2022 saw the Digital Channels team reach new milestones, celebrate collaborative achievements, and proudly receive national recognition as leaders in customer transformation, for the OneCX program.
For the people of NSW, nsw.gov.au is fast becoming the central point of truth, when it comes to sourcing information from NSW government. In 2022, the third year of the OneCX program, the Digital Channels team was again working hard to continue building a modern, digitally-connected experience for customers - one that delivers information based on their needs, rather than the structure of government.
The Customer Experience
Throughout the year, the team remained focused on the customer experience. Whether it be through refined information architecture (IA), user experience (UX) research, enhanced accessibility, or improved search engine optimisation (SEO), nsw.gov.au exists to deliver an exceptional digital experience for the people of NSW.
With over 8 million people in NSW, our customer base is diverse, geographically spread and with varying needs. The challenge for the Digital Channels team, is to continue to deliver consistent, relevant information seamlessly, when people need it. In doing so, building trust in government, and transforming the way information is delivered.
How has nsw.gov.au performed?
In a recent global digital performance survey, NSW Government was considered to deliver the most customer-centric digital experience, above any other Australian state or territory. The study focussed on customer experience, site performance and digital equity.
In October 2022, the Digital Channels team were also recognised by the Customer Service Institute of Australia, winning the winning the Customer Transformation project of the year for the OneCX program. The award, a nod to the work the team is doing to build nsw.gov.au as the destination for the people of NSW to source information.
Whilst this recognition signals we’re absolutely headed in the right direction, the team is always striving to improve. And with good reason - with over 34 million visitors to nsw.gov.au and 65 million sessions to Dec 1st this year, the large volumes of visitors expect a high-quality experience from their government. One where they can locate, digest and trust the information they need, quickly and easily.
The importance of accessibility
The numbers above show over 8 web sessions for every person living in NSW, and with more than 1 in 3 people in NSW living with a long-term health condition or disability, accessibility is critical to the delivery of information on nsw.gov.au. With consistent focus on accessible content across new and existing pages, we achieved a year high accessibility score of 84%. An independent audit of the website saw us achieve a statement of accessibility, level AA. Whilst above industry benchmarks, again the team are working tirelessly to lift this even further.
According to the latest census data, 31.5 % of people in NSW speak a language other than English at home. Equipped with this knowledge, the team delivered an inclusive digital solution. All content on nsw.gov.au now available in 67 languages. This improved accessibility is such an important leap forward in ensuring all people can access government information, particularly during times of crisis.
Supporting people in their time of need
During times of need, the people of NSW turn to their government for information, support and recovery. In 2022, the state again experienced some of the worst flooding on record. As a result of the February and March flood events, almost 8,000 NSW residents were temporarily displaced. 15,000 homes were damaged, 5,000 of which were rendered uninhabitable.
Using our experience from the build and management of the COVID-19 hub, the team launched the NSW Floods hub pages in under 72 hours. This brought together critical information from across 15 Government agencies. The pages provide information on:
- preparing for floods
- where evacuation and recovery centres are located
- road closures
- access to grants and funding to assist with rebuild and recovery efforts for people and businesses.
The floods hub has received over a million visits since it was launched on nsw.gov.au in March. Nearly three quarters of those sessions (73%) have been on a mobile device. Financial support has proven to be the most sought-after information.
Helping the people of NSW to discover funding opportunities
After releasing the beta version of the Grants and Funding Finder in December 2021, we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from customers and agencies on the value of bringing all NSW Government grants together in one location.
This year, the team built upon the initial release, launching numerous features and hundreds of agency grants. This has allowed customers to focus on delivering valuable projects, or rebuild and recovery efforts, and spend less time discovering grant opportunities across multiple NSW government websites. A recent mandate requires all NSW Government grants to be listed on the Finder, cementing it as the central point for those seeking government grants.
The Finder now lists over 470 grants from across 46 NSW Government agencies. The most popular categories to date include business, education and arts & culture. Users are now able to view grants listings in their own language, making funding more accessible to more people.
Welcoming more agencies to nsw.gov.au
The OneCX program continued to work with agencies across NSW Government to migrate their websites to nsw.gov.au. The work further bringing together NSW Government information onto one platform, complete with personalisation and translation features, to deliver a customer-centric website.
Since its inception, the program has migrated 34 websites, and in the process uplifted the capability across NSW government agencies, with dedicated capability and training support. This year, the migration teams collectively achieved an agency satisfaction score of 85% across the completed migrations. For the people of NSW, the OneCX program team delivered a streamlined user experience. We removed 1668 pages of outdated or duplicated content, increased accessibility, improved usability, and provided a central location for NSW Government information.
This year, we introduced new ways of working utilising SAFe (scaled agile framework), a methodology for planning and delivering upon a set of goals, where resources are lean and the scope is large.
Read more about some of the migrations completed this year: Women NSW, Training Services NSW and Far West Local Health District.
Uptime, security and privacy
Our technology team has again kept nsw.gov.au up and running 100% of the time in 2022. This year, increased focus on security and privacy saw several initiatives undertaken. All focused on ensuring the highest priority was given to safeguard the information of NSW Government and the people of NSW.
Ongoing penetration testing, disaster recovery exercises, implementing single sign on (SSO), and migrating to a new web host. These are just a handful of activities to mention, amongst an impressive raft of work completed by the team. All, whilst supporting the development of new platform features to improve new and existing content and capability on the website.
So how did the numbers stack up?
In 2022 (to Dec 1st), nsw.gov.au saw:
- 33.5 million visitors (users)
- 65.4 million total visits (sessions)
- 144.2 million page views
- 734 thousand site searches
- 67% visitors accessing content on their mobile phone
NSW Government Facebook page:
- 244,439 followers
- 14,339 new followers in 2022, growing by 6.23%
- Total 6.5 million engagements
- Reaching 9.6 million people
We also launched on Instagram and LinkedIn late this year, to reach a broader cross section of people via their channels of choice. Whilst it is early days, engagement is already strong across these two new channels.
NSW Government Instagram page (launched 31 Oct 2022):
- 3,580 followers
- Total 6,306 engagements
- Reaching 590,250 people
NSW Government LinkedIn page (launched 21 Nov 2022):
- 498 followers
- Total 1,856 engagements
- Reaching 75,008 people
Continuous improvement
We’re incredibly proud of the work delivered to improve our customer’s digital experience throughout 2022 and beyond. Even so, we’re constantly taking stock to ensure continuous improvement. We seek to understand what we can do better, how we can improve the customer experience, and which initiatives will have greatest impact.
This year saw the launch of our nsw.gov.au customer satisfaction tool, which gathers the opinions of over 500 nsw.gov.au users every month. Results showed an impressive 81% of users were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their last user journey.
The team is continuously reviewing customer feedback to increase this satisfaction rating even further. Using customer insights and data to understand behaviour and optimise experiences is key to improving nsw.gov.au.
Thank you to each member of the Digital Channels team and our agency partners for your ongoing collaboration, dedication, and customer focus. 2023 is gearing up to be another big year. We’re excited to bring about ongoing positive change for the agencies we work with, and importantly, our customers - the 8 million+ people of NSW.
Stay in touch
Find out more about the work of the nsw.gov.au program achievements, including milestones, launches and upcoming work. Subscribe to our OneCX program newsletter for monthly updates delivered straight to your inbox.