Disabled People’s Organisations Denmark
Transforming disability services in Denmark
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Research shows that people with disabilities who have access to convenient transportation and parking are more likely to participate in social, economic, and community activities, improving their overall quality of life and societal inclusion.
However, the process to obtain a disabled parking permit in Denmark was cumbersome and time consuming, making it difficult to access such benefits.
The Disabled People’s Organisations Denmark (DPOD), who mainly focus on advocating for disabled people, needed a partner to upscale its front-end IT experience so people could secure permits quickly and smoothly.
By improving the front-end user experience, DPOD have improved the application process, become a digital-first operation, and can focus more time on core activities.
Overcoming a complex and cumbersome process
For those with a range of disabilities, a disabled parking permit improves their ability to take part in society, overall wellbeing, and quality of life.
But the process for getting a parking permit had become cumbersome for the applicants and inefficient for the employees behind the scenes at the Disabled People's Organisations Denmark (DPOD).
Case handling times were too long in many instances and anyone calling DPOD’s helpline could expect to wait up to 40 minutes.
With a more efficient disabled permit application system, DPOD could improve the user experience of those applying for permits through reduced case-handling times and easier digital journeys.
We worked with DPOD on a pro bono basis to make rapid improvements to the case-handling system and deliver a better customer experience while encouraging digital applications.
Plotting a roadmap to a digital future
Confused by multiple application routes – online, postal, and a combination of the two – people were flooding the call centre with queries and the case load was rising.
We realised that people’s digital needs are the same regardless of disabilities, and if we could just improve things to encourage digital applications then we would solve 80 percent of the issues.”
The immediate priority was to improve the existing case handling system and deliver a smoother experience for applicants.
We began by mapping the existing process to identify pain points. Using data analysis, we identified trends, including the number of applicants choosing digital versus manual applications.
It became clear that the website was a source of confusion and, in collaboration with the DPOD communications department, we were able to redesign it to better guide users through the application process and encourage digital applications over postal.
We introduced nudging techniques to highlight the advantages of the digital process. Clearly conveying the time-saving benefits made users more likely to choose the digital application route. Furthermore, we identified ways to secure an end-to-end digital process by digitising the health certificate from GPs to DPOD.
Empowering Denmark’s disabled people
As a result of this work, case handling times were reduced, the user experience was improved, and DPOD has seen an uptick in digital applications.
More broadly the project shows that organisations can make big changes with small steps. It is possible to help the solve smaller, technical problems and at the same time empower an organisation to work on a more strategic level.
Looking ahead, DPOD now has a roadmap for digital transformation, which could see emerging technologies, such as license plate scanning, deployed to create a fully digitalised parking permit system that would drastically simplify the entire system and reduce the risk of fraud.
Relatively subtle and simple changes have substantially improved the application process and given us a benchmark for future digitisation programmes.”
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