People would prefer to call their local council if complaining about a missed waste or recycling collection, a survey has revealed.
The research by Yotta found 41% of those surveyed said a fixed line phone call was their preferred means of contacting their council, with 28% opting to use their council’s website.
Only 1% of the 1,000 adults polled said they would use an app to report a problem with environmental services.
‘These figures should give councils cause for concern,’ said Steve White, software business development manager at Yotta. ‘Environmental services including waste collections are among the biggest areas of interaction between the public and local councils.
'Councils should therefore be encouraging people to move to digital modes of engagement, wherever possible. It’s in line with the Government’s digital transformation strategy that builds on the Digital by Default services already rolled out across the public sector.
‘Moreover, using digital channels for both transactional and informational purposes is much less expensive than using traditional channels, with the marginal cost of new service requests via the web being nothing, while the cost of a single service request via phone can be as much as £3 or more per call.’
