#31 The culture of change: Making the citizen a customer

In episode 31 of InTranstion, our guest is the Senior Digital Officer at Nottinghamshire County Council, Sarah Lay. In this episode we discuss Nottinghamshire County Council’s innovative Digital First Project and how the council took customer centric approach when dealing with their citizens.

Bio
Sarah is the Senior Digital Officer (Digital Team Leader) at Nottinghamshire County Council and co-founder of digital practitioner network, LocalGov Digital, where she is the current Communications Lead.

At Nottinghamshire County Council her work involves both strategy and delivery of digital services and she where focuses on the council’s Digital First project. The project includes a new website, delivery of a social media strategy, work across microsites and extranets and delivery of an intranet and employee engagement tools.

These roles and her previous experience led to being included in the local government shortlist for the Digital by Default News Digital Leaders 100 Awards in 2014. Additionally her roles has covered content management to research and statistical analysis, user-centred design techniques and digital engagement.

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Show Notes:
2:30 – Communication professional doing the work that was traditionally meant for ICT professionals. This allows communications professionals to take a customer centric approach.

4:55 – The story of the Digital First project which focuses on the relaunch of Nottinghamshire website.

10:00 – Building the skills in house allowing them to embed customer centric approach into the organisation.

11:50 – Sarah explains how she built support within the organisation to embrace the notion for change and the use of digital channels.

14:35 – Sarah offers her advice when building a digital communication strategy for local government.

21:00 – Organisational structure of the digital/ communications team and their roles.

31:10 – Sarah explains how the Digital First Project has moved away from IT based teams to marketing/communications based teams.

32:20 – Sarah discusses the success of the Digital First Project and the culture of openness and bravery and willingness to take risks.

34:35 – Sarah advises to continue to consult with your communications team and speak to the citizens to find their needs.

InTransition Ep 31 Sarah Lay – Transcript