PA Consulting Group - CaseStudy - Open access - MCA Award-winning case study - Westminster City Council, London - 'Customer First' initiative puts citizens' needs at the heart of local government

'Customer First' initiative puts citizens' needs at the heart of local government

In the public sector, it is easy to talk about getting close to the customer. But to truly view the organisation through the eyes of the customer, and to act on what you see, takes real courage. With help from PA, Westminster City Council is leading the way with its ‘Customer First’ programme, showing how Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can enable public sector organisations to transform themselves around the needs of their customers.

Perhaps the biggest single challenge was that the Council, like other local authorities, was organised around functional departments such as social services and education, rather than around the needs of the customer. To use CRM effectively would require a radical redesign of the whole organisation around the customer. PA worked with the Council management to develop a service delivery model that would make this happen. We helped the Council set up one of the biggest local authority outsourcing deals ever, under which one supplier provides the entire Customer Service Centre, together with many of the more straightforward council services.

Just months after implementation, the project is delivering dramatic performance and cost improvements. Customer-friendly representatives now commission services and ensure that council commitments are kept. Customer service has been transformed with 94% of all calls made to the council answered through the Customer Service Centre (75% within 20 seconds - exceeding the contract standard). Financial savings are beginning to flow, estimated at over £80 million over 15 years.

Westminster City Council is now widely being held up as a model for the local authority of the future.

“We could not have undertaken this ground-breaking initiative without the skills and enthusiasm that the PA team brought to bear. They helped develop the vision and turn it into reality… and worked with us as true partners, often meeting impossible deadlines to achieve a successful implementation, which is already delivering improvement.”