Two thirds of customer contacts now online

These figures, compiled by Socitm Insight as part of a research project for the Government Digital Service, are published in Channel shift: grasping the opportunity a new briefing available now to Socitm Insight subscribers.

The GDS published the headline figures provided by Socitm at the end of July as part of the alpha version of the government transactional services list. This was released by GDS as a step towards helping the government more effectively measure the performance of public services, improve the experience of customers using transactional services, and identify areas where cost savings can be made.

As part of the project, Socitm Insight has estimated volumes of online and offline contacts coming in to English local authorities. Using data from Socitm's Channel value benchmarking service, and other data gathered specifically for the GDS project, Socitm estimated that the total number of face-to-face and phone contacts across the local authority sector might reach 201m contacts per year.

Based on data from its Website take-up service, Socitm estimates the total number of web visits in 2011/12 to be 388m. On this basis, the current average ratio of offline to online contacts is 34% to 66%. The calculations are based on the average number of 'offline' contacts recorded, per head of local population, by councils participating in Socitm's Channel value benchmarking service in 2011.

For some councils, per head volumes will be much higher, according to Socitm research, and all councils would do well to work out their own score for this key variable. Joining the next running of the Channel Value Benchmarking programme will support this aim. The programme runs 25 September to 18 December, and details are at: http://www.socitm.net/info/165/services/24/customer_access_improvement_service/3