Buckinghamshire Council partners with HappyOrNot to apply digital approach to customer feedback and make service improvements
Following a successful six month trial period, Buckinghamshire Council will roll-out HappyOrNot’s physical and digital feedback solutions to help foster a customer focused culture.
Tampere & Aylesbury – HappyOrNot, the leading instant customer feedback company, today announces that it has partnered with Buckinghamshire Council to increase community feedback levels and help them make data-informed improvements to their services.
In May of this year, the council – which is one of the youngest unitary local authorities in the country – began trials of a small number of HappyOrNot smiley-faced physical and digital solutions. After six months, they had received over 1,500 feedback responses, and increased customer satisfaction index from 75% to 81%.
Established in 2020, Buckinghamshire Council is responsible for 551,560 constituents making it the sixth largest council in England. In October 2021, the organisation launched its new ‘Customer First’ programme with the purpose of embedding customer focussed processes across its online and offline services.
To achieve its vision and customer first aims, Buckinghamshire Council is using three of HappyOrNot’s Smiley Touch™ terminals in its Aylesbury, Amersham and High Wycombe Council Access Point Plus sites.
Recognising the increase in online visitors and engagement, the council has also embedded HappyOrNot’s digital feedback panels across its webpages and email templates. Featuring clickable smiley faces, the Smiley Digital™ solution enables residents and community members that go online or receive council emails, to quickly share their feedback on matters related to waste collection, recruitment, building control and family centres.
Insights and instant feedback reports generated by HappyOrNot’s interactive dashboards, will be reviewed by Buckinghamshire Council’s Customer First team. Nominated individuals working in services will also be encouraged to review weekly reports they receive, and identify any problem areas. Trends and feedback themes will be used to make changes and better support the dynamic sentiments of community members.
Nominated team members in the service areas have access to the dashboards, and receive weekly reports containing the feedback. Any themes identified in the feedback can be shared with the Customer First team who can explore potential issues or areas for improvement and support any changes that are needed.
“Feedback is extremely important to Buckinghamshire Council. We use it to drive service improvement and to ensure that we offer the best possible experience for our customers, both internal and external. We rely on feedback to identify where there are potential issues with our service provision that need to be addressed, but also to identify where we are doing well,” adds Councillor John Chilver, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing & Resources at Buckinghamshire Council. “Working with HappyOrNot gives us instant around the clock access to how our community is feeling, while simultaneously providing a consistent approach to feedback that encourages offline and online responses. Being able to receive HappyOrNot’s feedback to visualise trends and determine which areas to focus on, is a major benefit for us, especially when it comes to ensuring that our service providers are properly supported.”
“We are delighted to be partnering with Buckinghamshire Council who are committed to delivering an excellent and consistent standard of customer experience across all their services. Being able to offer their customers a quick, friendly, and engaging way to leave feedback, is key to helping them drive improvement. We are proud that they have chosen HappyOrNot to help them achieve their goals, and are confident that their customer service levels will continue to improve across the council.” comments Michele Aarons, Senior Customer Success Manager at HappyOrNot.
About Buckinghamshire Council
Buckinghamshire Council was formed in April 2020, bringing together the former county council and four district councils into a new unitary authority covering the majority of the county of Buckinghamshire. The authority is responsible for a wide range of council services including social care, highways, leisure services, housing, electoral services and education. Visit www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk