Winter Festivities Are Coming, Is Your Website Ready?
October signifies the start of seasonal festivities, with certain events falling into the hands of our local councils to organise.
Halloween brings ghostly ghouls and creepy dolls wandering our streets for some delicious treats. Then remember, remember the 5th of November will light up our night skies with extravagant firework displays. Throughout November and December the local community will be coming together, with festive markets, appearances by Santa, and towns and villages switching on Christmas lights.
Whatever the event, the safety of residents will need to be prepared for and they will need to be notified of the upcoming festivities. The easiest way of informing citizens is by presenting the information on the council’s website. With the potential of a lot of details to convey, it may not always be possible to present all of the information on the homepage; therefore to signpost residents to the right place for further reading, Promotions can be used.
How are Promotions used on Council Websites?
Promotions are an image that displays on the visitor’s page based on a rule they have matched, whether the resident has viewed a certain page or been on the website for a specific amount of time etc. Promotions are fully customable therefore they can be designed to fit in with the festive theme, and can include a URL so that when the image is accepted, the resident’s browser opens the page in a new tab.
The page the promotion directs the visitor to can include if an event will affect the time the street lights turn off, if there are any road closures planned, the actual details of the event and any safety notices etc.
Optimising Live Chat
Some residents may have further questions sparked from reading the information or have feedback after the event has occurred, therefore having live chat available can provide instant answers to visitor enquiries. Live chat on website connects residents to a council representative in real time. They are able to get a response instantly reducing the time held in a telephone queue or waiting for an email reply.
It is cost effective for local authorities to implement Click4Assistance’s live chat on website solution, as it improves representatives’ productivity by handling more than one enquiry at a time. Many councils across the UK been adding live chat to their websites for less than £5000 a year, therefore there has been no need for the procurement of live chat to go through their lengthy tender processes.
Be Easily Approachable
Some businesses and residents may wish to register their interest in having a stall at an organised Bonfire night, Christmas light switch on or festive market. To simplify them contacting the local authority a smartContact form could be implemented to the relevant page. smartContact are fully customisable forms that reduce the expense and complexity of having a web designer involved in placing a contact form on the website, they can be designed to gather any information your council requires, for example in this case, visitors can leave their contact details and what service they would like to provide to the official events occurring in their local community.
smartContact forms are available in ‘Experiences’ by Click4Assistance alongside live chat, Promotions and other engagement tools. Click4Assistance has been providing live chat to councils across the UK for over 10 years. For more information on how your council can add live chat in time for the festive period, call our local authority co-ordinator on 01268 524628 or email theteam@click4assistance.co.uk.
