The months of development work by our Digital Transactions Services (DTS) team paid off last week with the public launch of ‘My Account’ and the ‘Report and track a faulty street light’ feature going live.
‘My Account’ – for personalised information about council services
Whilst technically this product has been live for four months, during which time we carried out User Experience (UX) testing and added new features, the link was added to the header of the Council’s website home page for the first time last week.
‘My Account’ offers residents access to personalised information on their Council Services. If they can’t remember which bins they need to put out this week or want to view their Council Tax bill and payment schedules, it’s quick and easy to set up to view all this information in one place. And we will be adding more new features to My Account over the coming months.
We will be encouraging all Stockport residents to sign up for My Account at our DigiFeb events, via our emails to subscribers and through the local media. There will also be a leaflet inserted with all paper Council Tax bills next month.
If you are a Stockport resident and would like to try it out, sign up here. You only need an email address to sign up and it only takes a few minutes. It works on mobile phones, tablets and computers and if you forget a password at any time you can easily reset it.
Track a faulty street light goes live
Another new digital feature launched last week, is the ability to report and track the repair of street lights that aren’t working. We have greatly enhanced the process of reporting a faulty street light on the website, making it much easier and quicker. The only information residents now need to supply is the location of the light and the type of fault. The location can be easily identified using a map, which works just as well on mobile devices as computers and the type of fault is chosen from a list of options. They can easily see if the fault has already been reported and if not, report it themselves. Using the Report Reference Number they can then follow the status of the repair, until it is resolved. If they have signed up to My Account they can subscribe to see the report in their own account dashboard.
We are promoting this new feature with adverts on bus rears and geo-targeted website advertising as well as through News Releases to local media, on the Council’s website and to our email subscribers. If you have a faulty street light to report, try it out for yourself here or view our demo video.
DTS have created this feature to be reusable and it will be rolled out to the tracking of other types of fault in the future, starting with blocked gullies.
DigiFest – Saturday 18th February – Fun for all the family
Finally, don’t forget we’re hosting Stockport’s first DigiFest tomorrow in Central Library and the Hatworks. Bring your family and spread the word. A full list of activities can be found on the Council website. There’s no need to book, just call in between 10.30am and 3.00pm.
