'One Front Door,' one year on

A year after the Government of Jersey relocated a number of customer-facing services into one building, feedback and customer figures indicate that the move has been an overwhelmingly positive one.

Customer and Local Services (CLS) was launched with a clear vision - to make it easy for customers to access government services. Last autumn ‘One Front Door’ was opened in La Motte Street, bringing together Customs and Passports, Planning and Building Control, Taxes and Treasury Cashiers, alongside the services already on offer at the former Social Security Department.

Over the last year, over 140,000 customers have been served at CLS in La Motte Street, 16% of whom have accessed more than one government service during their visit, where previously they would have needed to visit multiple government buildings.

To help manage the increased footfall, Welcome Hosts were introduced, helping to quickly resolve around 300 customer queries every day, without the need to see a specialist advisor.

A new ticket system was also installed to manage customer flow and provide live information about any waiting times to see specialist advisors. More recently, this system has been used to publish live waiting times, helping customers to plan their visit to the department at quieter times. This information is available online.

Assistant Chief Minister, Connétable Richard Buchanan, said: “The creation of ‘One Front Door’ has been a significant step forward in the Government of Jersey delivering truly customer-focused services. It’s enabled us to reduce duplication, increase collaboration and deliver better value for money for all customers, while still delivering the excellent service our customers expect and deserve.”

Director General of Customer and Local Services, Ian Burns added: “We’re delighted that co-locating services has been so well received by customers, with 91% rating the information provided as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’. We continue to welcome feedback and strive to ensure that everyone has the same positive customer experience.

However I’m even more pleased to see that by bringing more services online, thousands of customers have been able to access them at a time and in a location that suit them, without needing to visit us in person. We will continue to invest in this area to meet customer demand for more online services. This, in turn, frees up face-to-face time with specialist advisors for customers who need it most.”