Housing Trust

Newlon Housing Trust is a not for profit Community Benefit Society and a charitable housing association. Newlon owns or manages around 8,350 affordable homes, primarily in nine boroughs in north and east London, with many more in development.

• Customer Since - 2019

• Number of Agents - 60

• Houses Managed - 8,350

Puzzel empowers Newlon Housing Trust to create a thriving contact centre where agents can excel. Our multi-channel, omnichannel, and automation solutions streamline tenant interactions, allowing agents to offer more personalized and efficient services. Robust performance monitoring and analytics tools provide real- time insights, supporting informed decisions and agent development. Integration with existing systems ensures a seamless workflow, while our focus on compliance and security keeps data safe. With Puzzel, NHT can establish a contact centre that not only delivers exceptional customer service but also provides agents with the tools they need to thrive, enhancing the overall tenant experience.

“I was looking around for a solution to put all the channels together and give us an overview of what’s coming in, how it’s managed and how quickly we respond. One of the reasons we went with Puzzel was because it really gave us that modular approach.”

Matthew Philips

Assistant Director, Newlon Housing Trust.

Today’s Citizen Experience Challenges

There are a multitude of reasons for citizens to contact their councils. These run the gamut from reporting missed bin collections, to parking permits and all the way to council tax payments and housing advice.

Traditionally, councils have delivered these services through several channels, including voice-centric contact centres, email, websites, physical post and walk-in centres.

However, given the ever-increasing volumes of enquiries, local authority leaders have recognised that they cannot meet neither citizen demands, nor the government’s 2025 ambitions with the existing methods of communication. Budget constraints have also impaired local government’s ability to hire additional contact centre agents to meet increasing demands, resulting in longer waiting times and negatively impacting citizen satisfaction.

To try and address the issue, councils have invested significantly in digital tools designed to promote self-service and keep calls from reaching the contact centre, including:

• Improved website experience, with particular focus on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) sections

• Additional web forms

• Leveraging social media channels for keeping citizens up-to-date

• Using SMS services, such as notify.gov for mass notifications

Still, there are opportunities left to be unlocked to help local authorities increase efficiency and reduce costs. One such opportunity is the transition to cloud-based contact centre technologies

The Cloud Opportunity

Local government is now at an inflection point where investment in modern and future-proof technology is more important than ever. With the acceleration of digital adoption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, cloud-based technology, such as Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS), is becoming mainstream, providing real differentiation when it comes to citizen experience when compared to on-premises tools:

• Improved digital citizen engagement: A CCaaS platform such as Puzzel’s, supports citizen interactions from a single view, with one single routing engine across different digital channels.

• AI: Puzzel brings the web and contact centre experience together with a single platform where context is maintained at every step. For example, predictive chatbots that suggest relevant topics, as well as help that a citizen may need, based on the webpages they have browsed with all context summarised using generative AI for a seamless handover to the agent if required.

• Better collaboration: The cloud makes the integration of business-critical tools, such as Microsoft Teams, much easier and accessible from the agent desktop. Integrations extend to CRM and Housing Management Systems, bringing all information into a single view and reducing call handling time.

Practical Tips for Improving Citizen Experience

A key challenge for citizen experience leaders in local government is aligning increased citizen expectations with a drive for digitisation, all while dealing with diminishing budgets and increased pressures. This can be achieved by:

1. Automating transactional interactions and prioritising complex ones: 

   This includes leveraging Voicebots, Chatbots and SMS hyperlinks for issues such as missed bin collections, rent balances, council tax enquiries, leisure centre and library opening times.

   Benefit: Faster and better resolutions for mundane questions, reduced cost to serve, reduced agent attrition thanks to the removal of mundane FAQ-based tasks, better ability to serve high-priority calls (children’s services, social care) quicker.

2. Enriching the web experience and reducing call volumes through dynamic digital engagement:

   By using website banners with crucial updates to the public (such as road closures), a citizen-facing knowledgebase or a chatbot that offers a personalised experience and knows the pages a citizen has browsed.

   Benefit: Making information more readily available for citizens, reducing call abandonment rates, keeping agents informed of real-time changes in the event a citizen is ‘voice-first’
   
   
3. Centralising all interactions with true omnichannel contact centre:
   Deter the use of voice by playing average queue wait time for waiting on the call and advising on the wait times if the citizen moved to webchat, auto handover to an agent when the bot reaches its knowledge limit, surfacing knowledgebases to assist agents with recently talked about topics.
   
   

   Benefit: Single and cohesive citizen journey, broad channel choice to address audience preferences, interaction and history context for agent, allowing them to deliver better services at speed

4. Prioritising vulnerable citizens and sensitive calls with intelligent routing:
   This ensures citizens get the right agent, the first time, every time. Skills-based routing can help prioritise citizens to specific queues, such as child social care or registrars. Tagging vulnerable citizens for the system to route them to the next available agent across any channel
   
   Benefit: Better and faster experience for vulnerable citizens through reduced wait times, increased fix on first contact, helping reduce the number of repeat calls. Optimisation of highly skilled and trained workforce
   
   
5. Giving agents and supervisors actionable insights:
   Using real-time data collected from contact centre calls or interactions to inform other council services of issues and leveraging historical data and reporting to identify trends. Open APIs allow councils to harness the power of the data being collected in the contact centre, and to compare it with other data sets via API to platforms such as PowerBI.  
   
   Benefit: Eradicating as many service failures as possible, while understanding why and when citizens call to help inform the local government’s strategy. Accurately publish a council’s performance and demonstrate improvements to service delivery

Conclusion - Delivering Exceptional Citizen Experiences in Local Government

At a time when government departments are striving to streamline services and improve citizen interactions, Puzzel emerges as your valuable ally. We empower Public Sector organisations to not only automate transactional interactions but also prioritise complex ones, creating a seamless experience for citizens.

Our approach to citizen experience is comprehensive and uniquely able to help you overcome your challenges. It includes:

1. Voicebot

   Puzzel’s voice bot handles routine tasks like missed bin collections and information gathering. It seamlessly integrates with systems of record and our case management, ensuring an efficient flow of information.

2. SMS hyperlinks

   Helping citizens gain quick access to essential information, such as leisure centre timings or parking information. Puzzel also enables programmable SMS responses within call flows for enhanced efficiency.

3. Chatbot

   From rent balance inquiries to council tax concerns, our chatbot simplifies day-to-day interactions. Our unique personalisation capabilities help you present relevant information to your citizens, as it understands their browsing history.

4. Chatbot co-browse

   Guiding citizens to the right webpage based on their browsing history, our co-browsing feature enhances user experience and accelerates issue resolution.

In an age of increasing citizen expectations, as well as digital transformation, Puzzel is your ideal partner in delivering exceptional citizen service in the years to come. Thanks to our ever-evolving and thoughtful approach to citizen experience, we equip Public Sector organisations with the tools to navigate a rapidly changing landscape while maintaining a true citizen- centric approach.

Ready to streamline your operations, reduce costs and elevate your citizen experience?

Get in touch with us today...

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