This service has been developed to help local authorities understand much more about the profile of their website visitors and their needs, and how well their website is performing in terms of visitor numbers and satisfaction. Participating councils get information about the total number of unique visitors to their sites, why people are visiting, how they got there, what the experience was like, and whether they are likely to visit again. Launched in 2004, the Website takeup service gathers information through an exit survey offered to every fifth visitor to participating councils’ websites.
Over 30,000 visitors complete the survey each month across the 100+ councils currently participating in the service.
Subscribers receive:
- qualitative and quantitative information about visitors to their website(s) provided through a wide variety of reporting options
- benchmarking of visitor information against that of other participating local authorities
- analysis of all the results from all participants by month and type of authority
- summary report of the key messages, lessons learnt and case studies
- free places at information sharing workshops with other subscribers
From January 2009, subscribers began to generate data automatically for the website element of their authority's NI 14 return (required from April 2009).
The visitor survey
The exit survey that collects the data for the Website take-up service is added to participating authorities’ websites and is launched (by a piece of code invisible to the user) as every fifth visitor leaves the site. The software prevents repeat invitations (through use of cookies), whether or not the respondent has said “yes” or “no”, until such time as the survey is updated (usually every 12 months), when earlier invitations are ignored .
The survey asks sixteen questions and takes between three and four minutes to complete. Supporting software collects the answers and analyses results in a variety of ways, allowing subscribers to look at findings from their own website and compare them with findings from the rest of the subscriber group. The questionnaire is normally updated once a year.
This list of questions comes from the latest version of the survey implemented in January 2009. (Note: Several of the options allow free text alternatives)
Intro Would you like us to help you?
Q1 How did you find out about the website? (13 options)
Q2 In the last 6 months, approximately how many times have you visited this website? (6 options)
Q3 What was your main purpose for coming to the website today? (8 options)
Q4 What was the main service area that you were interested in today? (22 options)
Q5 If you had not come to the website for this purpose, what would be your preferred way of contacting the council? (7 options)
Q6 Did you find what you were looking for today? (4 options)
Q7 How would you rate your satisfaction with the following features of this website? (5 satisfaction levels on factors of
General look & feel
Ease of getting around the site
Ease of finding specific information
Usefulness of the site search
Value of the information)
Q8 How likely are you to return to this website in the future? (5 levels of response)
Q9 Overall, how satisfied are you with your visit today? (5 satisfaction levels)
OPTIONAL PERSONAL QUESTIONS
Q10 Which of the following applies to you? (Up to 10 ways of profiling the visitor)
Q11 What age group are you?
Q12 Gender?
Q13 Postcode or non UK
Q14 Ethnic origin
Q15 Disability status
And finally,
Q16 …. any more comments....but note that we cannot reply directly to comments you make here
The service uses software developed by rol (owners of Govmetric, a complimentary service that is part of the Customer Access Improvement Service).
Curently, the service operates exclusively for local authority customers. However, we are interested in exploring offering comparable facility, asking similar questions to other parts of the public sector (eg police, fire, ndpbs, government departments etc.). Please contact insight@socitm.gov.uk.
What it costs and how to join
A one year subscription to the Website take-up service costs £1,130 for an existing Socitm Insight subscriber (£750 for shire district subscribers) or £2,200 for other local authorities. [Registration fees of £340, £300 and £450 apply in year one only].
You can start subscribing by filling in our service order form or if you have further questions, contact Terry Madgwick for further information (terry.madgwick@socitm.gov.uk / 01483 855288).
There are also twice yearly best practice events open to subscribers and potential subscribers. The next event will be in June 2009.