Agenda item

To receive a further update on the current customer contact data following the meeting in June, 2023, in particular around customer feedback, reception arrangements, promotion of the dedicated Nepali speaking phone line, and automated messaging.

The Committee welcomed Marybeth Quaintmere, Service Manager – Customer Services, Mary Timmins, Customer Services Team Leader, and Cllr Ade Adeola, Digital First & Corporate Portfolio Holder, who were in attendance to update the Committee on customer contact data, in particular around customer feedback, reception arrangements, automated messaging and the introduction of the dedicated Nepali speaking phone line.

A presentation was provided which covered the following key areas:

·         Call data – it was noted that abandoned call rates had dropped since the previous report in June, 2023 by 1%, as had call waiting times by 17 seconds.

·         Service levels – the industry standard for call answering was to answer 80% of calls within 20 seconds. It was noted that currently, an average of 40% of calls were being answered within 20 seconds. It was hoped that as digital services expanded and improved allowing more self-service options to customers this rate would increase.

·         Response levels – it was noted that response levels were being met within all SLA’s for services such as, Customer Services (within one working day), Love Rushmoor (within one working day), Parking Charge Notice’s (PCN) (within 14 days) and Council Tax (within 10 working days).

·         Customer contact – it was noted that Council tax had been the main reason why customers contacted the Council via phone, via the Love Rushmoor App it was for fly-tipping and via front of house it was primarily for other, non Rushmoor, services.

·         Additional team activity – it was advised that the team got involved in a number of different areas to enhance their knowledge and skill for assisting the customer. Some of the activities the team engaged with included, emergency planning training, shadowing the recycling crew, understanding homelessness, the warmer homes scheme etc.

·         Improving customer experience – it was advised that since the last update in June, 2023 a number of changes had been made to the phone scripts and call waiting messaging to improve the service. A Nepali speaking phone line had also been introduced with the option to leave a voicemail after two minutes to allow a Nepali speaking operative to call back. It was planned that a “pause” facility would be introduced to allow an operative working on an email to pause to answer an incoming call. It was also noted that the facilities team would be trained to undertake the post role freeing up an operative to deal with customer enquiries.

·         Customer feedback – during October, 2023 a survey of customer feedback was undertaken. During this period the system had been affected by eight consecutive working days of intermittent service, during which time there had been issues hearing the customer and vice versa. The average score given by the customer during October had been 2.85/5, however, if you removed the eight consecutive working days of intermittent service, the score would be 4.48/5.

·         Areas of focus for the future – these had been identified as follows:

o   To expand the triage for Housing to all access channels

o   Continue to push transformation and service improvements

o   Response times to keeping the Borough clean should improve through the recruitment of the new Place Protection Officers – this would be monitored

o   Investigation into the frequency of issues with the telephony system with the account manager – meeting scheduled

o   Resilience within the team

The Committee discussed the presentation and in particular the resource and resilience within the team. It was advised that with resource, it wasn’t just about getting additional resource but also about how digital services were utilised to best serve the customer. It was noted that consideration could be given to how the customer could be educated to use digital services, through use of the messaging system and online. The option to add a “number in the queue” message was discussed, however at this time if was felt that that could cause customers more issues as the number could increase due to the way the system currently operated.

Resilience within the team was monitored and it was noted that the “tight knit team” used a chat facility to communicate and look out for each other, in particular after having dealt with difficult calls.

ACTION:

A watching brief would be maintained on the service and consideration be given to when the Committee would next review its work.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Ade Adeola, Marybeth and Mary for the contribution to the meeting.