Channel Shift: Culture change is more important than tech?

Having attended the excellent #EPIC event at Exeter on 7th February 2012 which brought together some clever people to discuss both channel shift and social media. The two areas where delivered in separate rooms and I attended/presented on the Channel Shift side! 
 We heard from other councils about the work that they had done, some of the issues that they had experienced and also some of the differences of opinion they had with guidance about channel shift in general. 
Now forgive me if I am wrong but in my opinion channel shift for the web(that's my professional area of interest) has many facets and requirements to succeed, its not about moving everything to a cheaper channel for the authority.  You have to consider the tech, of course, but the fundamentals are easy to identify straight off and sits outside of the technical requirements documents that you send to you IS department or the creation of a CRM form for customer service or web team to build .
First off, communications plan! If your not going to tell your customers about what your doing and why then you wont get them to use it, tell them when and what they can expect and more often than not you will get good feedback, I have found feedback from our customers has been excellent, but we are blessed with very clever people in Cornwall.  The next part of the comms plan should include staff communications - that's including training them on how to use the "system", what the customers experience should be like and what they need to do if it isnt working (that never happens, honest).  The big thing for me is training your staff to change the way that your customers want to interact with customers.  Show the customer that the better way is by self serving, give them a good experience and they will use it again, if they need information then tell them its on the website, give them a brief overview even answer their enquiry but ask them if they are online, if they are then send them a link, tell them a bit about the website like "did you know that you can view the website on your mobile phone" for instance(if you have a mobile site that is*), even write scripts for your contact centre staff to follow!
Get this first part right as its all about changing culture, its about changing the customers preferences for interaction by showing that they can do this by themselves, when they want to and where they want to.  Its about changing your internal culture by ensuring your staff commit to the changes, giving them the confidence to deal with customers and show them the benefits of self serving, its about services understanding that the real channel migration starts by changing, then its about re-engineering processes, good customer experience and also about realising those channel shift benefits when they happen.  There is much more to this but this is my approach, the basics that have worked for me in the past and will be using in the future. The heart of all of what you do should be customer experience, make it a good one change, change the culture internally and externally and it will work.

Is it the death of paper?

Haven't blogged for a while but need to get back into it so today leads me to The Guardian's announcement today to be digital first in the future and invest in more digital future.  So if this the beginning of the end for paper? the success of the Amazon Kindle (I have one and love it like a third child) has also had an impact on the sales of books. We are seeing major print firms having to re shift their assets in major ways and in some cases sadly closing the doors. As a long term designer of both print and digital media I have to confess that there is something innately satisfying in opening a freshly printed box of work, the chemicals and the feel of the material will always make me smile, but will we be seeing the demise? Rupert Murdoch stated that he saw the death of the printed newspaper in the very near future, I have to say that I haven't read a newspaper in printed format more than once in a year(which was this week in fact).  I think the reasoning behind this is I now have the tools to pick and choose what I read, I have become saturated with too much information and now I choose what I read and from whom I read it.  I have a veracious appetite for information and follow social media avidly, this is the world I live in and feel comfortable with.  So if its the death of paper where does that leave the modern journo? will they have to change their skill sets to compensate for the different mediums? there are some that use the digital world very well and provide some very engaging (if sometimes a little one sided and on the other side of neutral, or is it provocative?) pieces.

Open data will surely be the tool of the journo in the future, however they will need to handle this with great care and consideration as open data is happily ignorant of any narrative that goes with it, a £500 fish tank on paper isn't such a problem when the reason is to help the kids.  

Social Media will be the forum of social opinion and alerts, its instant and recent events of a twitterer posting the events of Bin Laden's demise show the world is much smaller these days.  Mobile devices are equipped to be mini news stations with all the necessary tools to deliver live news on the move and spread the message to millions with a few clicks.

So exciting times for many and sad times for others, for me I will miss the world of mache, but look forward to the world of digital!

Oh I am not saying that local papers will die out very quickly, I will always need something to light the fire with :)

Are public sector workers unemployable?

I havent blogged for a while as i have been busy and not had a great deal to say but a couple of recent articles that I have read and followed have got me thinking about the future I suppose.

The articles in question are regarding the austere measures that are in place at the moment and as such the cuts which are leading to redundancies in Local Government.  The articles are around the fact that the government believe that many of these redundancies will be picked up by private sector roles however the private sector are reluctant to employ these people for a number of reasons (according to the articles).  So my thoughts lead to what are my chances of getting a job in the "real world"? I mean I didnt study at school, dont have any real qualifications (with the exception of a construction HND equivilent which doesnt really sit well in a web managers role).

That being said I have managed a few websites in my time, the most recent is now one of the 5th most used council websites in the country, we get more praise than criticism which is good because I take my role very seriously/peronally, also I am very proud of what I have been leading on and part of its success(have huge amount to do though). Many public sector workers manage their jobs in very difficult conditions with no budget and lots of hours, they learn to be innovative and to take requirements to another level.  This is talent, one I would have anticiapted a great benefit to a private sector employer.  What does tend to restrict a public sectors ability to really shine is policies and procedures that are sometimes cumbersome and not as agile as they could be.  A private sector employer can set their own agendas and as such allocate the required resources and budget, this gets things moving a lot quicker and the results are easily realised.

I would agree that in every walk of life you have the few employees that are not proactive and enthused about the most important aspect in public sector, our customers, but that shouldnt detract from the main that public sector workers are talented bunch and would be a great asset to a company. But what do you think? From experience in dealings with officers can you evaluate their worth fairly quickly? I would like to think that actions speak louder than words.  I hope that if/when I am looking for a new challenge then I would be able to put my career forward as proof I would be an asset!

if i wanted cuts i would have been a hairdresser

But i don't think my skills would have been best placed there!!

