Access to Services
This, quite simply, means that we are looking to make it much easier for the people who live in County Durham to find out about and get access to the wide range of services we provide. And it’s not only County Council services we are looking at – we are in a partnership with the district councils across County Durham, known as the ‘County Durham e-government partnership’, and through this we aim to offer access to all council services to the public.
We are looking at setting up a contact centre – one phone number for all of our services, as well as a network of places across the County where people can pop in and talk to a trained officer, or use technology to find out what they need to know. The key to this is the Customer Relationship Management system (CRM), a computer system which links up everyone in the contact centre and the various access points and provides consistent information and advice about services provided. It will also provide us with vital information about the people who use council services. At the moment we are busy ‘loading up’ the CRM with a wide range of information that will enable this to happen.
As well as the CRM system we are looking at using other technologies to enable people to access our services.
We are looking at setting up a contact centre – one phone number for all of our services, as well as a network of places across the County where people can pop in and talk to a trained officer, or use technology to find out what they need to know. The key to this is the Customer Relationship Management system (CRM), a computer system which links up everyone in the contact centre and the various access points and provides consistent information and advice about services provided. It will also provide us with vital information about the people who use council services. At the moment we are busy ‘loading up’ the CRM with a wide range of information that will enable this to happen.
As well as the CRM system we are looking at using other technologies to enable people to access our services.
- Video conferencing will enable people to have ‘face to face ‘ discussions with officers from more local premises – community halls or voluntary sector centres.
- Kiosk technologies - like phone boxes - will allow people in more remote locations to contact us or access the website.
- DigiTV is being looked at as a means of people accessing service through the television.
