digital by default

Capita Conference Feb 2011Transforming Contact Centres

Digital by Default

Gerald Power

Digital Delivery Team

Key Messages1. Its Digital by Default.

2. Its Demand and Channel Management.

3. Expect Transparency not Specific Targets.

1. Digital by Default

Still saying it…. Still true….

What do we mean by default?

1. Digital becomes the first choice starting point when designing new end to end services.

2. Digital becomes the channel and approach you aim to move existing customers and services to.

3. It becomes necessary to make a clear case for using an alternative to digital.

Its about getting to the point where you really are using the technology to its best effect....

....and really changing expectations and behaviour.

What Does this mean Practically?

• Actively shifting contact out of your face to face, off the phone and out of your back office.

• Directing the customer wherever possible to ‘self serve’.

• Changing the way you do things in the ‘back office’ to allow automation of processes.

Why Do IT?

Why is Digital Better?

1 It can provide information very rapidly and cheaply. Which is faster, more flexible and cheaper than paper or ‘in person’ communication.

• Student Loans will soon be a paper free service.

• Paper applications will be provided only to those with a genuine inability to use the online form.

• This saves printing costs, paper handling costs and the costs of transposing data fro paper.

Why is Digital Better?

But…..

• You have to know what users want to know and provide it to them fully and quickly.

• The users have to trust that information without ‘validating’ via another channel.

• You have to shut down the printing press.

Why is Digital Better?

2. It allows customers to ‘self serve’. Which is 24/7 and doesn't require a paid human agent to mediate it or an office or call centre to deliver it.

• DWP will soon offer a number of services via online ‘smart’ forms that self check then pass applications electronically for processing.

• HMRC has agreed interfaces with accounting software suppliers that allow automated returns from the software to the departments site.

Why is Digital Better?

But,

• The customer must be able to do this immediately and easily.

• They must be able to do it without your support.

• Its got to offer them some benefit over what they previously did.

Why is Digital Better?

3 It allows the automation of simple decision processes. Which is 24/7 and again doesn't require a back office of humans to mediate it and frees up personnel to do higher value work.

• DWP is introducing automation to its services that will allow simple ‘rules based’ claims to be processed without routine human intervention.

• DVLA already does this for vehicle tax which is a near fully automated process.

Why is Digital Better?

But….

• The process has to be simple.

• The rules that mediate it need to be simple.

• You have to shut down the paper system.

Its Hard Work

The savings and improvements won’t just ‘happen’ you have to

work hard to realise the benefits from ‘Digital’

2. Demand Management:The benefits are pretty obvious, digital should be cheaper, quicker and ‘better’.

But, in reality it can be tricky…. People and channels have inertia in their behaviour, the shift has to be managed.

The desired end state is intuitively obvious

Telephony

WebF 2 F

Post

‘Back Office’

More online and automated services

Fewer postal contacts

Fewer face to face contacts & higher value

Potentially the same number of telephony contacts, but delivering higher value ‘one stop’ services

Much smaller ‘back office’

The desired contact flow is intuitively obvious

Telephony

WebF 2 F

PostFewer postal contacts

Fewer face to face contacts & higher value

Potentially the same number of telephony contacts, but delivering higher value ‘one stop’ services

But,

Channels behave differently in the way volume affects their cost….

…and tracking costs can be tricky.

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2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

18,000,000

20,000,000

- 1 2 3 4 5Millions

Cost £M

Volu

me

Min

or v

isits

TelF2F

web

Assumes 30p/min Tel, £1/min F2F, £2.8M mean website cost for Central Government FY09/10

9.5M Tel min

3M F2F min

Channel Cost vs. Volume: A Simple Model

Costs vs Visits

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

- 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Annu

al V

isits

Mill

ions

Cost of Site £Millions

Cost vs volume

businesslink.gov.uk (£2.15p)

direct.gov.uk (18p)

hmrc.gov.uk (11p)

Cost per Visit

UK Central Government Websites, June 2010 COI

Costs vs Visits

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

- 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Annu

al V

isits

Mill

ions

Cost of Site £Millions

Cost vs volume

businesslink.gov.uk (£2.15p)

direct.gov.uk (18p)

hmrc.gov.uk (11p)

UK Central Government Websites, June 2010 COI

Cost per Visit

UK Central Government Websites, June 2010 COI

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

- 2 4 6 8

Annu

al V

isits

Mill

ions

Cost of Site £Millions

Cost vs volume

Cost vs volume

defra.gov.uk (2p)

uktradeinvest.gov.uk (£11.78p)

transportdirect.info (33p)

Cost per Visit

Visits are not outcomes….

and tracking outcomes is something public sector websites are not yet good at.

In order for digital delivery to deliver net benefits typically you

need to deliver:

• High Visit Volumes.

• Low Website Costs.

• High ‘conversion’ of visits to desired Outcomes.

Move the Contact Volumes

Telephony

WebF 2 F

Post

Signpost

Signpost

Deliver!

Signpost

Minimise Web Costs

• Use of the same basic online service for multiple services. [ Paypal, e-bay, amazon, last minute, directgov?]

• Use available ‘off the shelf’ components. [ paypal, address finder, googlemap, directgov? ]

• Encourage and incentivise customers to use digital channels and complete transactions in these channels. [ amazon, e-bay, PCWorld, Tesco]

The internet is a paragon of virtue in terms of recycling and re-use of basic tools to save costs.

Getting OutcomesThe last and most important element of digital delivery is tracking your outcomes so you actually know digital is delivering benefits:

• Transactions completed fully online.

• Reduction in the cost of other channels and total overall ‘cost to serve’.

• Improved customer satisfaction.

These require ‘whole organisation’ effort.

Behaviour Change

• The ‘benefit’ and ‘risk’ must look and feel like a good deal from the outset to encourage new behaviour.

• You can’t ‘bully’ its got to be hearts and minds for customers and your own people.

• The new experience has to be positive and re-enforce the benefits of digital.

3.Targets, Metrics?There is a clear need for metrics and management information, but I see these as being internal and peer to peer.

Transparency and efficiency may be the drivers, but the details of how you achieve the necessary changes in your organisations will fall to you.

Gerald PowerTransformational GovernmentCabinet Officet: +44 [0]20 7276 3235 Rm 2.14, 26 Whitehall,The Mall, London SW1A 2WH

Gerald.power@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

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