We are currently experiencing possibly the most tumultuous time in local government any of us has ever seen and the effects of this will be with us for the foreseable future.  The decisions that are being made for us by our peers will not only affect our lives but those of our children, I am not saying that our elected politicians are going to make the wrong ones but my concern is that decisions will be made from the heart and not from the fiscal reality that we have in place.  The other problem is that most people really don't realise quite how bad it is and just want to blame the local government when most of these problems are a knock on effect of bad banking(mostly our American financial wazkids!) and over spending in the past. 

There is a huge amount of savings that can be made in terms of processes that are paper pushing but those processes will also have a requirement for resources that are limited by the cuts, this is a rock and a hard place position. 

There is a great deal of public outcry over the pay for staff and the relation to the average pay in Cornwall at 24k per annum.  Its understandable that people who don't earn as much as that are upset at people earning more, but the flip side is shouldn't we be getting that average up in Cornwall? we have some of the most skilled people in the country living here and many live here when they could be earning big money in the city, they choose to stay because they love their heritage and want their children to grow up in the best place on earth.  I earn a good wage, I have earned much less than the average and believe me I have worked damn hard, given up a great deal of time to better myself so I can do more for my family.  Should I be punished for that?  if i earn less I spend less, so local businesses wont benefit and the knock on effect again means we keep salaries lower.

In terms of benefits, people need them, some people expect them and some demand them.  That's the areas we need to deal with.  If you cant find a job then community service and earn the Job Seekers until you do, it could be linked to skills learning so your training on the job.  If not, your at least doing something for society and the tax payers money, the pressure is lessened for councils to provide the services they cant afford to deliver.

I don't envy the people making the decisions, i don't envy the position of deciding on things that will effect peoples lives for a long time after in how they live and work in Cornwall.  Equally people need to understand its worse than they realise and these decisions are having to be made because they have been passed on to us by the people we had and have elected to make these decisions.  In many ways I applaud them for dealing with a deficit that could cripple a nation and is crippling others.  I don't have any answers but i question whether a Big Society will work when people are feeling very insular, I hope that we see Britain become Greater.

The cost of living

Luxulyan Valley

Had a great day out yesterday at Bedruthan Steps and Padstow.  As its not far from home its nice to get out for a walk with the camera and not have to drag a couple of surfboards around with me, only on occassion mind you normally i prefer the boards!! So it struck me yesterday that I never fully appreciated that my parents used to drag me to a beach every weekend and we would sit with our sandwiches (mine usually filled with sand!), melted chocolate roll and the Mr Kiplings apple pie that this all costed money.  Now I have my own kids, it certainly struck me that there doesnt appear to be anything that is cost free with the exception of a walk on the moors! I am interested in knowing what is available out there which is cost free.  Even a walk in the woods cost £3 these days.  Dont get me wrong I dont have an issue with paying for a decent meal(just like to promote Scott's National Trust cafe at Bedruthan Steps, the best of food every time!) its just a trip out is never less than £20 and we are only doing the trips for my family to get out and get some exercise, but to do that we have to do that within the confines of our village where parking doesnt cost and we can walk everywhere.  not really sure where I am going with this but just wanted to moan about why everything cost these days and would really like to know if there is anything that doesnt come with a raffle ticket attached to it.  In connection with this I am setting up a facebook page called Corwalls free stuff and a twitter stream #cornwallfreestuff good to get a discussion going about free stuff in Cornwall? what do you think?

Great summer

 Constantine Bay Reef (Mika 03/09/10 )

Well the summer is officially over for us in terms of school holidays. Its been a blast, whilst the surf could have been better, this past week has seen the best swell of the year with sun and a decent 4-6ft swell at Constantine. Although it was a tad of a paddle out for my dodgy shoulder!

Highlights of the summer for me have been the fact that I have spent so much time at the beach and the fact that my son has developed(finally) his fathers desire to grow gills and has simply learnt to surf instantly.  First wave and he was on his feet, the rest was easy.  I have now turned into a taxi for him with every evening a trip to Harlyn to get some surf he has been as keen as mustard to get in.  Mind you I dont think that I had two surfboards of my own for my 9th birthday or anyone to teach me to surf.  I certainly didnt have the talent to get up on my first wave. Been great all round and now just need to get through the winter to the next one. Got some great pics too!

Sams first wave

My boy

My girl

Sam

Rubbish aint it?

I surfed at Harlyn Bay last week, whilst not my favourite beach(like the shampoo I surf and go), I looked across the beach and was stunned by the amount of rubbish that people had left behind. We aren’t talking a couple of blown away crisp packets or the odd curly wurly wrapper, I am talking bin bags worth of refuse. What goes through peoples heads, maybe I was brought up in a different environment where my parents would have strung me up for dropping a wrapper and not picking it up.


There used to be a service that dragged the beach everyday with a tractor and picked up the rubbish. This damaged the sand so it stopped, understandably. There aren’t any beach cleaners these days or if there are I haven’t seen one and they would need a team to deal with it. The hedgerows are equally as bad! Our Council Tax pays to have this removed when the money could be better spent on many other things.

Whats the solution? Community groups cleaning the beaches, i would be up for it. On the spot fines, but who would deliver them. Its education at the end of the day, if we lead by example then we can get people to change their ways maybe. I know that what my parents installed in me at a very young age is still there and I have carried that on with mine. My son even picked up someone else’s rubbish recently and binned it. What I don’t want to see is my early morning surf ruined by tip toeing through the cans and plastic(and dog mess, although thats lots better). I am interested to hear what people think. @_jasonwilliams #cleanupcornwall