Issue - meetings

The Customer Services, Standards and Complaints Manager presented the Q4 2022-23 report and the Annual Summary for 2022/23.

Key points of note were:

• The Revenues & Benefits target for answering of incoming calls had been exceeded for both Q4 and the year as a whole.
• The Contact Centres target for answering incoming calls had been exceeded for both Q4 and then met for the year as a whole.
• Over nine thousand emails had been received by the Council in Q4, with response performance 1% below target at 99%. 
• The increase in the total number of emails across 2022/23 (31,191) compared to 2021/22 (26,018) was significant.
• Live Chat continues to be a growing mechanism of communication.
• A call-back facility is being implemented for those waiting in a queue for non-urgent enquiries.
• When analysing performance against the corporate telephone standards the Council had received over 98,000 calls across the year, of which 7724 were abandoned/lost.  The current target for abandoned calls was 5% of all calls received.  A number of service areas however were not meeting this and officers were assessing how realistic the target was with a view to raising the target to 10% in future.
• In relation to the data gathered in Appendix 3(C), a large proportion related to Streetscene services and missed bins/missed delivery of new and replacement bins.

• The volume of MP Enquiries continues to be high with 99% responded to in time.
• There had only been 1 Ombudsman complaint across the whole year.

A revised Policy had recently been produced and would be shared with Senior Leadership Team (SLT) shortly to ensure they were fully briefed on current policy/procedure.

A Member questioned whether staff were able to view the reports presented.  The officer confirmed that it was discussed as part of team meetings.

A Member noted that the report showed a positive perspective and queried whether the Contact Centre service was currently impacted with any vacancies.  The officer noted that the team was currently fully staffed, and that staff more recently recruited had almost completed their training.  The team was currently recruiting to the Complaints Officer role, and it was hoped to have someone in post soon.

The Chair enquired what volume of vexatious complaints was received by the Council and how it monitored data on calls/contact, and how it protected staff who may have to deal with such complaints.  The officer confirmed that within the current Policy there was a process on how to handle such complainants and protect staff.  The team had recently gained approval to classify a current contact as habitual/vexatious.  Such contact came to the service via all channels both written and verbal.

Moved by Councillor Jane Yates and seconded by Councillor Lisa Powell

RESOLVED that the overall performance on Customer Service Standards and Compliments, Comments and Complaints be noted.

(Customer Services, Standards and Complaints Manager)