User Engagement

Tender description

Summary of the work Teignbridge is undergoing transformation, at the heart of this are the changing needs of our citizens and how they want to interact with us, but we also recognise the need to support our most vulnerable individuals through whichever means are available. Expected Contract Length Up to 1 year Latest start date Saturday 15 April 2023 Budget Range £0-£20,000 Why the Work is Being Done Teignbridge District Council is undergoing a period of transformation, to meet the needs of its current and future customers and harness new technologies to provide a better experience for residents. At the heart of this are the changing needs of our citizens and how they want to interact with us, but we also recognise the need to support our most vulnerable individuals through whichever means are available. This project will support a channel shift to meet customer demand, using a digital first approach to self-serve and where customers need to interact with us, providing a resolution at the first point of contact. In order achieve this we need to understand our customers and how and why they use our services, and through what means they contact us or access our services. Problem to Be Solved Currently we have several digital platforms that don’t provide a single view of our customers. This can cause issues such as duplication across services, repeat contact from customers, and process failures. This results in inefficiencies across the council and dissatisfaction among customers who are experiencing resolution failure. It also means we have less resource to prioritise customers who cannot self-serve using our digital platforms or who need additional support. We are looking for a comprehensive picture of our customers and how they currently access our services. This will involve a statistically significant geographic (Teignbridge wide) and demographic representative sample of our district population. It will take the form of a user centred approach that includes qualitative research and evaluation. Who Are the Users  Who are our customers? (audience segmentation)  Why do they come to us? (what are the motivators?)  How do they reach us? (channels and processes)  Where are we currently meeting need, and how can we improve our digital information and engagement tools to better meet their needs?  Where are the failure / pain points in their journey?  How much time do customers spend within a transaction and repeat contacts?  What technologies / processes would improve this journey and better understand our customer interactions in future. Early Market Engagement We have sought the market for quotes and will be conducting due diligence through this framework to determine the best value for money Work Already Done We already retain significant quantitative baseline data, including website analytics and social media engagement; and customer support telephony. We envisage the main focus of the agency’s work will be on qualitative research, in particular identifying process pain points and digital barriers for customers. Existing Team Customer service design workstream group has been formed for the purpose of developing customer-centric services. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience have experience with low digital literacy (example) and must be able to work with a large demographic of people, experience with working with LA policies procedures etc Nice to Haves Experience of user engagement across a very broad spectrum of personas e.g. Local Authority users which can potentially encompass the entire population within a district Work Location A combination of remote working and working from the Teignbridge offices - Forde House, Brunel Road, Teignbridge, Newton Abbot, TQ12 4XX Working Arrangments A mixture of face-face meetings and MS Teams meetings. Weekly updates to be provided. Initial face-face kick off meeting and a written report at the end. Expenses to be included in the maximum budget of £20,000 No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • A document including their proposed approach to our requirements, including a breakdown of costs • how the approach or solution meets the user needs • how they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them and value for money Cultural Fit Criteria Have a flexible approach which adapts as required to deliver required outcomes Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Noting the contract length is 12 months, are there any project milestones that the supplier would need to work towards? There aren’t necessarily set milestones but we are looking to go back to the original participants to see if there has been an improvement in the services we provide. 2. Can you please tell us who the suppliers are that have been involved in the early market engagement? We are unable to answer this question as we will need to get the suppliers permission to post their details. Moreover, we do not know how this will help your submission. 3. Could you please confirm the procurement process and timings after the initial shortlisting phase? After we have whittled it down to our 3 consultancies (assuming this will take 2 days) we are hoping this will then take 2 weeks. After we are hoping to have this done by 28th March. 4. What outcome and outputs are you seeking? It isn’t clear from your requirement. As per the brief, we are looking for a consultancy that can hold qualitative research such as focus groups/ interviews, journey mapping etc. and tell us what improvements we can make to our systems and processes in the short term, and what we should be looking to adopt to support our customers and improve our services longer-term. We are keen to understand why customers choose to call us, write to us, email etc. us rather than use our website/digital services. Required outcomes:- achieve a channel shift from phone calls and other non-digital methods- identify failure in service delivery. 5. The budget for the outcome is up to £20k. Does that budget include or exclude VAT? The £20K budget excludes it- but we need it clear if the quote includes / excludes VAT.