Customer Engagement

Introduction 

Bedfordshire County Council recognises that its purpose is to deliver a range of comprehensive services to its customers in a manner that meets their individual needs and provides consistent value for money. In order to do this the County Council must transform the shape of its services by involving its customers in service design and in the way that services are delivered.

Improving the level of involvement of local people and other key stakeholders is a major part of the government’s agenda to modernise public services. Legislation and guidance increasingly emphasises the importance of public consultation and service user involvement in developing and evaluating services and local policy.

The Council  understands that it must put “the customer at the heart of everything it does”. To support the Council’s aspirations in this respect it has established a Customer Engagement Strategy which will be delivered through a major programme of service transformation activities.

Customer Engagement Explained

The Council exists in order to provide services to its customers. These services must be relevant, inclusive, well delivered and cost effective. The Council needs to “engage” with its customers to ensure that it does this.

Customer Engagement means:-

"Everyone, in every function across the organisation, striving to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction for
both  their internal and external customers, whilst ensuring optimum efficiency and effectiveness."

Customer Engagement is the all encompassing approach that an organisation needs to take to ensure that it delivers service excellence.

Engagement includes:-

• Customer Consultation – asking customers what services are required, how they should be designed and how they should be delivered
• Customer Access – ensuring that customers are able to access services in a manner that suits their individual needs
• Culture – creating a professional and supportive environment which empowers employees to put the customer at the heart of everything they do
• Communication – how we provide information to our customers that will support and develop their understanding of the services and opportunities that are available to them.

Customer Engagement is an all inclusive activity that aims to involve all sections of the Community including hard to reach, vulnerable and minority groups.

Strategic context of the Customer Engagement Strategy

Council Vision and Objectives

The Customer Engagement Strategy contributes to the Council’s overall strategic direction.  

The Council has four strategic objectives linked to its vision to make Bedfordshire Thrive. 

These are to:-

• Build strong, prosperous and sustainable communities
• Help those who need the Councils support most
• Help children and young people to achieve their full potential
• Transform the Council into a high performing Council

The primary focus of the Customer Engagement Strategy is to improve customer satisfaction; this will facilitate the Councils aspirations to become a high performing Council. It will also support achievement against the Councils other objectives through greater involvement and ease of access for all customers.

  

E Government

E government is about the use of technology to enable customers to access services and the application of technology to help us deliver our services in a more effective and cost efficient manner. The three key areas that an E Government plan would cover are;

• Improving customer access to services
• Improving customer experience
• Increasing efficiency

The Council’s Customer Engagement strategy incorporates all of these elements and our E government plan is therefore, by definition, part of this strategy. E government is at the heart of the drive to modernise local and central government. Priority service outcomes have been defined to ensure that technology is used to deliver enhanced quality, convenience and availability of services.

The Councils IT Strategy clearly defines how technology will be implemented to support the delivery of service excellence and how the Council will meet the priority outcomes required in the E government agenda.

Equality and Diversity| 

The Council is committed to ensuring that it appropriately addresses the needs of all members of the community. The Council understands that Equality and Diversity is integral to everything it does, and has created a corporate Equality and Diversity framework to drive its overall plan:-  

The Council has agreed an Equality and Diversity Policy statement and will establish the corporate governance required to drive this agenda. This will enable a robust planning process, using the Government's equality and diversity standards, and ensure that we are able to provide tailored services that meet customer's requirements.

The Council has a number of documented policies and strategies aimed at embedding equality and diversity good practice into all its activities and services.

These include:-

• Corporate Equality Plan
• A comprehensive Equality Policy
• An Equality and Diversity Action Plan
• A Race Equality Scheme
• A Disability Equality Scheme
• A policy for providing equal access to printed information
• Language translation services
• A gender equality scheme

Our strategy 

The Vision

The Council aims to provide service solutions which meet the ever increasing and evolving needs of its customers. All directorates within the Council will do this in a way that meets both the practical and personal needs of its customers.

Services will be:-

• Designed to meet the expressed needs of customers
• Cost effective offering value for money 
• Delivered in a way that exceeds the expectations of customers
• Accessible to customers in a way that suits their needs

Council employees across the whole organisations will:-

• Be supported by the Chief Executive and Directors to deliver service
• Excellence Understand and recognise who their customers are
• Put the needs of the customer at the heart of everything they do
• Be empowered to deliver service excellence
• Motivated and responsive to the rapidly changing needs of customers

The Council will use technology to support and enhance its services. It will ensure that appropriate investment is made to provide both customers and employees with practical and modern solutions to service delivery.

