Issue - meetings

The Customer Service, Complaints & Standards Manager presented the Q3 report to Members on performance in relation to the Council’s Customer Service Standards and the effective management of complaints.

The Committee were referred to Appendix 1 of the document, which listed the following: 80% of incoming calls for Revenues being achieved, above the target of 65%;  91% of Benefits calls being achieved, above that target of 78%; 100% of emails acknowledged in 1 working day; 99.7% of emails replied to within 8 working days, with 19 replied over that time; 78% of 15,976 incoming calls being answered within 20 seconds, above the 75% target; and 96% incoming Live Chats being answered within 20 seconds, above the 75% target.  These figures were for Q3.

Future reports would include data from the Leisure and Revenues and Benefits Departments, as these have their own directories and BDC needs to meet the Corporate Plan target.

The Committee were referred to Appendix 2 of the document which showed the performance for Q3 of unanswered calls, with 6% of incoming calls direct to service areas not being answered, though this was within the 10% target.  Departments meeting or exceeding this target included Finance and Accountancy, Audit, Revenues and Benefits, Joint ICT, Planning and Joint Environmental Health.

The Customer Service, Complaints & Standards Manager noted that a reminder to promote the 01246 242424 would be beneficial as the main customer contact, rather than individual officer direct dial extensions, to assist with meeting the target of 93% of calls being answered in 20 seconds; the figure for Q3 stood at 83%.

The Committee were referred to Appendix 3, which showed the number of written compliments received for the period by department: 69 compliments had been received; 9 comments had been made; and 63 complaints had been recorded during Q3.

1 Ombudsman complaint had been received for Q3, but a decision not to investigate was made as there had not been enough evidence to justify any fault in the way the Council had acted.

The Chair noted a lot of the targets were being made and surpassed, though work needed to continue to improve the Council’s services; it was important to catch the calls to direct lines, as this was where most of the complaints were being directed.  The Customer Service, Complaints & Standards Manager agreed, stating it was important to ensure staff had access to the softphone system to enable answering calls reliably from home.

Moved by Councillor Rita Turner and seconded by Councillor Amanda Davis

RESOLVED that the report be noted.