Agenda item

The Customer Services, Standards and Complaints Manager presented the Q1 2023-24 report and introduced the new Customer Standards & Complaints Officer.

Key points of note were:

·       Both Revenues & Benefits teams were exceeding their targets for answering of incoming calls for Q1.

·       The Contact Centres target for answering incoming calls had been exceeded for Q1.

·       9,586 email enquiries had been received with 100% being acknowledged within one working day and 99.8% replied to in full within 8 working days.  Only 21 emails were over the target time of 8 working days.

·       98% of Live Chats had been answered within 20 seconds, significantly exceeding the target.

·       The call-back facility previously discussed with Members was now operational.

·       The data in Appendix 2 was now presented in a different format following the outcome of the recent Council restructure of services.  87% of calls had been answered within 20 seconds which was below target.  There was also an error on the table as the target for abandoned calls had been amended from 5% to 10%.  Over 25,000 calls had been received in the first quarter and the table highlighted those services not meeting target.

·       In relation to the data gathered in Appendix 3(C), a total of 89 stage one complaints had been received with a large proportion related to Streetscene services and missed bins/missed delivery of new and replacement bins.

·       The volume of MP enquiries continued to be high with 91% of the 71 enquiries received responded to in time.

·       A total of five complaints had escalated to stage 3 within the quarter.

·       There had been no Ombudsman complaints for Q1.

A Member clarified whether the performance figures in relation to abandoned calls would be addressed with the Senior Leadership Team.  The Customer Services, Standards and Complaints Manager confirmed that the Service Director would raise this with senior leadership to seek improvement.  The advice to services was to encourage use of the main contact centre number rather than direct dial numbers to reduce the issue of abandoned calls.

A Member noted a stage one complaint received in relation to an officer’s comment on social media and asked if this was being addressed.  The Customer Services, Standards and Complaints Manager noted that she was still evaluating the Q1 data and would provide feedback to Members in due course.

The Chair acknowledged that the service was working really hard and appreciated the speed of response to customers.  The number of complaints that related to bins and waste collection was noted but Members were aware of the continued coverage on twitter and other communication channels as to how resident’s should deal with their rubbish and the correct bin to use.  The Chair also noted that they had seen coverage on social media from Derbyshire County Council in relation to proposed changes to the opening hours at the Household Waste Recycling Centre.  They questioned what impact this could have locally.  The Strategic Director of Services noted that they had not received notification of this as yet but they were aware there was the potential for change.  In relation to the number of complaints received regarding waste collections and bins it was important to put this into perspective - the Council completed approximately 2.4 million bin collections per year, so in comparison the number of complaints received was minimal.  There were also a number of compliments which countered the complaints.

Moved by Councillor Jane Yates and seconded by Councillor Louise Fox

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

(Customer Services, Standards and Complaints Manager)