Council websites miss a trick

I like IT managers.  Not something you hear very often.  Certainly not in any organisation I’ve ever worked in.

But, hot on the heels of their report about the potential benefits of social media, Socitm, the society for public sector IT managers, is now urging councils to make more use of their websites.

Their annual Better Connected survey of over 400 council websites shows that just 39 per cent of council websites gave enough information to answer visitors’ questions, while only 61 per cent could be relied upon to be up-to-date.

My new friends at Socitm also did some maths and worked out that the average cost of dealing with a resident’s query face-to-face was £8.23. This compared to £3.21 by phone, but just 39p online.

I’m not quite sure how they got those figures, but I don’t doubt there are massive efficiencies in dealing with people online where appropriate.  And where it is appropriate it is often more convenient for the customer too.  It’s win-win.  But despite this, just four in ten of the websites Socitm surveyed allowed people to pay bills or fines online.

At a time when we’re all looking for ways to do more with less it’s crazy that ways of connecting with people that are so well established in other sectors they’re almost becoming passé are still not the norm in the public sector.

In addition to making common transactions possible online, another simple tactic is to monitor the most common queries received over the phone and make the answers prominent on the website.

Many organisations could also do more to promote their website on printed materials, and particularly on answerphone messages or when callers are on hold. 

I don’t think there is any doubt that we need to grasp the opportunities of online channels to improve communications at the same time as driving efficiency.  But I’m surprised that it is IT managers, rather than comms professionals, that seem to be leading the way.