The Council will ensure that it reaches out to all members of the Community and will embed the principles of the Equality and Diversity Standards in all its activities. The Council will endeavour to understand the needs of all sectors of the Community and to provide services that meet these needs. Services will be designed and delivered to provide equal access to all sectors of the community. They will respect cultural and community diversity and be anti discriminatory. The Council will work in partnership with a wide range of organisations and colleagues to ensure that services are joined up and that there is transparency in respect of who the service provider is across the whole County.

Aims and objectives of the strategy

The Council has a clear view of the outcomes that it wants for its customers, employees and the Council as a whole:-

Outcomes for Customers

• Greater awareness of the services that are available through the Council
• Increased choice and convenience when accessing services
• Service solutions that meet their needs now and in the future
• Services that offer value for money
• Involvement in helping to shape both the design and delivery of services
• A Good experience in all their dealings with the Council
• Services that are timely, professional and problem free
• Increased trust and confidence in the Council and a belief that the Council is working for them

Outcomes for Employees

• Increased job satisfaction through the creation of an empowered, enabled and motivated workforce 
• Greater understanding of what drives customer satisfaction and how their roles and responsibilities contribute to delivering customer solutions
• Clear focus on the customers as individual with individual needs
• The right tools, skills and information to enable them to deliver service excellence
• Increased confidence in the Council as a first choice employer
• Pride in the services they provide and the role they perform 

Outcomes for the Council 

Confidence that the needs of customers are being addressed and that services of an appropriate quality are being delivered
Improved understanding of the diversity of opinions and needs of customers and confidence that no sector of the community feels disadvantaged
Increased satisfaction that value for money in primary activities is being achieved  Improved decision making through the contributions of a wider set of customers External validation that the Council is effective and competent through improved customer satisfaction ratings and other commendations from external bodies Successful and fruitful working partnerships with a broad range of external organisations 

Principal Activities 

In order to ensure delivery against the Council’s vision and proposed outcomes this strategy sets out a range of high level activities that will be undertaken.

Consultation

Consultation can be defined as a process in which one party seeks the views, knowledge or guidance of another to inform a decision. The Council sees consultation as an opportunity to involve internal and external customers and other stakeholders in determining and influencing service design and delivery. The purpose of the Council’s approach to consultation is to ensure high levels of engagement with our customers in order to;

• Enable the Council to understand its customers needs in a way that informs service design, planning and delivery and reflects the diverse nature of Bedfordshire’s community, recognising the different segments of community that exist
• Ensure that customers are given the opportunity to feel involved and listened to
• Aid performance monitoring and the assessment of the Council’s services to ensure that services are appropriate and delivered to an acceptable standard

The Council will consult with varied stakeholders depending on the topic of consultation. It will engage with residents of the County, community and voluntary groups, local businesses, partners including other local authorities, Council members, employees and specific demographic groups including hard to reach and disadvantaged groups.

The Council will also consider other forms of feedback such as customer complaints, comments and compliments and incorporate these into the consultation mix used in decision making. Feedback will be passed to staff at all levels to ensure that they are customer focused constantly thinking about and anticipating customer requirements.

The Council will adopt some general principles in its consultation activities;

• There will be a clear link to decision making, consultation will be purposeful and meaningful. Views will not be sought if there are no specific outcomes required
• Consultation will be carried out to a high standard; it will be open, impartial, understandable and appropriate
• Services will include consultation in their service plans, they will consider their consultation requirements for the next 3 years as a part of their planning process 
• A consultation programme will be developed that gives all sections of the community a chance to express their views
• Consultations will be co-ordinated and well planned; to avoid duplication of effort and consultation fatigue it will be centrally coordinated through a consultation database
• The information received and outcomes in consultation exercises will be fed back to customers and other stakeholders
• All consultation exercises will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness
• The Council will actively encourage customers to give feedback about the services they have used
• The Council will actively seek the views and feedback of its employees and council members to ensure that front line experience and knowledge is used in the consultation mix. 

The Council’s approach to consultation will ensure that we listen to our Customers and act on their views, opinions and requirements. It will raise awareness of what the Council does and will actively encourage community and stakeholder participation in shaping the future of services and their delivery.

Customer Access

Services need to be provided in such a way that Customers can gain “Access” to a range of information and services in a manner that is convenient and appropriate to them.

In order to provide excellent accessibility to its services the Council has undertaken the following activities to establish what its customers needs are;

• Undertaken consultation exercises
• Listened to customer feedback
• Sought external advice as to best practice
• Considered what technical infrastructure is needed to support access to services

In line with the findings of these activities the Council will develop a range of different points of access to its services.

Telephone

• As many services as possible will be accessible through a single point of contact
• Information about who to contact about specific services will be clear and up to date
• There will be the appropriate level of skilled employees available to respond to contacts from customers within a range of published service levels which ensure a timely and prompt response. These service levels will be detailed and monitored through Directorate service plans
• Opening hours will be re-aligned to meet the requirements of customers
• Appropriate technology will be used to facilitate the achievement of the Council’s service aspirations

Internet Web Portal

• The Council will continue to improve its website to make it a more compelling and useful tool for customers
• A programme of “e-enablement” will be undertaken to enable customers to use the web site to self-service across a broad range of Council services
• Information provided on the website will be up to date and appropriate conforming to national standards on accessibility to help customers with specific requirements
• The Council will work with partner organisations to enable website links to other service providers enabling a seamless and transparent service

Face to Face Contact

• The Council will work both internally and with its partners to provide facilities in places that suit its customers through the ease of accessibility and quality of accommodation
• A comprehensive range of services will be provided on a face to face basis, employees will be trained to resolve as many service requests and issues as possible during the customer's the initial contact
• The Council will work with its partners to ensure that its face to face facilities have opening hours that suit the needs of customers
• All directorates within the Council will identify who their customers are and ensure that appropriate face to face service interactions are provided, this will include service interactions in children's and community services

Written Correspondence

• The Council will look to improve the accessibility of written communication through the use of email, fax, SMS text messaging and traditional written correspondence
• Internal processes for handling written correspondence will be reviewed to ensure that they are effective, competent and delivered in a timely manner
• All correspondence issued by the Council will use appropriate language and be of a style that is easily understood. It will be jargon free.
• The Council will provide correspondence services that address the needs of all segments of community including language translation and other specialist forms of communication. 

Culture

The Council understands that one of its most important assets is its employees. Employees need to be energised and motivated, with a clear understanding of the organisation’s vision and how their individual job roles contribute to the achievement of this vision. They need to exhibit behaviours that put both their internal and external customers at the heart of everything they do, they need to operate in an

environment that encourages them to enjoy providing excellent services to their customers not one that they view as "just a job".

Employees need to understand who their customers are and how services need to be shaped to meet individual and specialist needs. They need to respond to the rapidly increasing and changing needs of customers and have the right skills and tools to enable them to deliver service excellence.

The Council acknowledges that regardless of the nature of a directorate's business all those that receive services are customers and should be treated accordingly; these are both internal and external customers. It will look to ensure that all employees, across all functions strive to increase customer satisfaction whilst working more effectively and efficiently.

The culture of the workforce is critical in determining the Council’s success in delivering excellent, meaningful and value for money services. In order to ensure that the appropriate organisational culture is created the Council will:-

• Ensure that all employees understand what excellent customer engagement means and how their roles support this
• Encourage and support a greater understanding amongst employees as to who their customers are
• Develop and carry out Customer Focus and Awareness training programmes for all employees and other internal stakeholders to embed the principle that service excellence is everyone’s responsibility
• Managers will be trained to lead change and customer service in their areas and to report on Customer Satisfaction in their own areas as a matter of course
• The organisation’s leaders will be consistent in their approach providing clear vision and direction to all employees
• Through the deployment of appropriate technology, processes and skills training the Council will ensure that employees are empowered to deliver service excellence
• The Council will look to encourage a culture of innovation, communication and challenge aimed at improving customer service
• The Council will ensure that an equality of approach forms part of its day to day thinking about customers so that all employees understand the diversity of their customers needs

The Council will create an environment that supports “going one step beyond” and acknowledges the importance of all employee roles in “Making Bedfordshire Thrive”. It will endeavour to create trust in its workforce and make the Council a first choice employer. 

Communication 

The Council recognises the importance of communication with both its internal and external customers and stakeholders. A comprehensive Communications Strategy has been developed which details the Council’s approach, plans and desired outcomes.

The strategy will help Bedfordshire County Council strengthen its reputation within the county and externally:-

• It will help the Council gain and maintain credibility with its communities and its stakeholders
• Customers will have more opportunity to shape priorities and services. Residents will be better informed about the council, its role in the community, its priorities, policies, and services
• Stakeholders will have a greater say in the shaping of policies and decision making
• Partnership working will be improved