Customer Insight

The current challenging financial climate for councils mean we need to make every effort to increase effectiveness and efficiency of our services, especially in an area such as Wirral, where the contrasts in both geography and demographics are stark.

One of the ways we can increase our effectiveness, is to ‘segment’ our population using geo-demographic packages, such as Mosaic.

The 2017 Mosaic Profile of Wirral provides an overview of how the Wirral population looks when analysed using Mosaic.

Packages such as Mosaic have become more widely used by the public sector in recent years because they are useful in providing in-depth information about the needs and behaviours of local people.

They use a large number of open data sources including the Census, health, education, criminal justice system, housing and consumer data (i.e. about products that people buy and their finances for example) to ‘segment’ the population into different groups, who can then be better targeted based on their preferences, needs and behaviours.

Using Mosaic means that information can be targeted just where it is needed. For example, information on how you can reduce your risk of falling as you age is not appropriate for people in their 20’s, but it may be of interest to people in their 70’s and 80’s.

Targeting messages more effectively and ensuring that the right message is read by the right person at the right time is also cost-effective, as resources are not wasted informing everybody about issues which may not affect them.

The profiles we produce using Mosaic are used to inform and commission services. Below are some examples of the information we have provided to various teams and departments in Wirral to enable them target their work more effectively, as well as an overall profile of Wirral.

Mosaic is not appropriate for every situation or service of course, but it is one of several useful tools our team has access to, which informs and provides us with additional insight into the needs of Wirral residents.

For more information about Customer Insight and Mosaic, or to find out if it could help you in your area of work, please contact the Wirral Intelligence Service at intelligencerequests@wirral.gov.uk

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Other examples to consider

A guide to using behavioural insights in local government

Warren Hatter wrote this guide for Sunderland City Council, following some work using behavioural insights in a range of projects. Although written for an internal audience, Sunderland City Council are happy to share it.

Warren Says…”I really enjoyed working there, especially all the co-production with wonderful front-line staff; I got a lot out of it and I hope that by sharing these insights, you will too”….

Those who work in local public services and many others may be interested in how behavioural insights (BI) can help. https://warrenhatter.wordpress.com/