olchester Borough Council needed to make its website more customer-focused and gain senior management buy-in to

maximise its Channel Shift success.

The council engaged GOSS to work with them to review the structure of the website and orient it around relevant customer top tasks. At the same time, GOSS facilitated senior management workshops with the council to focus on Channel Shift priorities and gain senior-level buy-in for the essential website restructure.

GOSS HELPS PUT COLCHESTER ON TRACK FOR £1.3M CHANNEL SHIFT SAVINGS

www.gossinteractive.com CASE STUDY

LOCAL GOVERNMENT– GOSS iCM (intelligent Content

Management)– GOSS Channel Shift Consultancy

Since the launch of our new ‘top task’ website, services and information can be accessed more easily online and from a range of devices. This has helped us improve online engagement ahead of introducing wider digital self-service and as a result, we’ve started realising cost savings associated with our Channel Shift targets.

Mandy Jones, Customer Demand and Research Manager, Colchester Borough Council

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Serving around 180,000 residents in South East England, Colchester Borough Council was in the early stages of its Channel Shift journey.

The work undertaken with GOSS – including a website review, workshops and persona development – helped to prepare the ground for an improved customer experience at a lower cost through increased levels of online self-service.

Colchester Borough Council had already procured and implemented GOSS iCM to underpin its Channel Shift ambitions, but its existing website structure also needed an overhaul. The site had not been a priority in the 18 months since it had been moved to the GOSS platform. As a result, it lacked cohesion and consistency across different council services, and its 4,000+ pages of content had not been reviewed for some years.

While the importance of Channel Shift was clearly recognised at all levels within the council, there was a need to focus senior management minds in relation to Channel Shift and to emphasise that the process was being driven from the very top of the organisation.

Why GOSS Interactive?Leading edge web technology from GOSS Interactive powers some of the UK’s leading websites, including the Met Office, Brittany Ferries, BBC, Berkeley Group, Virgin Trains and over 70 public sector organisations. Built around the multi award-winning GOSS iCM content management system, our customer experience management tools and consultancy empower you to deliver web strategies that provide enhanced revenues and superior customer service.

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GOSS helped Colchester to maximise its Channel Shift potential by:

Delivering the new website on-time and on-budget

Delivering a Channel Shift scoping workshop to representatives from across the organisation, followed by a presentation to senior management

Attending project board meetings in a trusted adviser role

Creating personas to bring customer demographic groups to life and to highlight how the website could be designed to meet the needs of different types of user

Conducting a thorough website review with the Council including all council tax and benefits pages, upgrading to the latest top tasks templates and laying the groundwork for the wider introduction of digital services

Undertaking customer testing of the new website structure

Helping cut the number of web pages from 4,000+ to 1,500

In the first five months since the new, top tasks-focused website went live, Colchester achieved some impressive results:

89% increase in customer transactions across the website (not including payments) from 617 transactions in September 2014 to over 1100 in March 2015

71% increase in transactions in the Revenue and Benefits area of the website

100%+ increase in traffic to the Planning pages, with a noticeable drop in the number of inbound telephone calls

56% improvement in online engagement within a few months of launching the new website

Realised £300,000 of savings in 2014 and is on budget for £400,000 savings in 2015 as a result of shifting more services online

The new website is a vast improvement and council members have been really impressed with the changes we’ve made. GOSS was able to set the scene for us and put us on the right road, and we were able to learn from the work they’ve done with other local authorities. It’s definitely been a good relationship.Sara Wilcock, Customer Operations Manager, Colchester Borough Council

The challenge The solution The results

Laying the foundations for Channel Shift success