Agenda item

Committee considered a report which provided detailed information on the Council’s performance in relation to its customer service standards and management of complaints during the last two quarter periods of 2018/19 – October 2018 to March 2019.

Telephones - Target - 93% to be answered within 20 seconds

The report identified that 96% (in both Quarter 3 and Quarter 4) of incoming calls were answered corporately within 20 seconds cumulatively.  Those departments who did not achieve the key customer service standard of 93% for Quarter 3 and 4 were;

·         Housing and Community Safety 92% in Q3

·         Customer Service 85% in Q3 and 91% in Q4

·         Revenues & Benefits 81% in Q3 and 74% in Q4.

E-mails - Target 1 - 100% to be acknowledged within 1 working day and Target 2 - 100% to be replied to within 8 working days

4,798 email enquiries (2,355 in Q3 and 2,443 in Q4) from the public were received through enquiries@bolsover.gov.uk  and all were acknowledged within one working day and 99% were replied to in full within 8 working days.

Face to face monitoring - Target – 99% not kept waiting longer than 20 minutes at a Contact Centre

Waiting times were monitored during weeks commencing 14^th January 2019 and 15^th July 2019.  In total 1,703 customers called into the Contact Centres, 1,698 of which (99.7%) waited less than 20 minutes to be served.  This exceeded the corporate target and demonstrated excellent service.

Compliments

In total 135 written compliments were received - this included 39 for Leisure, 29 for Housing and 28 for Streetscene.  It was noted that some compliments received, however, cross cut with other departments.  Members queried if the compliments were passed back to relevant staff and the Officer confirmed that information was filtered through to relevant departments.

Comments

Twenty six written comments were received for the two quarter periods of which 100% were acknowledged and passed to the respective department within the target time of 3 working days. 

Complaints

Frontline resolution (stage one)

Frontline Resolution complaints received by the Contact Centre were recorded on the Customer Information System (Firmstep) by department.  The customer service standard for responding to these complaints was 3 working days. 

Formal Investigation (stage two)

95 Formal Investigation complaints were received during the two quarter periods of which 99% were responded to within the customer service standard of 15 working days.  Some complaints cross cut with other departments.  It was noted that this exceeded the target of 97%.

Internal Review (stage three)

Stage three complaints were complainants who had made a stage two complaint but had still felt dissatisfied.  During the two quarter periods, 17 stage three complaints were received, 94% (16) of which were responded to within the standard of 20 working days.

Ombudsman

During 2018/19 as at the end of March 2019, five cases were closed after initial enquiries and the Council was awaiting further correspondence in respect of 2 other complaints.

The results would show that the Council had an easy to access complaints system as recommended by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman and Housing Ombudsman. 

Members welcomed the report and noted the good results achieved.

Moved by Councillor Rita Turner and seconded by Councillor Rose Bowler

RESOLVED that the report be noted.