Online Appointments put Hammersmith and Fulham Residents in Control

Hammersmith & Fulham Council's Channel Shift strategy

As part of their Channel Shift strategy, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham encourages residents to use an online self-service system to book appointments for certain council services.

The council looked for a best-in-class, easy to use web-based software system. The system needed to allow residents to book appointments via a secure, authenticated user account system directly from the council’s website, and to integrate with payment and financial systems for back-office automation.

Manual Services Take a Back Seat

In the past, council appointments were made using Outlook calendars for Revenue and Benefits. However, planning and concessionary fares departments operated a drop-in service, which made it difficult to know who or how many would drop in at any time.

The Nationality Checking Service used a manual booking process, with officers using a paper diary to book appointments, with paper receipts for payment.

Improved Communication

When an online appointment is made via the booking software, emails or SMS messages are sent automatically to confirm date, time and location details of that appointment, with links to important web pages.

Around 50% of council appointments are now made online by residents. Residents are also able to check-in themselves without the need to wait for or see a member of staff.

‘When a resident checks in via the self-service panel at the council offices, an email is sent to the contact centre system, and the customer is placed in a virtual reception queuing system.', said the Council's John Cordani. 

The council decided to make the system more personal, by using customers’ names when their appointment is assigned to a member of staff.

ZIPPORAH Booking and Scheduling Software

‘The most functionally rich, adaptable and easy to use system was ZIPPORAH’s’, says John. ‘They were experienced in the marketplace, and had their system in use with a number of local authorities.’

The ZIPPORAH booking and scheduling software streamlines the customer’s journey, enables the council offices to manage staff time according to demand, controls and automates queues, and delivers an efficient communication and reporting system.

‘Residents are able to make their own appointments and check-in on arrival,' says John. 'This allows us to better manage time and staffing levels by knowing appointment schedules in advance. The system provides flexibility, where our former drop-in service did not allow it.' 

The Public Sector and Ecommerce: 3 Council Services that Generate Revenue

3 Ways Councils are Generating Revenue with Ecommerce

Last year, Lincolnshire County Council invoiced nearly £1.2 million by channel shifting a proportion of their public sector services online.

In just 6 months, Buckinghamshire County Council invoiced over £4 million by supplying existing services online through their ecommerce transaction engine.

Their simple,streamlined online ecommerce system encourages citizens and customers to view and buy online, while showing all possible services and products side by side engages the ‘impulse buy’ factor.

So, which public sector services can generate revenue through channel shift? 

1. School Transport

UK councils administer school transport for the children living in their districts. Bus passes are assigned to certain children, depending on how far they live from their school.

Sometimes individual schools organise bus passes for their pupils. Sometimes parents have to apply individually.

Either way, it can represent a frustrating process for school administrators or for parents, and a non-essential phone call for council staff to deal with.

Buckinghamshire County Council channel shifted their school transport bookings to the online portal. In the first year, over 2000 online transactions were completed, with payment of £300,000 taken online.

These 2000 transactions would have meant at least 2000 phone calls. 

As collecting payment is much more difficult on the phone, payment may never have been collected for some of these bus passes.

Expenses per transaction would have been higher, revenue would have been lower, and staff would have been tied up with avoidable contact.

2. Schools Traded Services

Schools buy and pay for a variety of council services. IT services, library services, HR and legal resources, school dinners, exercise books, sports coaching, ground maintenance, training courses – all need to be sourced, selected, and paid for.

For these traded services, the customer is the school itself.

A local council can supply all of these services through ecommerce, with costs, information, ratings, and terms and conditions, plus a convenient shopping basket and simple online payment process.

With services delivered conveniently online on a self-service platform, schools are more likely to select a full package of council-delivered services, instead of picking and choosing from a variety of public and private sector services.

By promoting schools traded services online on an efficient ecommerce platform, Buckinghamshire County Council handled 2200 transactions totalling £115,000 in 4 months. 

Lincolnshire County Council dealt with 1500 schools traded services in a year, invoicing over £121,000.

All available services are easy to see online. Schools can view the options, make assessments on budget, and properly “shop” for their services to find packages that suit them.

Councils can apply costing models, respond to online requests for quotation, apply discounts, manage repeat orders, handle multiple bookings, and deal with orders from multiple authorised users from a single school – conveniently and efficiently, with many processes automated.

3. Community History Books and Resources, and County Genealogical Records

Most county councils hold libraries of historical resources and archive services.

Often, the cost for buying or downloading these resources is minimal. The cost of charging for these items can be higher than the value charged, making enforcing payments uneconomical.

Lincolnshire County Council market their library of books, images and archive records on a dedicated ecommerce website – www.lincstothepast.com. All resources are visible and available to buy and pay for online.

By promoting these resources on a great customer-friendly platform, Lincolnshire Council raised over £372,000 (year to date). 

Previously, most were commercially invisible, due to the cost of contact and transactions.

By providing great customer service through online self-delivery, Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire County Councils have generated revenue through regular public sector services which are traditionally difficult and time consuming to charge for.

Convenience retail stores increase profits by encouraging impulse buys. 

A central ecommerce platform enables public sector organisations to do the same.

"ZIPI enables us to provide an alternative quick and easy way for customers to acquire goods and services as well as reducing manual administration for staff."

Jacki Dann, ICT & Service Transformation, Buckinghamshire County Council.

How can ZIPPORAH help?

ZIPPORAH’s ecommerce engine ZIPI manages the catalogue, selection, shopping basket, invoice, payment and reporting system which drives revenue for both Buckinghamshire and Lincolnshire County Councils.

For information on how a ZIPPORAH ecommerce transaction platform will enable you to generate revenue, and your citizens to choose, buy and pay for public sector services online, please visit http://www.zipporah.co.uk, email sales@zipporah.co.uk, or phone 02920 647048.

Ecommerce and Channel Shift: What's it got to do with the Public Sector? Part 1

As budgets shrink and internet use grows, more public sector organisations are looking to channel shift for a solution.

Online self-service is already old news in the UK - just think of online grocery shopping and holiday bookings.

The private sector has been trading online for years. Now the public sector is starting to realise the benefits of channel shift.

With face to face transactions costing around £8.62 EACH, and phone transactions costing £2.83, the minimal 15p a time cost of digital transactions could just be the answer.

But there's no need to stop there. What if public sector organisations could actually generate revenue through trading their services on the internet?

ZIPPORAH is working hard with public sector organisations to do exactly that.

Lincolnshire County Council generated nearly £1.2 million additional revenue last year through channel shift, without cutting jobs or reducing services. 

Buckinghamshire County Council invoiced over £4 million in its first 6 months trading existing public sector services online.

The secret? ZIPPORAH's ZIPI online transaction engine.

By positioning relevant services on a convenient online platform, and integrating payments and financial systems, these councils have massively increased revenue.

Customers are enjoying better service: 24 hour access 7 days a week means they can search and buy at their convenience, while one-stop customer selection and online payment means faster service.

Public sector employees spend less time on data entry and routine transactions, while essential interactions take priority.

And managers see resources re-allocated to where they are needed most. Win-win.

So, which public sector services work best online? How can the ZIPPORAH ZIPI web-based ecommerce transaction engine generate income for your organisation? Find out in the next ZIPPORAH blog post, or comment to request the full ZIPPORAH White Paper - Ecommerce: What's it got to do with the Public Sector?

Want to know more now? Visit http://www.zipporah.co.uk or call: 02920 647048.