I just wanted to say thank you! Thank you for providing up to date information during the bad weather, it’s much appreciated. Bulletins were issued throughout the days and sometimes more than once a day. Have a bouquet Bradford Council, you deserve it!
The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council serves 534,000 residents in West Yorkshire, UK. As part of a wider communications strategy, Bradford uses govDelivery to deliver a public email bulletins service for 127,000 subscribers, comprising 50+ subscription topics — from recycling advice to council job vacancies.
Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Multi-channel communications improve community resilience during severe weather
Overview
Web
Visitors
27.8K
1500%
More New Subscriptions
more than a "normal" week
400%
Subscriber Growth
higher than a "normal" week
New Subscriptions
to "Extreme Weather" updates
in one day
(busiest ever)
6.2K
Must-have Granicus solution
Want to learn how govDelivery can support your goals? Sign up for a live demonstration today.
After the UK experienced its coldest weather in years, with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures lasting several days, Bradford Council realised they had to be proactive about gritting roads, emptying bins, social care provision, and many other services.
Bradford had a responsibility to let local people know about service disruptions as well as specialist support available to help keep communities safe and well. Residents needed regular updates to help them make informed decisions, and they expected information fast.
Extreme weather pressures council to improve communications
govDelivery
During the severe weather Bradford Council used its website, social media, media releases, and email updates to share timely information about service disruptions, planned gritting, advice on how to help vulnerable people, and photos of staff and local people working hard to help others. This brought a friendly human touch to the messages, which may even have had a positive impact on the public’s patience in these challenging times.
The recent addition of an “extreme weather” email topic to Bradford Council’s suite of email updates for residents had already attracted 1,000 subscribers and gave the council a primary channel for sharing information as soon as they heard the forecast. Anticipating the increase in public demand for information during the unusual circumstances, the Communications team were quick to build an audience to this new email topic through a variety of methods.
Audience growth tactics get messages to thousands more people
During the first week of heavy snow, the number of subscriptions to the “extreme weather” topic increased by more than 6,000 and the council gained 1,300 net new email subscribers — more than an average month’s worth in a week! With over 16,000 new subscriptions across the whole range of topic options, the winter weather drew in a significantly larger audience than usual, boosting the council’s ability to communicate important info to residents then, now, and in the future.
Thousands more people are better equipped to stay safe and well
How wrexham county council improved citizen experience through integrated communications & service delivery
Overview
The county council knew the first step to improve the citizen experience was to modernise the way they communicated bin removal services. To ensure citizens received relevant, timely and automated communications, Wrexham implemented Granicus’s govDelivery email, mobile message, and social media platform. Now, they have the sophisticated marketing automation and audience segmentation required to deliver personalised waste and recycling bin collection reminders to over 12,000 residents. Targeted email messages from the county empower residents to take the correct action at the right moment.
These reminders — delivered alongside educational messages about what can and can’t be recycled — are positively impacting local recycling rates. For example, more customers know what can and can’t be recycled; the number of bins not being collected due to contamination has decreased by 27% since implementing govDelivery.
With Firmstep, the county’s digital customer services solution, integrated with govDelivery, their communication platform, the customer experience is seamless.
How does it work? When a customer visits the Wrexham website and enters their address in a form, Firmstep automatically looks up the customer’s collection day and calendar, then sends the information into GovDelivery, which automatically signs the customer up for their bin reminder emails. After that, the customer receives relevant, timely, and automated information about their bin collections. This combination has improved sign-up rates and ensured Wrexham reaches more citizens.
How the Firmstep + GovDelivery integration streamlines service
Satisfaction Rate
Citizens love the online experience they are receiving
93%
Increasing by 500 new accounts per month
18K
Self-Service Accounts
Bin Reminders
12K
Increasing by 800 subscribers per month
The result of targeted, proactive communications
Reduction in Calls
48%
Must-have Granicus product
Could your citizens benefit from seamless and integrated digital experiences? Get in touch with us today to learn more about how Granicus can help!
See It Live
We love govDelivery because it gives us control over information. We can find the answers to our questions, and then form good processes to better interact with the people in our council.
