Digital and customer experience strategy

Focusing on our digital future, connecting technology and knowledge to deliver a Digital Council and a Digital Place. Further improving our customer access and staff experience and opportunities through digital transformation, better services, and tools.

Introduction

In recent years there have been significant advances in the way digital technology can assist with modernising the way the council can deliver services. Digital is transforming the way people live their lives – from the way we communicate to the way we purchase goods and services. The restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have, at pace, brought about a new understanding of digital engagement and interaction which can be further harnessed.

Digital technologies enabled the council to continue to operate during the lockdown and we will increase their use to help us improve accessibility for staff, businesses and residents as well as reduce the cost of our services through increased efficiency and automation. These savings can be reinvested into front line service delivery.

We are not at the start of our digital journey. We developed our first digital strategy in 2017. That strategy achieved much but there is more to be done.

This is about continuing that journey, over the next three years. In publishing our first combined Digital and Customer Experience Strategy we will have a framework for how the whole council can work together with its partners and customers to reshape how we deliver services and how people request and use them.

This strategy is about adapting to customer needs, not confining how people interact with us but finding the most effective way. This is about helping those who can to self-serve but being mindful that some residents will still need our help and assistance.