Ipswich Council To Enhance Online Customer Experience

Ipswich Borough Council is moving forward with a plan to drive channel shift by enhancing the provision of online and digital services to improve the customer experience. 

The local authority is working with channel shift specialists Firmstep which is providing the council with its customer experience platform.  

Ipswich has already replaced its previous CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software with Firmstep's multi-channel platform, allowing citizens to self serve and automate processes to drive greater efficiencies and improve access to its digital offering.  

The council is now able to offer its Housing, Tax, Waste, Environmental Health and Elections services online.  

It is also using Firmstep's Platform to fully integrate its online citizen service provision with back office functions including email, centralising all data and requests onto the platform and making them available across the authority for a more streamlined customer experience.  

"It had become clear we needed to offer the public a better range of services digitally. We wanted a solution that was flexible and could help us meet our short and long-term goals," said Paul Farrer, operations manager at Ipswich.  

"Firmstep offered a tried and tested solution that met all our criteria for our long-term digital strategy. Their proactive approach has enabled us to complete the first phase of the project very quickly and we have been impressed with the initial results," he added.  

Automated Single Sign On Portal  

After the initial launch, Ipswich is planning to fully automate all its services and create MyIpswich.Gov, a single sign-on portal for all council services.  

This will allow the public to access to all their information and requests from one location and their experience will be much faster and more efficient.  

"Firmstep's established platform has enabled us to meet all our project goals and facilitated a very quick deployment," claimed Farrer.  

"The expertise and training that they have provided has enabled us to be self-sufficient, ensuring that we can update and optimise the services and tools we supply to staff and the public on a daily basis," he added.  

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