Challenge

 

Kent County Council and Partners needed a mobile keypad system to modernise their public consultation process and gather instant feedback from a broad cross-section of their community.

 

Paper-based questionnaires were proving time-consuming, costly and ineffective and the Council and its Partners were struggling to get the level of community feedback they needed from a decent cross section of society.

 

Solution

 

IML's Communicator keypads and Question Wizard software.

 

• The IML system is fully mobile, enabling Kent County Council and Partners to run public events in venues across their community.
• The system encourages full audience participation and saves all responses to an Excel® database for post event review, enabling organisers to fully assess the opinions of the community.
• IML's keypads are lightweight and easy to use, for both the operator and the audience.
• The equipment is completely mobile and easy to transport.
• Time saved by the keypads has meant real cost savings for the council. Purchasing the IML system and lending it out to partnerships has made the keypads even more cost effective.

 

Case study >

 

Kent County Council and Partners are using IML's Communicator keypads at events held across their community in a bid to find out what locals really think about community matters.

 

The Council approached IML in need of an efficient and mobile way of consulting with locals from all walks of life, as they wanted residents to have their say in influencing Council policy.

 

Their paper based questionnaires and mail shots were proving ineffective and costly and they realised that they weren’t fulfilling the feedback potential that public consultation offers.

 

Purchasing IML’s keypads and software has given the Council the opportunity to consult with the public on a much wider basis - The Police Authority even used them in a tent recently at a county show.

 

Client testimonial

 

"The keypads have been really effective – even in a tent! The novelty of the equipment and software based on the 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ quiz game attracted more than 1,500 people to our stand. That number of people would never have filled in paper questionnaires.

 

"Many young people were intrigued by the handsets and took the time to answer questions and give their thoughts and opinions. In our business, young people are extremely difficult to reach. We needed something that would engage and interest them enough to respond to us and the keypads really worked.

 

"Recently, we loaned the keypads out to a District Council and they took them to a local disco to ask youths about their attitude to crime, drugs and bullying. The youngsters were very excited about using the keypads and the District Council got some fantastic feedback.

 

"We have been able to get feedback from all types of people, from all sections of society. We went out to villages and got 60 responses in just two hours. Normally, we would have to send out thousands of mail shots for that kind of response.

 

"One benefit of the keypads has been the time saved by them. We have managed to get hold of a huge population sample, very quickly and very easily. All of the results are stored on a database, eliminating the need to manually record and collate data.

 

"The keypads have been hugely beneficial to the community. Audiences can see the feedback from a collective vote immediately on a screen in front of them and they feel their views are being taken seriously. Furthermore, the information gathered is going towards informing council policy.

 

"I would definitely recommend IML keypads to other Councils. We bought a set and we loan them out to partnerships to use as well. The keypads have helped massively to build relationships within the community."

Nick Moon, Crime Data Analyst for Kent County Council.