DSF - Improving Customer Service (previously self-serve)
DEFRA' s DSF - Improving Customer Service (previously self-serve) beta assessment report
Service standard report
DSF - Improving Customer Service (previously self-serve)
| Assessment date | 22/07/2026 |
| Assessment stage | Beta |
| Assessment type | Assessment |
| Service provider | APHA |
| Result | Amber |
Previous assessment reports
250819_Alpha_DSF_SelfServe.pdf
Service description
We aim to make it easier for customers to navigate to the correct team in APHA to answer questions on the wide range of APHA services. We also want to make it easier for APHA to track and respond to those queries quickly and efficiently.
We aim to achieve this by extending the use of Defra Group’s current Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platform, Storm by Content Guru, to handle inbound email enquiries from customers, as well as inbound telephony, replacing the current network of exposed email addresses linking to Outlook shared mailboxes. This service will use existing technology on the estate, namely Defra Forms for the front-end contact forms and the user-centred routing solution, and Storm.
Service users
All APHA’s broad customer groups will use this service. This includes farmers, traders of animal and plant products, citizens travelling abroad with pets, members of the public reporting concerns or issues, vets and many others
Internally, our users are customer advisers and team leaders who are responsible for responding to inbound customer contact and managing staffing, operations and reporting of the contact APHA receives.
This service is for:
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Customers, such as veterinary practices, commercial business, and the public to seek advice when they need help from APHA.
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Internal users of the STORM contact centre management system to manage inbound contact when customers need help or advice.
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APHA management who need to understand the amount of demand, how well it is being serviced, and identify areas of failure demand
Things the service team has done well:
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The team is working with a user centred approach. The team is carrying out a substantial amount of user research, including with internal and external users, offline users, users with low digital ability, users with additional access needs and users of assistive technology. The team has a clear view of their user segmentation. The team is using a variety of methods, selecting the most suitable to answer the research questions. The team is sharing their insights more broadly, for example with Defra Forms, to enable improvements which are wider than their immediate scope.
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The team has displayed a clear understanding of the end-to-end journey for their users. They’ve undertaken a significant amount of testing, helping them iterate and improve the design of the service. The team has focussed on scalability as part of their design approach. This will result in more efficient delivery as the service expands. They’ve collaborated with teams across Defra to resolve blockers and ensure the experience for users is optimal. The team is working in the open so that learnings are shared with teams looking at similar problems.
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The team has done really well to work across policy, operations and digital. They’ve been delivering in a truly iterative fashion. They have a clear plan for how to support the work they’ve done going forwards. All in all, the assessment panel was really impressed with the work the team has done and the way they’re working.
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The team has a clear idea of what success means both for their project and for the services they’re delivering. They’ve developed in depth dashboards so that they can make future decisions based on clear evidence.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service was rated green for point 1 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- Carry out the plans for continued user research and iteration.
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service was rated green for point 2 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- If a user is seeking advice multiple times, there is a risk of duplicate submission of data for fields such as email address. We’d encourage the team to explore potential link ups with other work taking place that could enable closer integration with existing user data.
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service was rated green for point 3 of the Standard.
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service was rated green for point 4 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- Continue collaboration with the Defra Forms team to introduce the ability to add more bespoke error messages to form journeys. This could improve overall usability for the DSF service and other services using Defra Forms.
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service was rated amber for serviceassessments@dsit.gov.uk.
The service team has made great efforts with the user research they’ve completed to understand and improve the accessibility of their service.
Undertaking this research alerted the team to accessibility issues with the Storm contact centre management system. Internal users would be using this platform for managing inbound contacts from customers.
This led to collaboration with the Defra Accessibility Team who recommended independent verification of the platform with an external accessibility audit.
This audit highlighted a significant number of level A and AA accessibility and usability issues, which means the service doesn’t currently meet the required WCAG 2.2 level. In real terms, this would mean some internal users with access needs would be unable to undertake key parts of their role without assistance from colleagues.
Since the assessment, the team has been working with the platform owner to agree upon a remediation plan that would resolve the 49 issues highlighted in the accessibility audit. The platform owner has committed to resolving 41 of the issues within a 90-day window. For the other 8 issues, the advice from the Defra Accessibility Team is that these issues won’t fundamentally break the users experience and pose limited risk if resolved within a longer time frame.
For the moment the rating for standard point 5 is amber, this will be reconsidered once the following conditions are met:
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The platform owner has resolved the 41 prioritised issues from the remediation plan within the agreed 90-day timeframe.
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The service team has retested the platform with users of assisted technology to verify the 41 accessibility changes have been implemented.
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The platform owner has provided details of next steps for the other 8 issues highlighted in the accessibility audit.
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service was rated green for point 6 of the Standard.
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard.
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard.
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service was rated green for point 9 of the Standard.
Demonstrated the service is secure, but the assessment pack could further demonstrate this point:
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Evidence of IMAP, Security Waiver and Graph migration
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Evidence of Security Architecture, IAM, Monitoring, Threat Modelling, and ITHC.
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service was rated green for govuk-enquiries@dsit.gov.uk.
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard.
Demonstrated the service has appropriately chosen the right tools and technologies, because:
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Evidence details demonstrating options were considered
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ADRs exist
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Technology decision documented
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Defra Forms, and Storm selected. Alternative platforms considered and future proofing options considered to support other technologies.
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard.
The service demonstrated reasonable means for chosen technology and its association to source code open:
- The technology is largely a Saas configuration solution. Source Code Open not applicable at this stage.
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard.
The service demonstrated evidence on contribution to open standards:
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The technology stack supports open standards alongside the service offering, APIs, and data standards.
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The service team demonstrated email remains dominant integration mechanism.
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 14 of the Standard.
The service demonstrated a reliable service because:
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Evidence of pilot monitoring
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Evidence of issue management
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Evidence of continuous improvements and future mechanisms put in place
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Future areas of focus, include 2.5kb defect, auto-response loops, IMAP challenges, and dependency risks
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The service is operationally managed however a recognition of improvements on resilience are being put in place.
15. Deliver a sustainable service
Decision
The service was rated green for Defra’s Service Standard point 15, focused on sustainability.
The service has completed a Sustainability Statement for the Beta phase, which details their sustainability approach. Some of the main areas of good practice are:
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Use of design patterns for the service’s routing model that have been proven in DVLA and other parts of government, saving on resources associated with developing one from scratch. Also documenting how this model has been implemented to make it as easy as possible to be reused by other services across Defra group
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Use of Defra Forms for the customer-facing front-end, based on the GOV.UK design system, to ensure usability and save on resources associated with developing these from scratch. Defra Forms’ use of the Core Delivery Platform (CDP) will mean use of common components and shared resources for cloud
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Taking a lean approach to notifications – a short and simple confirmation of initial receipt of the contact form only provided to users
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Limiting use of multimedia, by only allowing users to upload images and videos, as well as use of interactive mapping for when there is a clear need (e.g. to facilitate users providing accurate location data when reporting incidents)
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Created a standardised library of content templates that will be used in further rollout of the service and consistency across the APH delivery group
Advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- The Sustainability Statement records a commitment to explore which metrics might be appropriate and practical for the service to track sustainability in Public Beta, which focuses on volumes of users as a proxy metric. Where possible, estimating data storage volumes, and developing ways to reduce this over time, would be ideal during Public Beta.
Next Steps
This service can now move into a public beta phase, subject to addressing the amber points within [three months] time and GDS spend approval. This service now has permission to launch on a GOV.UK service domain with a beta banner.