Agenda item

Customer Service Standards and Compliments, Comments and Complaints Report 2019/20 - 1st April 2019 to 30th September 2019.

Minutes:

Committee considered a report which provided detailed information on the Council’s performance in relation to its customer service standards and management of complaints for the period 1st April 2019 to 30th September 2019.

 

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

 

The report identified that 98% of incoming calls were being answered corporately within 20 seconds cumulatively.  Only Streetscene Services narrowly missed the target in Q1 (92%).

 

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

7,459 email enquiries (3,750 in Q1 and 3,709 in Q2)from the public were received through enquiries@bolsover.gov.uk  and all were acknowledged within one working day with 99% 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 week commencing 15th July 2019 were 813 customers called into the Contact Centres, 812 of which (99.88%) waited less than 20 minutes to be served.  During the same period, 199 callers were served on Meet & Greet at The Arc, Clowne, bringing the total number of callers served during week commencing 15th July 2019 to 1,012.

 

Compliments

 

In total, 111 written compliments were received (this was a slight decrease on the same period in 2018/19 were 123 compliments were received).  A good cross section of compliments were received from customers appreciating excellent service, including 23 for Housing, 22 for Streetscene Services, 18 for Leisure, 16 for Planning and 14 for Customer Services (Contact Centres).  As there were some compliments which cross cut departments, the total did not correspond with the total above when viewed in this way.

 

Members were asked to note that where exceptional praise was received for a member of staff, or a team/department, these were highlighted on the Council’s Extranet.  Where a member of staff, or a team/department had gone over and above the call of duty, the Customer Standards and Complaints Officer would discuss with their relevant manager to nominate them for an employee award.

 

 

Comments

 

Sixteen comments were acknowledged and passed to the respective department within the target time of 3 working days.  Some comments raised valid issues and cross cut departments, as such they were responded to corporately and as previously stated, the total did not correspond with the total above when viewed in this way.

 

Complaints

 

Frontline resolution (stage one)

 

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

 

Formal Investigation (stage two)

 

98 Formal Investigation complaints were received during the period.  97 (99%) were responded to within the customer service standard of 15 working days, the remaining 1 was partly regarding a service provided by another organisation and was responded to within 19 working days.  As some complaints cross cut departments, the total did not correspond with the total above when viewed in this way.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer noted that very few formal complaints had been received with regard to the New Bolsover regeneration work but she would like to see any future complaints come via the formal corporate complaint route.

 

Internal Review (stage three)

 

Stage three complainants were complainants who had made a stage two complaint bit still felt dissatisfied.  During this period, 28 stage three complaints were received, 93% (26) of which were responded to within standard.  As some complaints cross cut departments, the total did not correspond with the total above when viewed in this way.

 

Ombudsman

 

During the period and up to 18th November 2019, 8 decisions were received from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman of ‘closed after initial enquiries’, 1 of ‘not upheld, no maladministration’ and 1 of ‘upheld, maladministration and injustice’.  This last complaint was complex and the criticism related to a delay in putting the person back on the housing waiting list.  One decision of ‘close the case’from the Housing Ombudsman (HO) and another of ‘close the case’ for a review of the same complaint, was also received.

 

A Member commented that she and another Member had witnessed a customer being served at the Clowne Contact Centre and was concerned at the lack of privacy for customers, especially when dealing with delicate matters.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer replied that signs were displayed in all Contact Centres that any customer wishing to speak in privacy could request this with the Customer Service Advisor.  The Head of Partnerships and Transformation added that he would look at improving the promotion of privacy for customers in all Contact Centres.  Another Member commented that if a customer needed more than 20 minutes to be served, then they should be allocated the time that they needed.

 

Moved by Councillor Ray Heffer and seconded by Councillor Andrew Joesbury

RESOLVEDthat the overall performance on compliments/comments and complaints and customer service standards be noted.     

 

Supporting documents: