Agenda item

The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer presented the report to the Committee to provide information on the Council’s performance in relation to its customer service standards and the number of Compliments, Comments and Complaints received for Quarter 1 2025/26 (1^st April 2025 to 30^th June 2025).

A breakdown of the key customer service standards by quarterly period, together with the target and the cumulative performance for each standard, were attached at Appendixes 1 and 2.

Revenues had achieved 78% of incoming calls answered within 20 seconds for Quarter 1 2025/26 (target 70%).

Benefits had achieved 91% of incoming calls answered within 20 seconds for Quarter 1 2025/26 (target 80%).

In Quarter 1 2025/26, Revenues and Benefits had received 4,222 emails – all acknowledged within 1 working day.

For Quarter 1 2025/26, Contact Centres had achieved: 75% of incoming calls answered within 20 seconds (target 75%); abandoned 2% of incoming calls (target less than 3%); and the average waiting time was 35 seconds (target not exceeding 30 seconds).

In the same period, Contact Centres had acknowledged all 8,484 email enquiries received within 1 working day (meeting the target of 100%), with 99.7% of emails replied to within 8 working days (just shy of the target of 100%).

Contact Centres had answered 89% of incoming Live Chats within 20 seconds for Quarter 1 2025/26 (target 90%), with 580 chats answered out of 589 in total.

In Quarter 1 2025/26, all 4 Contact Centres and The Arc’s Meet & Greet Reception Desk had received 7,597 visitors.

Monitoring had been undertaken week commencing 12^th May 2025 to measure waiting times – 80% (519) of customers were served within 20 seconds (648 face to face contacts in total), with the majority of enquiries being for Housing/Repairs, Revenues, Bus Passes, and Meet & Greet Enquiries), and the remaining 20% were waiting up to 20 minutes.

58 Compliments had been received during Quarter 1 2025/26, with Go!Active receiving 7 Customer Feedback Form Compliments within this time.

13 Comments had been received, with all acknowledged and passed to the respective department within the target time of 5 working days during Quarter 1 2025/26, with Go!Active receiving 13 Customer Feedback Form Comments within this time.

59 Stage 1 Complaints had been recorded in Quarter 1 2025/26, with 10 M.P. Enquiries received during the same period.  97% of Stage 1 Complaints and 100% M.P. Enquiries had been responded to within the Council’s Customer Service Standard of 10 working days.

It was noted 2 complaints had fallen just outside of time frame, and that the average days taken to respond to Stage 1 Complaints and M.P. Enquiries was 6 working days.

7 Stage 2 Complaints had been recorded in Quarter 1 2025/25.  100% of Stage 2 Complaints had been responded to within the Council’s Customer Service Standard of 20 working days, with the average response being 16 working days.

1 Local Government Ombudsman Complaint and 1 Housing Ombudsman Complaint had been received for investigation during Quarter 1 2025/26.  No fault was found for the Complaint sent to the Local Government Ombudsman, while the other was still awaiting a decision.

The report further detailed the service improvements made (“Debtors to look at changing the system so that [a] bailiff… letter [was] not triggered for debts under a certain value” was 1 of the examples provided to the Committee) following receipt of applicable Comments and Complaints.

It was noted that the Portfolio Holder for Resources and Junior Portfolio Holder for Health & Wellbeing would attend a Complaints Conference in October 2025 to help further improve Complaints handling.

A Member noted it was a brilliant set of results and stated the Customer Services Team must be pleased with the current levels of performance.

Moved by Councillor Jeanne Raspin and seconded by Councillor Emma Stevenson

RESOLVED that the Customer Services Scrutiny Committee note the overall performance on Customer Service Standards and Compliments, Comments and Complaints.