The Panel to receive a presentation from the Council’s Corporate Communications and Website Managers on the Council’s website. There will be a discussion on key performance indicators and future development.
Minutes:
The Panel had invited the
Corporate Communications Manager, Ms. Gill Chisnall, and the Website Manager,
Mr. Paul Cowell, to the meeting to discuss the progress of the Council’s new
website since it had been launched in 2012. It was explained that while the website had only been live for
three years, work had begun on the development of the improved website in 2010.
Prior to the launch of the new
website, customers had found it difficult to understand the old site and often
experienced technical issues. There had been a reduction in the number of pages
and the developed site had also allowed staff to
update their service pages. As well as improving the design and management,
staff had started to ensure that the content of the website was more customer focused.
Members heard that regular
improvements had been made and were shown a number of
the developed pages. Customers had been given the
ability to look up more information, including their bin collection dates and
polling stations. The main improvements had included software updates and the
ability to view the website easily on mobile devices. The introduction of
feedback forms had been important in the development process as it enabled
customer views to be collected. The improvements had
resulted in a 50% increase in users.
The Panel had
been provided with data that showed how the customers used and accessed
the Council’s website. It was noted that 57% of the website
traffic came out of hours, when the offices were closed. It was also heard that
in 2012, 87% of website visits had been made on a desktop computer, whereas
2015 statistics showed this had reduced to 46%, while the remaining percentage
of visits had been made on tablets or mobile devices. The common popular pages
included rubbish and recycling, council tax, job opportunities and parking, however, there had been seasonal popular pages
where the number of visits had spiked at different times throughout the year,
for example, fireworks, elections and the Lido.
It was explained that there had
been a focus on the development of the elections pages during 2015, there had
been a live update feed during the count and there had also
been an increase in the promotion of the elections pages through social media.
Social media had also been used to promote other
Council news and events.
A facility had
been developed that enabled staff to see what customers did when they
visited the website, although, it had also been felt necessary to find out the
reason the customers had visited. Feedback had been received
from the Society of IT Management (SOCITM), customers, staff and councillors.
SOCITM had completed a number of tasks and scenarios during their review and
assessed mobile and desktop use. As a result, Rushmoor’s website had been rated
three out of four stars. The Council had been offered some suggestions on how
the website would be improved, for example, the removal of outdated phrases, ‘do it online’ or ‘report it’, and think ‘mobile first’ on
all pages.
Members were informed
that, during the second quarter of 2015/16, customers of the website had
completed 736 ‘did you find what you were looking for?’ forms. It had been shown that 81% of those customers had found what
they were looking for, 6% had not and 13% had made a specific request for a
service.
Ms. Chisnall then made reference to Channel Shift and the intention to
increase online transactions. However, it was noted
that most customers had visited the website for information. Members heard that
there was a need for a new ‘platform’ to progress with Channel Shift, that
would allow customers to have their own council account;
‘my account’. It was intended that this feature would
enable customers to self-serve and track their requests. It was
explained that there had been work to embed this into the current
website, although the current website design had made this a challenging task.
The Panel
was provided with examples of current website trends in local government that
were similar to the national “gov.uk” website, although it was stated that
there was an intention to find out what customers wanted from the website
before any changes were made.
The Panel made the following
recommendations for consideration in the development of the Council’s website:
·
Re-introduce the ability to submit petitions
online;
·
Enable customers to ‘CC’ their local
councillor(s) when completing online forms or making service requests.
The Panel NOTED the presentation and requested the officers to assess the issues raised by the Panel.