Improving Services to BusinessesImproving Services to BusinessesLocal Government Group conference: 

using customer insight to understand complex issues

Thursday 10 March 2011

Rita Booth

Strategic Director Lichfield District Council

West Midlands Business Matters Project Lead

Why this work is important ………

Business Matters Project

A partnership of authorities in the West Midlands including Lichfield, Dudley, Solihull Sandwell, Birmingham and Business Link who share a passion to improve services to businesses

Started off focused on how we get a single view of the business - taking account of complexities of multiple locations, facets and owners

Developed standards for identifying and sharing information around business including looking at how to use Government Connect for sharing data securely

Also in receipt of funding from CLG Transformation Fund, managed by the LGID, to better understand the customer experience of businesses

Business support, enforcement and inspection services, licensing, business rates, planning and building control requirements….do we really have a comprehensive view of how we interact with businesses as a whole and what they actually need from us?

Customers Needs ServicesOrganisation

(local authority)

have satisfied by delivered by

Developing Customer Insight…….

Driving Service Improvement by Understanding Customer Need

Businesses are more complex in terms of multiplicity of locations, facets and contacts

Also the level of churn – as much as 20% in a year

EnvironmentalServices

Jones & Son1 High Street

Trading Standards

R Jones & SonNo 1 High St

Planning

R J JonesHigh St B96

Licensing

PROSECUTIONPENDING !!

Jones LtdOne High St

Economic Development and Business Link Supporting Mr Jones!Fire & Rescue need specific addressing for emergency call out

and for planned inspections

We know how to segment citizens….

But how do we segment businesses?

Segmentation Framework

Small Local Employer

Small Local Employer

Medium Local

Employer

Medium Local

Employer

Business at Home

Business at Home

Major Local Employer

Major Local Employer

Large National

Company

Large National

Company

Medium Subsidiary

Medium Subsidiary

Large International

Company

Large International

Company

Medium chain with multiple West Mids sites

Medium chain with multiple West Mids sites

Large Chain with few

West Mids sites

Large Chain with few

West Mids sites

Large Chain with many

West Mids sites

Large Chain with many

West Mids sites

Medium Chain with one West Mids site

Medium Chain with one West Mids site

Small ChainSmall Chain

Medium LargeSmall Medium LargeSmall

Firms with a direct stake in

West Mids

Public\Third Sector

Public\Third Sector

Head Office in West Mids

Head Office outside

West Mids

NNDR

Building Control

Head office

Segment group

Name

Property ID (LLPG)

AddressRegulations

Turnover

Postcode

SectorSize

Key issue is lack of data…… we start a long way back compared with the citizen

.

•Segmentation requires a high amount of data integrity

•Much data that is bought in is not shared across the authority

•Lots of data held by organisations like ONS is not visible to local authorities

•Segmentation will depend on application – regulatory services needs will be different to business support

Life Stage(demographics)

What we Need to Know ??

Segmentation is only part of the picture – understanding the life stage is crucial for targeting services

Helps understand if a business is succeeding of failing – growing or declining

Again needs high level of data integrity else looking at out of date picture

Lack of information for small businesses who may not have filed accounts Of crucial interest to the Local

Enterprise Partnerships

What is the Business Customer Experience ??

Consultation with Businesses…

Surveyed businesses less than 2 years old areas

Went across all sectorsMatching the business data –

no complete list existedCarried out structured survey to

find out the customer experience - looking for 300 businesses to respond

Followed up with focus groupAlso took learning from a

localised survey carried out by a Business Enterprise Partnership covering 2 Districts

Difficulty in finding out who were ‘new businesses’

On-line survey had abysmal response Specialist tele-survey group bought in

had excellent response Difficult to get people to join focus

groups without an incentive Local authority services not visible –

particularly to business start-ups Council ‘front-end’ not inviting to

businesses Different offers across the public sector

are not clear to businesses - we can be seen in ‘competition’

Specific mention of poor information on business rates

What next? Development of LEP’s has created much interest in our work and

taking this work forward is part of the Greater Birmingham LEP submission

Local Better Regulation Office has agreed to sponsor some work with us on how we target businesses for regulation using insight, and how we could develop closer links between business support and regulatory advice

Business Link West Midlands going end of March – looking at secondment from them into the local authority to work on how we take forward data-sharing

Writing guide to business and economic intelligence based on our project for West Midlands IEP

In discussion with businesslink. gov regarding how we can share our learning as they aim to become the point of online contact for all business enquiries – will become a syndication pilot

Interest in this area of work continues to grow……………