Situation
Solution
Results
Background
Like many local governments in California, the team at the Napa County Election Division has many critical duties in support of local, state, and federal elections. They also must help ensure all required government officials disclose their financial interests.
Designated filing officers must accurately track, manage, and deliver documents related to the disclosure of government employee and elected official Statement of Economic Interest, known as Form 700 in California. The process is regulated by the State of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
Staff at the Election Division have their own goals to increase efficiency and make sure officials file on time. Napa County’s recently updated strategic plan has a priority goal of making government more transparent.
A Mandate for Transparency & Efficiency
Situation
Solution
The DisclosureDocs implementation team worked closely with Napa County staff to meet their tight deadline. After their kickoff meeting in January 2019, they migrated files, trained staff, and then deployed. In the end, they were able to implement DisclosureDocs by their deadline of April 2.
From Manual to Automatic
See It Live
The emails achieved an average open rate of 68%, peaking at 75% on the fourth day. The average click rate was 14.6%, more than twice the average click rate for all emails in February. As a result of cross-promotion on social media, the bulletins were viewed a further 8,300 times. This demonstrates the extra power of integrated multi-channel communications.
govDelivery social media integration increased audience
- Feedback from a local resident during the severe weather
Email bulletins and Facebook sent more than 12,000 people to the council website which was kept rich with new info ready to service residents’ needs. One email bulletin alone drove more than 1k recipients to the website for bin collection updates, providing more residents with the revised collection timetable.
Council website had its busiest day ever
The council saw a significant increase in referrals for cold weather provision for homeless people and on average were able to house 18 people each night; more than twice the average for a normal cold night. The regular promotion of the referral phone number across social media and email bulletins undoubtedly helped to increase the number of rough sleepers housed that week.
More rough sleepers housed in temporary accommodations
A number of residents sent positive feedback via the council’s website or through social media, including this quote:
Better communication helps boost resident satisfaction
Placing an overlay across majority of website to drive sign-ups
Publishing an intranet article inviting staff (and their family and friends) to subscribe
Sharing the sign-up link in Tweets and Facebook posts to attract new audiences
Cross-promoting the new topic in other bulletins, telling people what they could expect
Briefing frontline staff so they could share it with more local people
Promoting the email service in press releases about the extreme weather
"Keeping everyone in the loop with as much up to date information as possible is a top priority in these extreme weather events. We're using a much wider range of channels to do so now – social media, email, broadcast, print and face to face all have a part to play. It’s clear people feel better supported, much more in control and able to play their part in their and the communities’ resilience as a result.” - Kersten England, Chief Executive of City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
* Examples of the comms deployed to help keep people informed and safe.
During the first week of heavy snow, the number of subscriptions to the “extreme weather” topic increased by more than 6k and the council gained 1.3k net new email subscribers - more than an average month’s worth in a week! With over 16k new subscriptions across the whole range of topic options, the winter weather drew in a significantly larger audience than usual, boosting the council’s ability to communicate important info to local people then, now, and in the future.
Thousands more people are informed and better equipped to stay safe and well
The emails achieved an average open rate of 68%, peaking at 75% on the fourth day. The average click rate was 14.6%, more than twice the average click rate for all emails in February. As a result of cross-promotion on social media, the bulletins were viewed a further 8.3k times. This demonstrates the extra power of integrated multi-channel communications.
Successful integration with social media increased audience for critical updates
Email bulletins and Facebook sent more than 12k people to the council website which was kept rich with new info ready to service citizens’ needs. One email bulletin alone drove more than 1k recipients to the website for bin collection updates, providing more residents with the revised collection timetable.
Council website had its busiest day ever
The council saw a significant increase in referrals for cold weather provision for homeless people and on average were able to house 18 people each night; more than twice the average for a normal cold night. The regular promotion of the referral phone number across social media and email bulletins undoubtedly helped to increase the number of rough sleepers housed that week.
More rough sleepers housed in temporary accommodations
How Bradford built their audience
Audience growth tactics get messages to thousands more people