New customer experience strategy agreed
Your council08 December 2021
Our Cabinet has agreed to progress with a new customer experience strategy which will improve our engagement and make services more accessible.
The aim of the new strategy is to simplify how our customer service is delivered to help reduce duplication, remove bottlenecks and make sure people get the services they need, when they need them.
It focuses on ensuring people have access to the information they need through the most effective means for them, which will help speed up service and support the most vulnerable.
We are keen to engage with our communities to understand their needs, and how they want to reach us, or for us to reach them.Cllr Mike Hallam - West Northamptonshire Council Cabinet Member for HR and Corporate Services
While it is important that we react to people’s needs, we want to prevent some of those needs occurring in the first place.
We can only do this by being flexible in how we work, and by focusing our limited resources where they are most needed
People would rather do things for themselves whenever possible, so we will make sure this option is there. Where this isn’t safe or possible, or where people want to speak to someone, we will make sure that our people are trained well and have the tools needed to make that work well.
A significant part of the strategy is to take customer feedback to continually improve our services online, making self-service a more attractive option which saves people time and effort.
This will help free up staff time to concentrate their time and effort into taking a more hands-on approach to serving our more vulnerable customers and those with more complex needs.
We’re also looking to extend the number of ways in which people can interact with our services, beyond the website, a phone call, or a face-to-face conversation.
The plan is to deliver the new strategy during the next three years, using new technologies to make all of our processes more focused on people’s needs and preferences.
The full strategy was agreed by Cabinet at its meeting last night (7 December) and full details can be found at item 9 on the agenda.