Buckinghamshire residents most likely to use post, phones and in-person visits to access council services

The Local Authority Digital Transformation Index (LADiT) utilises the latest census information across every local authority area in England, Wales and Scotland, and combines the data with expert customer experience (CX) analysis from FourNet.

The LADiT Index, which covers 350 local authorities across Britain, then charts a detailed pathway for councils embarking on future digital transformation journeys.

FourNet’s data plots the channels which residents are more likely to want to use in each council area - whether landline, mobile phone, chatbot, email or social media etc - and ranks them with a score for each demographic.

The Index shows that people living in Buckinghamshire are more likely to use phones to access council services - 45% (101% of the national average) to use landlines, 49% to use mobiles and 77% to use email.

Just over a third (35%) are likely to make in-person visits, with 37% still likely to use postal services.

In future, 52% (98% of the national average) are likely to want to use TikTok, and 45% to use Snapchat.

Buckinghamshire Council will need to invest in the latest digital technology platforms to communicate with local residents, as demand for a broader range of social media increases.

Alan Linter, FourNet’s Group Consulting Director of Customer Experience, said: “With local authority budgets under pressure, Buckinghamshire Council will benefit from this analysis when considering the next steps in its digital transformation journey.

“What our unrivalled LADiT Index reveals is the make-up of local populations with data which will be critical for councils to take into account when deciding how to invest in tech and designing their services.

“There is a huge difference in the way the majority of people interact with council services across the UK from the top of our index to the bottom - and Buckinghamshire Council will be able to use that data to understand their needs and plan for future investments better.”

UK councils are the backbone of local governance, managing £121.7 billion in budgets, supporting over 1.3m employees and providing services to nearly 60 million people.

Understanding the needs of citizens and optimising their customer journey when accessing local services is crucial to local authorities - and FourNet’s new LADiT Index provides key data for that purpose which will furnish digital transformation plans for the future.