County Councils Success with Live Chat for Website
County councils offer a great number of services to their wards including:
- Education (School and Youth services)
- Social Services
- Highways
- Fire and Rescue Services
- Libraries
- Waste Disposal
- Consumer Services
- Town and Country Planning
With cuts to budgets, councils are looking for ways to continue serving their ward efficiently whilst reducing costs. County councils across England are turning to Click4Assistance for help.
Case Studies
Suffolk County Council 
When it came to implementing live chat, Suffolk County Council rolled it out in two phases. Phase one which was funded by the general purse consisted of implementing live chat out internally to allow 25,000 staff members to connect instantly with the HR department.
Customer Services (general enquiries) and the Customer First Team (adult social care enquiries) was also involved in the pilot. The first 3 month was such a success they continue onto phase 2 with all departments interested, the general purse funded this stage before individual departments became responsible funding within their own budget.
To find out more about the Council’s implementation, read our blog Suffolk County Council Uses UK Live Chat
Buckinghamshire County Council 
Buckinghamshire originally implemented live chat to help identify areas on the website that lacked information or had complicated navigation, wanting to make the council more accessible to residents.
The solution was rolled out to school admissions that experience high levels of enquiries and other departments including Libraries. The council is working towards digitalising more services online, intending to remove their telephone number from online forms and aiming for live chat to become the main channel of communication for residents going through online processes.
Read our blog Buckinghamshire County Council’s Success with Live Chat to find out more about the Council’s intentions.
East Sussex County Council
East Sussex uses live chat on their Adult Social Care and Health pages. The department focuses on helping people who need extra support to live as independently as possible.
Chat helps the council to be more accessible to residents and can be easier for those who prefer text-based communication methods, or for individuals acting on the behalf of another.
Find out more about how East Sussex is providing chat in our blog Local Authority Deals with Social Care via Live Chat
Dorset County Council 
Dorset County Council is one of several councils making up the Dorsetforyou partnership. The partnership shares resources as a more cost effective solution allowing them to keep a high level of customer service to their residents.
As a result of this the partnership uses live chat for the several councils. Each chat is routed from the central website for the partnership to the relevant council.
Read our blog West Dorset Council Implements Chat for more information.
These are examples of some of the county councils using live chat to improve their services to residents. The budget cuts have affected all types of councils and many are turning to live chat as a cost effective solution including:
- Blackpool Council (Unitary)
- Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
- Rother District Council
- Sefton Council (Metropolitan Borough)
- Sunderland City Council
- Waltham Forest (London Borough)
To find out how live chat can work in your council, book a free demonstration with our local authority co-ordinator by calling 01268 524628 or email theteam@click4assistance.co.uk
