2024 mid-term progress report
Strategic Priority: Stabilize and streamline service delivery
Indicators:
Interim Report: where we are and where we are headed
Customer Service Metrics
- 79% of customer inquiries resolved on the first point of contact (2023)
Why this matters?
Completing a customer interaction or resolving an issue on the first point of contact significantly boosts customer satisfaction, enhances the Town’s reputation as being responsive and attentive to customer needs, and saves time and effort for customers, other departments, and Council members. The Customer Experience Office (CXO) strives to resolve all customer enquiries on the first point of contact through our various channels. The most used channels include telephone and in-person service.
What does this mean?
The Town established the Customer Experience Office in 2021 with the goal of completing simple and routine customer enquiries on the first contact to limit the need for follow up interaction or escalation to other departments. Third quarter 2024 results are trending an increase over the 2023 response rate by 5%, indicating a significant improvement in our customer service efficiency and effectiveness.
Annual Savings from Shared Service Agreements
- $56,439 (2023)
Why this matters?
For small municipalities, it is difficult to deliver the level of service expected by customers with available staff and resources. Shared service agreements can improve service levels and provide cost savings by pooling resources across a larger service base. Shared service agreements enable small municipalities to operate more efficiently, provide better services to their residents, and build stronger, more resilient communities.
What does this mean?
In 2023, Midland and Penetanguishene signed a shared services agreement for the Mid-Pen Transit service that resulted in over $50,000 in cost savings or cost avoidance. In 2024, Midland and Penetanguishene will renew shared service agreements for Building Services that will result in additional annual savings or cost avoidance for Midland.
Percentage of Services Available Online
- 55% of services are at least partially online for customers
Why this matters?
Digital services make it easier for citizens to interact with government agencies, access information, and complete transactions online. Digitizing services can significantly streamline processes, reducing paperwork and administrative tasks by standardizing delivery activities across all customer service channels. Digital services increase access to service by enabling self-serve 24x7, but also by enabling assisted digital support solutions from friends, family and the Town’s Customer Experience staff.
What does this mean?
The Town has not previously measured our online service offering, so this result represents a baseline we can measure progress from. The percentage looks at the total number of customer-facing services that include transactional steps, activities that require both the Town and the customer to complete, such as applying for things or paying for things. Then we assessed whether all activities could be completed online or in a digital format. For the baseline, we counted the number of services where at least a portion of the required activities were available to customers online. For our baseline, 9% of services are fully online, and an additional 46% of services have some activities available online.
Interim Report
Where we are and where we are headed
Stabilizing and streamlining service delivery is crucial for Midland to ensure the efficient and effective use of our resources. As demonstrated in the activities assessed, this leads to cost savings and improved service quality. Eliminating redundancies, sharing services with neighbouring municipalities, optimizing processes, and offering digital services all provide consistent and reliable services to our residents.
In 2023, Planning, Building and Engineering completed a Development Services service delivery review that recommended 26 process and service improvements. Major activities implemented include making information about planning more accessible to users online, resulting in new online forms and user guides. Another outcome was a fee review to ensure improved cost recovery on development activities, including the introduction of engineering fees. Passing these costs along to the development community as opposed to the taxpayer ensures that growth pays for growth in development activities.
During review of the Building Services shared service agreement with Penetanguishene, a process and financial review was completed. This resulted in a new Building Services shared service agreement that improved cost recovery of staff time and improved service delivery for users.
The Town is committed to improving access to customer service, including both in-person and digital services. The Customer Experience Office continues to offer a simple one-stop-shop for many Town services, adding Finance activities, Transit and Parking services over the last three years. In addition, with the migration to a new Town website in 2023, several new online services or service activities have been delivered over the past two years, including:
- a plow tracker for snow events to improve customer awareness and provide a self-serve option to reduce customer service calls.
- the ability to pay for many Town services using debit/credit card at Town locations, online and at events.
- online applications for fireworks and burn permits, dog tags, planning, special events and requests for proclamations, flag events and for the Mayor to attend private events.