Why is this service needed?

There is wide acceptance that, if citizens do their business with the council online, it should cost much less to provide that service than if they phone or visit the council. And, given that the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR07) is requiring councils to deliver cashable efficiency gains of 3% a year for the next 3 years, on top of meagre increases in gross revenue budget, there is every reason for councils to want to encourage customers to use the least expensive- to-serve channels.

However, most councils do not have a robust method of assessing their ‘costs-to-serve’ and, this being the case, they have not yet properly determined the financial benefits of achieving ‘channel shift’. This service will enable councils to work together to:

• identify cost of provision of customer services through different channels including phone, web and face-to-face
• identify costs associated with ‘avoidable contact’
• compare costs of providing different forms of access as a means to achieving better value and ultimately ‘a better deal for the taxpayer’
• provide evidence for Best Value reviews that a value-for money framework for customer access is in place, or is being developed.

How the service will be provided

At the launch workshop for the service (see timetable for the first series below) to the initial KPIs and supporting survey will be agreed.

Participants will be asked to collect specified data from their organisations, and complete a return.
During this process they will have access to support from the benchmarking team.

The methodology follows that of Socitm’s other benchmarking activities, such as the long-running Benchmarking the ICT Service series. As providers of the service, Socitm Insight undertakes to:

• safeguard the confidentiality of individual participating organisations
• provide participants with a full briefing pack and launch workshop about the survey, including the agreed questionnaire
• provide telephone support
• process the results from the questionnaires that are completed
• provide for the participating organisations a comprehensive report and full analysis of the results
• hold a workshop to discuss the lessons to be learnt and the management implications
• include the results and key case studies in the next Socitm Insight briefing on benchmarking for all subscribers.

Subscribers are expected to:

• nominate a co-ordinator who will be expected to play a pro-active role.
• safeguard the confidentiality of individual participating organisations.
• return the completed questionnaire by the specified date.
• attend the workshops (two persons allowed per authority).

Who will use the information?

Since customer access to services is a corporate issue, there is a range of managers who will be interested in the results emerging from your council’s participation in the Channel Value Benchmarking service. These are likely to include:

• directors of finance/resources
• directors of customer services
• heads of transformation
• heads of organisational development
• those responsible for the corporate website
• those responsible for the council’s contact/call centre(s)
• efficiency and performance managers.

Subscriber benefits

Get support and collaboration in identifying the cost of providing access to services: developing robust, meaningful, and comparable figures around the cost of providing your website, phone and face-to-face services is not easy. The
service enables you to tackle this task in collaboration with experienced colleagues from other local authorities, and with the support of Socitm experts who are knowledgeable in costing other, related services.

Measure your council’s costs against those of other, similar councils: the value of benchmarking to improve performance is well understood – over 50% of all councils have used one of Socitm’s ICT benchmarking services, and their results have become increasingly important in defining service contracts and in providing evidence for Best Value reviews.

Network with colleagues also working on channel management and ‘avoidable contact’: the discussions at a pilot workshop for this service held in June 2008 indicate that most local authorities are in the early stages of developing strategies and plans for customer access or channel management. Many are still trying to overcome channel ‘silos’, and those in England are anticipating the new challenge of NI 14, the ‘avoidable contact’ indicator. The Channel Value Benchmarking Service will provide an invaluable network of people, coming from a rich variety of backgrounds (web, e-government, customer service, ICT, performance) for participants to network with around a common set of issues.

Receive two free places at our bi-annual workshops: each subscribing organisation is entitled to send two representatives free of charge to our one-day Customer Access Improvement workshops, held twice a year. These popular events include presentations on innovation and best practice in the areas of website take-up, channel management and customer access. They provide an excellent opportunity to network with other professionals involved in the areas of
customer access, customer service, contact centre and web management.

Use benchmarking results and a bi-annual briefing: all subscribers will receive their own results and see them benchmarked against results from other participating councils. Twice a year, subscribers will also receive the Customer Access Improvement briefing that provides a summary of Channel Value Benchmarking results alongside summary results from the Website Take-Up service and GovMetric. The briefing includes case studies, analysis and other content on website take-up, channel management and customer access.

How to subscribe

Numbers of participants will be limited and accepted on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. If you wish to discuss your interest contact insight@socitm.gov.uk

Fees

The fees for 2008 are: £3,950 for Socitm Insight subscriber (£2,950 for shire districts).  £4,950 for any non-Socitm Insight subscriber.

Timetable for 2008 series

Deadline for applications - 5 September 2008
Full briefing pack to your survey co-ordinator - 10 September 2008
Launch workshop in London - 17 September 2008
(additional workshop for Birmingham or Leeds if demand) - 19 September 2008
Deadline for return of questionnaires - 24 October 2008
Results discussed at workshop in London - 15 December 2008 (additional workshop for Birmingham or Leeds if demand) - 17 December 2008