News
Channel Shift Success at Harrow Council Goes From Strength to Strength
£300k savings in year one with £1m expected over three years.
A little over a year ago Harrow Council embarked on “Access Harrow,” a major transformation programme aimed at driving down avoidable contacts and providing a better service for residents, landlords and businesses. Thirteen months since the project went live 9,000 online accounts have been created enabling citizens to transact with the council via the web rather than over the telephone or in person.
The 9,000 online accounts generate 4,900 log-ins every month for a variety of services including Council Tax, Benefit Claims and Landlord queries. This has made a huge improvement to service efficiency across the council:
- £300k savings in twelve months in reduced calls and contacts
- £1m anticipated savings over three years
- £81k saving on print and postage by moving Electoral Registration online
- 72% reduction in Housing Benefit payment queries
- 40% reduction in general Council Tax enquiries
- 40% reduction in claimants that do not understand entitlement letters
- 5% reduction on calls by allowing 3,500 council tenants to access rent statements on-line
- Removed all paper/correspondence to landlords
- 90% of calls are now answered in under 30 seconds
- User satisfaction with account – 96%
To download the full Harrow Council case study click here.
For more information or to arrange a visit to Harrow Council click here.
Dacorum Borough Council Goes Mobile
Dacorum Borough Council is due to launch Gandlake’s successful “Mobile” service providing the council’s Benefits Advisors with an electronic Benefit Claim Form for use on their mobile devices.
The mobile service helps the advisor collect all necessary information in a single visit, speeding up the claim process. By validating the data entered, errors and omissions can be avoided and return visits/queries minimised.
Advisors will no longer need to re-key the information they collect. When they return to the office, the system uploads the data electronically, saving time for additional visits and increased productivity.
Dacorum Borough Council’s Efficient Year-End Billing
Dacorum Borough Council is working with Gandlake to radically enhance the way they send out Council Tax Bills and Benefit Notification Letters.
The year-end annual billing process will now combine the two mailings into one envelope and include a Benefit Summary Letter explaining to the recipient their new entitlement in plain English.
The combined mailing will provide the council with immediate paper and postage savings and the Benefit Summary Letter will have a huge impact on the amount of avoidable customer service contact the council receives at what is traditionally a busy time.
Gandlake 5 Sweep Up at the IRRV Performance Awards
All five of Gandlake’s customers that were shortlisted at the prestigious IRRV Annual Performance Awards this year picked up accolades.
Highlight of the night was Sutton Council who won Gold for Benefits Team of the Year and Bronze for Revenues Team of the Year.
Other successes recognised by the IRRV were Croydon Council who won gold in Excellence in Education, Training and Development and bronze for Benefits Team of the Year, Cheshire West and Chester Council, awarded silver for Excellence in Social Inclusion, and Preston City Council and Fylde Borough Council Fraud Partnership picked up gold for Excellence in Partnership Working.
Newham Council also won gold in Excellence in Anti Fraud.
Congratulations to all our customers who were successful at the IRRV Performance Awards 2011
Harrow named Best Achieving Council at the MJ Awards 2011
Harrow has picked up the highest accolade of Best Achieving Council in the UK at the prestigious MJ Awards in London, which celebrates outstanding performance in local government.
Harrow Council was singled out for delivering ‘sustained and embedded change, using a modern approach to doing business but never losing sight of its priorities, namely its residents.’
The judges added, ‘Its political and managerial leaders showed both maturity and professionalism and their sense of passion and pride for Harrow is tangible.’
Part of the awards submission focussed on Harrow’s customer contact centre (Access Harrow) which recently achieved customer excellence accreditation with over 90% of calls resolved at the first point of contact.
Harrow’s submission highlighted their achievements in improved customer contact, especially resolution at first point of contact, channel migration, and the introduction of self-service technology.
To achieve these goals Harrow utilised Gandlake’s “Go Online” technology, a suite of online services that allow residents, businesses and landlords to transact securely and efficiently with their authority online.
Working in a similar way to online banking, the ‘MyHarrow’ accounts provides easy access to Council Tax, benefits, business rates and tenant related information.
Cllr Bill Stephenson, Leader of Harrow Council, said:
“Working together with residents and the entire community, we are transforming Harrow Council to improve the services our residents rely on and deliver the savings that government cuts demand. “
Michael Lockwood, Chief Executive of Harrow Council, said:
“Our primary aim is to deliver excellent services to Harrow residents and I am immensely proud that the judges have recognised our achievements.
“We have made enormous progress, improving performance while delivering significant savings and I congratulate and pay credit to every member of staff for the hard work and dedication in making this happen.
“This award will spur us on in what is a very challenging time for local government, and as the judges recognised, Harrow residents will remain our top priority.”
