Derbyshire modernises its customer services with new engagement platform by Granicus

A new CRM platform is supporting Derbyshire in creating a more cohesive customer support and communication system, offering residents more choice in how they communicate with the council.

Derbyshire County Council, serving 800,000 residents, has gone live with the govService platform by Granicus, in order to provide residents with a streamlined way of interacting with its services.

The Council went live with the first phase of implementation, which includes a new CRM system that allows staff to manage customer interactions end-to-end, in December 2021. The govService citizen engagement platform is enabling Derbyshire to digitise more of its services, allowing customers to self-serve online. It has also improved workflows for staff by joining up service customer touchpoints, allowing them to be viewed and managed in one place.

Derbyshire chose the govService system as part of its customer service approach which aims to improve the experience residents have when interacting with the council with the added benefit of reducing the call centre output by directing residents to transact online. It will also enable them to modernise the service, so that it can meet resident expectations for an accessible online customer service. Previously to govService, the council was using several siloed systems with a lack of data integration which created inefficient workflows, relying on costly paper-based processes.

With the govService platform in place, residents can now access council services around the clock, at a time that best suits them. They are also able to easily track the progress of their requests through an online portal, right from the point of submission through to completion.

Since 1 December, over 2,000 residents have registered for a self-service account, and have submitted over 10,000 cases through Self, an average of 84 each day. This accounts for 31% of total platform wide submitted cases of 32,000.

In addition, over 22,000 cases have been submitted by Call Derbyshire through Service, an average of 185 cases per day and accounting for 69% of all platform-wide submitted cases since the program launched.

Julie Odams, Assistant Director of Communications & Customers at Derbyshire County Council said:

“The council is committed to improving how we interact with our residents; we want to make sure they have a great experience every time they contact us, and are kept well informed when they are receiving our services. The Granicus platform has given us the ability to provide a much better service and to make big efficiencies in our back office functions, and is a fundamental part of the council’s transformation over the coming years.”

Dominic Hughes, Project Manager at Granicus UK said:

“It was a great pleasure for the Granicus govService team to work with DCC and to see them achieve so much in such a short space of time. I think this was due to their commitment to their plan, great teamwork, allocating and ring fencing resources for the project, a comprehensive training plan, and investing in time with experienced Granicus govService Consultants when in need of support.”