Council signs off on City of Stirling App

As part of the 2021/22 Annual Budget, the City of Stirling has confirmed that it will develop a mobile app to assist residents and ratepayers to connect directly, easily, and quickly to services.
 
Statistics demonstrate that 62 per cent of the City’s website users access the website using a mobile device, compared to 34 per cent using a desktop/laptop and 4 per cent using a tablet. Research conducted by the City has also indicated that 60 per cent of users access their favourite apps daily.
 
The City will aim to develop an app that is dynamic to the needs of each individual customer, with the ability to customise user experiences on services that are relevant to them.

In contrast to ‘off-the-shelf’ options for app development that are used by other local governments, the City of Stirling will design an app that is specifically compatible with the City’s Relationship Management System (RMS); a significant investment in better and more efficient processes, stronger and more meaningful interactions with residents and more transparent government services and processes.
 
RMS is a critical digital enabler of the City’s Customer Engagement Strategy that was endorsed late last year, which puts customer experience and continuous improvement front and centre.
 
Mayor Mark Irwin said today that the 2021/22 Annual Budget would continue the City’s investment in further RMS upgrades and reforms, and that a City of Stirling app would complement what is now a project of continuous improvement years in the making, and the biggest reform in the City’s history.
 
“The delivery of the RMS project has enabled a number of customer forms to be directly integrated with the City teams responsible for actioning those requests, such as residential waste services, requests for maintenance, Address and Application Assistant, holiday watch requests and dumped litter,” he said.
 
“This means that an online form completed on the City’s website automatically sets off immediate action within the teams responsible in the City. The app will streamline these forms and features into one location, as opposed to being spread across various webpages on the City’s website, which will further improve the efficiency of services.
 
“Delivery of this app will improve our customer service responsiveness, provide residents with another channel to engage with the City if they prefer digital communication, and importantly, enable real-time pop-up notifications to people’s phones – a feature that would be useful in the context of renewal reminders such as for bin collection days and dog registration.”
 
Delivery of the first stage of the app is expected within the 2021/22 financial year.
 

Background: Customer Service Improvements (RMS)
 
The City continues to strive to deliver positive customer experiences, in line with our Customer Service Charter, and a number of significant improvements to improve the experience of our customers and colleagues.

Over the next 12 months and as part of continuing to build on our customer experience journey, the City will carry out a City-wide training program specifically focussed on strengthening the City’s internal customer service standards by adopting a business improvement mindset.
 
As it develops, the City of Stirling App will enable greater access to these improvements, extending the reach of our services to more people in more ways. Over the past year City has made significant developments to the customer experience through the RMS project, including:

• Homelessness records: supporting the City’s Homeless Strategy, RMS now offers our Community Services Team the ability to record potential cases of homelessness to better support our community and those in need
• The Address and Application Assistant: this is an online solution which provides customers with a more streamlined and easier pathway to find information about an address or about applications needed for a prospective development in the City of Stirling.
  • The Address and Application Assistant originated as an action within the City’s Business Friendly Approvals Project (an initiative of the Small Business Development Corporation). This service can be used by any resident, developer or small business owner seeking information about an address or relevant applications required for development in the City of Stirling.
• Digitisation of residential waste services: this RMS Release laid the digital foundation for future RMS releases in waste and further work to modernise our waste operations.
  • The Waste Team manages the highest volume services provided by the City and this initiative now provides value for most of our residents and ratepayers. 
  • This solution went live 12 April 2021 and it means the following high-volume residential waste enquiries are now offered as a service online by simply submitting an online form for: missing/damaged bins or new waste service requests.
• Customer Engagement Strategy: the first element of this was the Customer Feedback Release, which involved a revised feedback form for collecting compliments, suggestions and complaints, and a new Customer Pulse Survey sent to our customers at the completion of every service.
  • This is the first time the City has designed and offered our residents a formal channel to provide feedback on matters relating to the 200+ services available to our residents.