Putting Customer Insight Into Practice

Peter Gadsdon

Head Of Strategy & Performance, London Borough Of Lewisham

19 March 2012

Using Customer Insight To Drive Improvement

A deep ‘truth’ about the customer based on their behaviour, experiences, beliefs or needs that is relevant to the task or issue and ‘rings bells with

target people’

Customer insight is… Customer focus is…

About refocusing services around the needs of the citizen as a customer of public services,

rather than the problems of those who provide the services. It signifies an organisational culture

that aims to address the needs, expectations and behaviours of the public, and then adjusts every aspect of the organisation to align with

customer values

CUSTOMER FOCUS SHOULD DRIVE SERVICE IMPROVEMENT – CUSTOMER INSIGHT SHOULD DRIVE CUSTOMER FOCUS

Customer insight methodologies are designed to gather data and information

which can give us a deeper understanding of customers needs, wants, expectations,

behaviours and experiences

Customer Journey Maps

Sketching/Rich PicturingEthnography

Segmentation Focus Groups

Mystery Shopping

Social Media

Usability TestingFrontline Staff Interviews

CRM/Data Systems

Service Area Data

Website

Customer Insight & EfficiencyEFFICIENCY DRIVERS CUSTOMER FOCUS DRIVERS CUSTOMER INSIGHT METHODOLOGIES

When are the peaks and troughs in customer demand?

How can we work together with customers to encourage behavioural

change?

Understand ‘true behaviours’ using ethnography, use ongoing dialogue

to encourage mutual change

Watch trends, gather data, probe customers to understand patterns

What activities in a process add value for the customers and which

do not?

Customer journey mapping to identify journey steps and value from

the customer perspective

Where do customers want services to be delivered and what kind of

buildings do they need?

Rich picturing to get customers involved in designing their own

environment

Use journey mapping to understand interdependencies/rich picturing to

create a route map for change

Dialogue through interactive workshops – journey mapping

Gather insights using all methodologies and open debate

What other services do customers access and where are the overlaps?

Who do customers want to be delivering services to them?

What do customers think we could stop or ration?

Shape Demand

Economies Of Flow

Reduce Waste In System

Optimise Resources

Economies Of Scale

Optimise Procurement

Policy Changes

Using Customer Insight To Achieve Cultural ChangeCustomer insight is a powerful tool which helps to…

• Persuade decision makers to implement a change

• Lead and galvanize support for doing things differently

• Influence the behaviours of staff

Customer insight works because…

• It is visual, engaging and different

• It talks about experiences and emotional responses

• It offers a new perspective in defining/assessing value in service delivery

• It is not the interpreted view of an officer, but comes straight from the customer’s mouth

Case Study 1– The Design CouncilRestructure & Relocation

• Developed a preventative service delivery model that places the customer at the centre

• Redefined roles & responsibilities and renamed the service ‘Housing Options’

• Redesigned processes around the needs of the customers e.g. initial contact

• Revised policies and procedures to embed new ways of working & cement a cultural shift (both our staff & customers) e.g. Allocations Policy

Public Services By Design Programme

• Response to ‘Innovation Nation’ White Paper• Design Council challenged to help government create

services that are cost effective & connect public to heart of policy making

• Lewisham made a successful bid in 2009/10 – implementing a design approach to improve the experiences of people using emergency housing services

Step 1 – Identifying Customers & Their Needs

Who are our customer groups are…

Staff From Across Housing Needs Came Together To Discuss…

What works well and where there are problems with the customer and

staff experience…

What the specific needs of these groups are…

Step 2 – Involving Staff

• Created a project group to enable staff-led change

• Looked at examples of how videos can be used to capture customer views & shape change in other settings

• Trained how to use videos as a tool to collect customer insights

• Practised using video & interviewing customers in a ‘safe’ environment – learning & refining skills before go live

What We Did…

Step 3 – Gathering Customer & Partner Insights

Step 4 – Identifying Themes & Sketching Ideas

• Expectations

• Gaps in the system

• Understanding and interacting with our customers

• Explaining the process

• Empowering our customers

• Simplifying the system

• Working together

What We Found Out…

Step 5 – Prototyping & Testing

• Prototyping means we can develop ideas quickly and cheaply

• It gives us a practical example to use to test how our ideas work in practice

• Our customers can give us feedback which will help us improve our ideas

• Our solution will be tried & tested and therefore more workable

• Pick first four easy ideas to implement

1. Getting It Right First Time

2. Cartoon Case Studies

3. What Next Doc

4. Fact Sheets

What It Is… What We Came Up With…

Step 6 – Developing The Innovation Pipeline

• Efficiency savings of £368,000 have been achieved against design project investment of £7,000

• Embedded film as a tool within our service transformation methodology to capture & use customer insight to create buy-in and commitment for change

• Real experiences, real lives – provides a detailed understanding of strengths, gaps & opportunities with our services

• Forces us to think differently and encourages us to act

Learning/Achievements

Design And Innovation Is Not A One Off Exercise

• More staff…

• More insights…

• More ideas and prototypes…

Case Study 2: Homelessness & Community Budgets• Community Budgets aims to find new, radical ways of working with families who have complex

needs by pooling/aligning resources across partnerships – Lewisham is one of 16 first phase areas

