by Eddie Coates-Madden and Lisa Buttery
So, what happens when communications and customer services come together? Are there things in common?
Last week I went to the #channelshiftcamp organised by the brilliant @psfnick in Derby City Council’s stunning HQ.
I took with me my colleague Lisa Buttery, our Assistant Head of Customer Services, not least because the opportunity to line up and join up Comms and Customer Services is never one I think we should miss, but also because it was all quite new to her.
She had never un-conferenced before. She has no twitter account. She has no Facebook account. She hasn’t looked at her LinkedIn account for months. In short, she was new to the whole un-conference environment.
On the train back I asked her to write a brief piece on what she had learned.
This is what she wrote:
10 things I learnt:
- Take one example/service to prove the concept, big ROIs are difficult to sustain
- Don’t get lost in current numbers and cost per transaction, the gut feeling is that this is the right thing to do.
- Target your channel of communication with customers, through the channel they are using very day
- You must look at the end to end process, access cannot be divorced from delivery
- Cashable savings are in back office streamlining, integration, when customers can check on progress themselves.
- Make your search engine look like 'Google'
- Connectivity, to be online is key to a community infrastructure.
- Digital TV must be revisited
- Important to use the other channels to support the customer to go online
- You can make music with fruit!!
Eddie Coates-Madden is communications and marketing manager and Lisa Buttery is assistant head of customer services at Hull City Council.