Multi-channel communications improve community resilience during severe weather.
The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council serves 534,000 residents in West Yorkshire, UK. As part of a wider communications strategy, Bradford uses govDelivery to deliver a public email bulletins service for 127,000 subscribers, comprising 50+ subscription topics — from recycling advice to council job vacancies.
SITUATION
After the UK experienced its coldest weather in years, with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures lasting several days, Bradford Council realised they had to be proactive about gritting roads, emptying bins, social care provision, and many other services.
Bradford had a responsibility to let local people know about service disruptions as well as specialist support available to help keep communities safe and well. Residents needed regular updates to help them make informed decisions, and they expected information fast.
SOLUTION
During the severe weather Bradford Council used its website, social media, media releases, and email updates to share timely information about service disruptions, planned gritting, advice on how to help vulnerable people, and photos of staff and local people working hard to help others. This brought a friendly human touch to the messages, which may even have had a positive impact on the public’s patience in these challenging times.
The recent addition of an “extreme weather” email topic to Bradford Council’s suite of email updates for residents had already attracted 1,000 subscribers and gave the council a primary channel for sharing information as soon as they heard the forecast. Anticipating the increase in public demand for information during the unusual circumstances, the Communications team were quick to build an audience to this new email topic through a variety of methods.
RESULTS
During the first week of heavy snow, the number of subscriptions to the “extreme weather” topic increased by more than 6,000 and the council gained 1,300 net new email subscribers — more than an average month’s worth in a week! With over 16,000 new subscriptions across the whole range of topic options, the winter weather drew in a significantly larger audience than usual, boosting the council’s ability to communicate important info to residents then, now, and in the future.
For customers, as well, the impact of the changes were felt almost immediately. In the first four and a half months from the launch of the form, 51% of the 832 customers who reported a missed collection resulted in the crew having to return to the property. Scaling those numbers up to a full year suggests that the council would not need to return in around 1,100 cases where a customer tried to report a missed collection.
govDelivery social media integration increased audience
The emails achieved an average open rate of 68%, peaking at 75% on the fourth day. The average click rate was 14.6%, more than twice the average click rate for all emails in February. As a result of cross-promotion on social media, the bulletins were viewed a further 8,300 times. This demonstrates the extra power of integrated multi-channel communications.
Council website had its busiest day ever
Email bulletins and Facebook sent more than 12,000 people to the council website which was kept rich with new info ready to service residents’ needs. One email bulletin alone drove more than 1k recipients to the website for bin collection updates, providing more residents with the revised collection timetable.
More rough sleepers housed in temporary accommodations
The council saw a significant increase in referrals for cold weather provision for homeless people and on average were able to house 18 people each night; more than twice the average for a normal cold night. The regular promotion of the referral phone number across social media and email bulletins undoubtedly helped to increase the number of rough sleepers housed that week.
Better communication helps boost resident satisfaction
A number of residents sent positive feedback via the council’s website or through social media, including this quote:
