Government crest UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Go to Local Digital homepageALPHA

Laying the foundations for better local public services

Reducing care calls to improve customer satisfaction

Contents:

  1. Project outputs
  2. Project timeline
  3. Feedback

This discovery aimed to investigate how new technologies like Amazon’s Alexa and chatbots have the potential to reduce the need for expensive face-to-face visits.

The hypothesis for this project was that a small reduction (between 15% – 20%) in the six million hours of Home Support calls could generate savings.

Project outputs

All Local Digital Fund discovery projects were asked to provide the following information at completion:

  • User research report
  • Benefits case
  • Recommendations for next steps

In April 2019, the project team submitted the following documents:If you cannot access these documents, please contact the Local Digital team to receive them in an alternative format.

Downloads

Alternative ways to view the outputs:

We’re currently working on making all of our content accessible. If you cannot access these documents, please contact the Local Digital team to receive them in an alternative format.

Project details

Phase: Discovery

Funding granted: £69,300

Duration: December 2018 – April 2019

Partners: Birmingham City Council, Worcestershire County Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

Organisations: Birmingham City Council, Worcestershire County Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

Services: Adult services,

Health and social care

Project links

Project timeline

December 2018 - discovery

‘Reducing care calls to improve customer satisfaction’ discovery receives £69,300 from the Local Digital Fund.

April 2019 - discovery

‘Reducing care calls to improve customer satisfaction’ discovery delivers project outputs which are published on the Local Digital website.

Feedback

Each project was assessed using these lenses by the Local Digital Collaboration Unit. We have provided feedback directly to the project teams and this is a summary of what we shared with them.

It aims to be constructive for both the project team and any other organisation wishing to learn about the project or make use of the work done.

  • The project team gathered information about three user types through the use of three questionnaires: older adults, professional carers and informal carers which is likely to be of interest to other local authorities. Other methods of user research could also be used to gather more in-depth research with individuals. This research, together with the questionnaires would help the develop personas. These help the whole team and stakeholders better understand the users by focussing on user needs, motivations, behaviours and digital literacy.
  • The project team partnered with a university to support their research, and using desk based research have developed a deep understanding of the technology used in the  homecare space, both in the UK and abroad. The project team should consider ways this information might be made more accessible and reusable for the wider local authority sector but especially social care and digital teams.
  • The team presented two potential projects to take forward in Alpha. Further analysis of the user research might enable them to outline and score more options to explore.
  • The benefits case outlines the savings to be made if there is 15-20% of reductions in homecare visits. The project team should reference findings from the research that evidence how and where these 15-20% savings could be made.