2. Families With Offenders

3. WorklessFamilies

1. High NeedsFamilies

Our

App

roac

h Many families targeted through Community Budgets are likely to have housing issues e.g. homelessness, ASB, rent

arrears – we cannot tackle wider problems successfully if they do not

have stable base

Tackling Homelessness

• Temporary Accommodation Project, developed from the ideas generated from the insights in the Design Council project, on preventing homelessness and improving life chances for families with complex needs in temporary accommodation

• Opportunity to use homelessness as the route into these families’ lives, complementing and supporting existing Community Budgets work

Step 1 – Prototyping A Short Stay Assessment CentreTHE AIM: Reduce the usage & costs of nightly paid accommodation

THE SOLUTION: Use existing Council assets in a radically different way to establish a short stay assessment centre for homeless households

• Expensive option – £300K per year overspend on B&B accommodation; unsustainable if homeless approaches increase

• Poor performance – dependency on B&B caused by delays in decision making and lack of longer-term opportunities for move-on

• Negative experience for customers – instability, disruption to family life, impact on health and welfare (Insights)

• Produced detailed profile of hostel stock and households in TA to determine ideal match for assessment centre

• Developed decant strategy to move-on existing residents to alternative accommodation, supported by additional RSL temp lets

• Undertook ‘model fit-out’ of one unit to test whether it saves time/money & converted other units to enable flexible use

• Worked with frontline staff to co-produce new operational model designed around needs of customers and streamlined end-end process

LAUNCH: September 2011

Outcomes So Far

• Intensive focus on homeless families – wraparound support and holistic assessment of needs during stay (not just part vii investigations), establish early intervention partnership working to help households tackle more complex social challenges

• Better management of demand – promote upfront housing options and prevention pathway, targeted diversionary strategies to those at risk of eviction, reduce repeat contact

• Efficiency savings (c.£150K-£200K) – reinvest in longer-term strategic approaches to tackle root causes of homelessness

What Did We Want To See?

• However, the key ingredient to achieving long-lasting, effective change is to focus on the customer themselves and understand their experiences, behaviour and perceptions of the homelessness service

Beha

viou

ral

Chan

ge

THEN NOW

B&B Numbers 78 (May 2011) 39 (Feb 2012)

Overspend £249K £187K

Open Cases 188 (Dec 2011) 89 (Feb 2012)

Step 2 – More Customer InsightWhat Did We Want To Do?

What Have We Done So Far?

• Commissioned a social research company to support project and provide expert guidance

• Established project team (5 frontline officers from across the housing service) & worked with them to identify key customer archetypes

• Conducted in-depth, ethnographic research with 5 customers over 4-5 weeks + currently undertaking staff led interviews with wider range of customers

• Develop a detailed picture of key customer groups, particularly those with complex needs

• Focus on their experiences, aspirations & barriers to achievement

• Better understanding of the customer journey & the triggers/predictors for homelessness

• Use insights to further improve assessment centre & whole service

Our Focus…Et

hnog

raph

ic F

ilms

Staff

-Led

Inte

rvie

ws

• Refine insights into short film & accompanying document highlighting key themes and issues• Ideas generation workshops with frontline staff, senior managers & other stakeholders to

develop creative solutions• Embed behavioural changes amongst customers, prevent homelessness from becoming a

further contributor to a lifecycle of dependency

A family recently gained/lost access to

public funds (Leanne)

A young, single adult(Oscar)

A family with complex needs

(Sophia)

An individual with complex needs/dual

diagnosis(Charles)

A family who have received a negative

decision(Miriam)

Parental EvictionsParental Evictions Friend/Family Evictions

Friend/Family Evictions

Legal Evictions From Private Rented Sector

Legal Evictions From Private Rented Sector

Legal Evictions From Social Housing

Legal Evictions From Social Housing

Domestic ViolenceDomestic Violence National Asylum Service Cases

National Asylum Service Cases

Illegal Eviction Or Landlord Harassment

Illegal Eviction Or Landlord Harassment

Single Vulnerable Clients

Single Vulnerable Clients

Nex

t Ste

ps

Lewisham & The Looking Up Model• The Shaftesbury Partnership are working with Lewisham and several other authorities to

undertake some of the initial design work for their Looking Up Model

Focus on adults with multiple/complex needs

(‘gap’ in Community Budgets work)

Case study with 20-50 households

Review of existing budgetary/commissioning

frameworks

Business case & financial model

Most vulnerable, problematic, known to more

than 1 agency

Don’t fit easily with a particular service area,

existing services struggle to support

Excluded from services due to challenging

behaviour, fall between statutory thresholds

Lewisham & The Looking Up Model (Shaftsbury partnership)

Looking Up

Lead person

Single budget

£

Person

RelationshipLiving solutionsLiving solutions

Support solutionsSupport solutions

Health / treatment solutions

Health / treatment solutions

Other ad hoc solutions /

extras

Other ad hoc solutions /

extras

Improved outcomes

Public sector resources:•Local authority•NHS •DWP•CJS

Public sector resources:•Local authority•NHS •DWP•CJS

Community resources

Additional resources: philanthropy, private sector

Additional resources: philanthropy, private sector

Putting Customer Insight Into Practice

Peter Gadsdon

Head Of Strategy & Performance, London Borough Of Lewisham

19 March 2012