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W
hen it comes to digital service delivery, the public
sector has a lot of catching-up to do. Consider all
the businesses that solely transact services digi-
tally (like Google and eBay). When we compare
these services to our public services (even transactional ones), it is
striking to see how in-person or telephone services are still heavily
used. Even when departments do deliver digital services, they are
often content with 20% usage.
A startling statistic — shared recently by a colleague in the Unit-
ed Kingdom — showed that failed access to government digital
services accounts for 80% of calls to local government call centres.
The problem just may be that people are channel jumping be-
cause of poor online experiences.
It does not have to be like that. The Region of Peel recently ex-
ecuted a high-profile initiative that showed the public is indeed
willing to move online.
The Region of Peel is a large regional government west of To-
ronto that includes two of Canada’s largest cities: Mississauga, and
Brampton, in addition to Caledon, a large, mostly rural municipal-
ity. The Region provides a variety of services to over 1.4 million resi-
dents, including waste management, social services, public health,
long-term care, paramedics, housing, water and wastewater.
Like many governments, the Region strives to improve its low-
est-cost digital channels that provide a high quality self-service
experience. Ultimately, it wants to build digital experiences that
are so good people will prefer to use them. By doing so, I will
reach its most ambitious program outcomes.
Many changes were necessary to create these kinds of trans-
formative outcomes. They involved people, technology and pro-
cess, including a new development methodology to design digital
services; new roles to complement existing ones; new standards;
new ways of working with a stronger focus on analytics and data,
and razor-sharp focus on the needs of citizens.
6
/ Canadian Government Executive
// November 2015
Innovation
Service Transformation
Getting the Public Online:
Like many governments, the
Region strives to improve its
lowest-cost digital channels
that provide a high quality
self-service experience.
Glenn
Brunetti
In 2014, the Region’s Waste Management program embarked
on a major operational change. The objective was a switch from
weekly waste collection to bi-weekly cart-based collection set
to start in January 2016. As part of that transition, residents in
270,000 households were driven online to the Region’s new web
application. This effort took place during a three-month period
between January and March, 2015.
The online experience was built for simplicity. By entering their
address, residents could see which cart sizes were pre-selected for
their household. Then, they could either confirm the pre-selected
cart size or choose a different-sized cart if the pre-selected size
didn’t meet their needs.
Conversely, if the solution had been to drive residents to call
the Region for information customized to their address, its phone
channel would have been overwhelmed. Providing the option to
call would have almost doubled our typical monthly call volumes,
increasing both cost and frustration for both the Region and its
citizens.
To make self-service work, the Region was guided by five design
principles adapted from the leading practices:
1) Start with User Needs and Design with Data
First and foremost, the driving principle was to use data and un-
derstand user needs in order to drive the design of digital ser-
vices. In fact, this principle even drove the choice of this project.