Our society increasingly needs digital services. This does not only concern the process of buying products online. A digital desk also offers municipalities and other authorities an excellent opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and reduce their distance to citizens In his previous blog, Bas van Gool explained how the digital desk arose and what we may expect for the future. Here he focuses on the advantages of the digital desk.
The advantages of the Digidesk
We all know how it goes. You need a new driver’s licence, a new passport, an excerpt from your municipality’s population register or something else again. So you have to make an appointment, find the necessary documents, take a couple of hours off from work, travel to the town hall, where you then have to try to find somewhere to park before you can finally go to the meeting. . With the Digidesk, town hall trips are no longer needed, making life easier for municipality employees and citizens alike. Let’s take a quick look at its advantages.
1. Time saved
For the citizen, there is no need to travel, they don’t have to find somewhere to park, there are no lines and they need fewer repeat visits. For, should they forget any document, they can look it up right then and there, rather than having to set up a whole new meeting. On average, this saves an hour and a half per appointment.
2. Flexibility
A number of these advantages applies to the municipality’s employees too, of course. Since they can work more flexibly, work and life are more easily balanced. This means that opening hours can be extended more easily, because employees can man the desk from home or anywhere. Recent experience shows that if people can work where they want, they are much more inclined to work irregular hours. And that in turn benefits the citizen.
3. Accessibility
A Digidesk is much more accessible than a physical client desk, for everybody can use its services. Since you can use any device, anywhere, to plan and attend a meeting, even someone who is in hospital or whose mobility has in some other way been reduced can make an appointment. And even residents who do not (yet) speak our language can get help from a digital desk: Microsoft Teams can provide real time translations. You only have to know how to read. That removes a significant obstacle.
4. Reputation
The Digidesk is good for the municipality’s reputation. Digital is not just innovative and inclusive but sustainable as well. After all: traffic congestion in town decreases, and therefore so do CO2 emissions.
5. Secure and trusted
Privacy is very important. The Digidesk is 100 percent reliable and secure, en meets the standards of the Dutch Baseline Informatiebeveiliging Overheid (BIO), that applies since January 2020. It is in line with the DigID identification method, and payments can be made using the trusted iDeal payment standard. And: nobody can listen in on your conversation. Better still, nobody even knows you have an appointment.
6. Costsavings
A Digidesk allows the handling of more queries per day than a physical client desk, since logistics are easier. And you’ll use your Microsoft licence more efficiently and decrease management costs.
More inspiration?
The Digitale Agenda Gemeenten 2024 report describes the role of municipalities in our society’s digital transition in terms of three objectives: ‘enablement’, ‘using opportunities’ and ‘explaining and reflecting’.
Want to get going?
In our next blog we will look at how exactly a digital desk is implemented. Would you, as a municipality or other authority, want to start a digital desk already, or would you like a demo? Give us a call, at +31 183 512 253, or email us at info@1uur.nu. We’ll be glad to help you! info@1uur.nu. .
