Customer and digital strategy 2024-29 - Our customers and our services

Consumer research (customer digital index 2022) suggest that 99% of the UK are now online. In the east of England 89% (UK average 88%) have essential full or partial digital skills for life*.

We understand that the experience of using our online services will be compared with others such as banking, retail and central government therefore moving forward with continuous development and improvement is essential to keep pace with growing customer expectations.

The majority of our customers have access to online and are digitally enabled and they expect our services to be easy to access and available 24/7. Our data shows that there is great opportunity to increase take up by improving their experience of using our services.

It is recognised that some customers cannot access services online and not all enquires are suitable to be accessed in this way.

We continue to provide a:

• telephone service with an option to request a call back and not wait
• in a queue, with a focus on a quality service with targets achieved for the success of calls.
• face to face appointment service that it is arranged with the most suitable officer to deal with the enquiry to ensure the best outcome and service.
• translation assistance for those who are not able to access information about our services or communicate with us easily. For example, may not be fluent in English, either written or verbal; may need a British Sign Language interpreter or lipreader; or need documents in Braille, or information on audio tape.
• an accessibility function on the council website

Our definition of customer

Within the context of this strategy customers are defined as anyone who lives, works or visits the city council area and our internal workforce and councillors.