Minutes

Recently, the cabinet member, (on social media) welcomed the changes to the Council website.

However, I am being contacted by residents who are finding the new website harder to navigate.

This includes forms which are too prescriptive for the issue being raised.

Additionally, residents are reporting that when concerns are being submitted, they are not receiving an acknowledgment.

Given the recent decisions of the Cabinet to shift more services online and reduce direct human contact, will he instigate a review of how the website is working and how residents can be better served?

The council’s website is undergoing a phased move to a new platform which will facilitate a much-improved customer experience. Phase one of this project went live in February this year, with additional content moving over during the coming months.

The new website has been designed to the highest accessibility standards, is fully mobile responsive so can be accessed easily on all devices, and content is being reviewed to make it simpler and easier to read.

Within the development process, the design, layout and content have all been informed by user experience, research and best practice.

Local users have been involved in testing the new site. A panel of approximately 100 volunteers are now available to help us review new content and features. When putting together the new site volunteers worked with us on where they went for information and where they encountered problems.

The website also now includes a feedback function which allows the team to review and react to issues and consider them as part of the ongoing development and we would encourage members and residents to use this.

January to March of this year has shown a positive response to self-service and the use of our online forms.  In this first quarter a total of 75,855 on-line transactions were submitted successfully by our customers with only 2.08% not completed /failed. We receive very little feedback on our online offer and forms in use and therefore we would encourage anybody who feels they can be improved to provide that feedback.  With the new visual changes to the customer portal and the online forms we now have a very easy way for customers to report issues with an online form. 

Registered customers and guests will always receive an automated email acknowledgement once a request is received.  Each request moves through the system until it reaches the correct service area, and this is something we are working on to improve.  Registered customers can view all of their submitted requests; request updates or view any details added.