How Frankston City Council moved community expectations forward with a website redesign

By the council’s own admission, its website was extremely poor from a useability standpoint. The information architecture and search functionality were well below par, and the council had invested minimally in its own digital experience for a number of years. Perhaps most importantly, the community wanted a more modern customer experience. With a smaller team and limited resources and skillsets, Frankston needed a secure, scalable, accessible solution that could be updated seamlessly with minimal human management.

Both the design and content were outdated, especially considering modern-day customer experience (CX) trends and best practices. The content was written at a college reading level — much higher than the recommended standard for website copy (sixth grade or lower) and the local demographic (seventh grade). The council needed to implement user-centered design principles with simpler messaging on a platform that would be easy to manage on a daily basis.

Patrick Dillon, the council’s former Manager Customer Experience and Business Transformation, spearheaded the organisation’s digital transformation. To start, Patrick conducted market research to establish a benchmark of its service offerings, gather census data, and review community feedback. Because of the site’s poor useability and paper-based services, most of the feedback came in the form of complaints. And compared to neighbouring councils, Frankston was behind in terms of capital investment in technology.

After presenting its benchmark findings to executives and internal stakeholders, the council was convinced that it was time to move forward with a new website and digital forms solution. The council ultimately chose Granicus and GXG, in part, because of the structure and framework built into the OpenCities and OpenForms software, as well as the GXG process. Instead of using an open-sourced solution that comes with an unlimited number of customisations as well as subsequent revisions and changes, Granicus solutions offer some room for customisation within a more stable foundation; which means the time to market is quicker and every component works with each release. And because Granicus is certified by Vision Australia — an organisation for the blind, or those with low vision — widespread accessibility is automatic. By going down this route, the council didn’t need to hire new staff members or work with web developers to get an attractive, highly functioning website.

Dillon was not only impressed by Granicus’ digital solutions, but also by GXG’s level of CX methodology knowledge, and the artful way information was filtered to and from internal stakeholders. “It felt like we were getting the best person you had… a global expert as opposed to a local one,” Dillon said of the Granicus staff. “You could tell she was a specialist, not a generalist. My very high expectations were exceeded.”

According to Dillon, key internal stakeholders dubbed this the best project they had been involved with in 20 years. The council, particularly the information technology team, was also swayed by the level of cybersecurity Granicus software provides that not only keeps data safe but builds trust with residents.

The website redesign was an unmitigated success.

“As soon as we launched the website, we got a lot of really positive feedback, both from internal stakeholders and from the community — almost instantly,” Dillon said.

Frankston went from having the lowest metro community satisfaction score two years prior to having the highest score last year due, in part, to the improvements made to its digital front door. Frankston is excited about continuously improving along the roadmap established by the Granicus team. With a large transformational project on the horizon, the website redesign was the springboard that demonstrated what was possible.

It’s no longer a matter of if websites should be modernised to improve CX functionality, according to Dillon, but when?

“You don’t really have a choice anymore,” he said matter-of-factly. “The expectation is set by your community and the days of saying, ‘we can’t afford to ask your opinion and design a solution that’s suitable to you’ are gone. Organisations that aren’t willing to accept that won’t survive.”