How Self Service can enhance Government Services

Government and local authorities in the UK are challenged with trying to provide for an ever- increasing population with fewer resources than ever before. This imbalance has led to extended waiting periods, inefficient processes, and poor customer experiences.

Thankfully, there a number of self-service solutions that are available to help local authorities deal with the growing pressures and in this article we review the benefits of self-service kiosks and explore how self-service solutions can be applied in many Government settings.

Self Service Benefits

• Organisation: Self- service kiosks can prove vital in the battle against inefficiency. Software enables tasks like distributing workloads and managing priorities to be completed with ease, saving time and freeing up staff to concentrate on completing more important tasks
• Payments: Cammax have developed a cutting-edge Council Payment Kiosk, made specifically to improve the overall service provided by Councils whilst reducing transaction costs and improving customer service. The kiosks provide customers with the ability to pay for a wide range of services such as Council Tax, Fines, Licenses and School meals without having to queue to speak to staff
• Accessibility: Self Service systems are now expected to be accessible to all without compromise or question and that’s why our kiosks are DDA-compliant
• Security: The kiosks can be programmed to control how inputted data is handled and advanced security protocols can be utilised with ease
• Accommodation: Issues between staff and customers sometimes arise due to the fact that some local authority services do no adequately cater for people with special requirements. Issues such as language barriers can be overcome by deploying multilingual/translation kiosks

Examples of Self Service in Government Services

Now that the benefits have been established it’s helpful to see how and where kiosks are currently being utilized in the public sector:

• Higher Education: Universities and schools have been utilizing interactive kiosks for over a decade to assist in a range of task handling that previously burdened staff. Higher education institutions deploy a range of different kiosks from top-up units used in libraries to wayfinding and product dispensing machines
• The DVLA: As the postal system currently used by the DVLA becomes progressively more archaic, kiosks are beginning to appear that can handle tax renewals, driving licence update requests and various other processes linked to motoring
• Tourism: Tourist information centres are generally being replaced across the country with automated information points that can distribute leaflets, provide directions and in depth information regarding points of interest
• Councils- Councils across the country, from Aberdeen to Coventry, are utilising council payment kiosks to collect council tax and a range of other bills