Spelthorne Borough Council identified the need to deliver a mobile app to meet customer expectations, improve channel shift and service delivery. The council delivered a smartphone app to enable residents to access services, news, transactional tasks and updates via their smart phones. This case study forms part of our demand management, Digital tools and approaches, resource.
Rather than mirroring the council's website, the council focused on what residents would be interested in. The app was delivered within six weeks and received a lot of publicity, with over 10,000 downloads in the first three months and a 10 per cent reduction in calls to customer services. The council used it extensively during the floods, setting up a flood news page, sending out alerts on road closures, providing latest advice and information on sandbags, where to get help, and adding live feeds from Surrey County Council and environment agency updates.
The council saw 3,000 extra downloads in a 10-day period, and while the customer services team was busy, the app helped reduce call volumes to the contact centre. The main lesson the council has learnt is to keep the app's content fresh so that residents feel it is useful and relevant.