Agenda item

Committee considered a report which provided information on the Council’s performance in relation to its customer service standards and effective management of complaints for the period 1^st October 2019 to 31^st March 2020 and the annual summary for 2019/20.

 

Customer Service Standards

 

Appendix 1 to the report provided a breakdown of the key customer service standards by quarterly period, together with the target and the cumulative performance for each standard.

 

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

 

Appendix 2 to the report provided performance information between 1st October 2019 and 31st March 2020 by quarterly period.  The report identified that 98% (in both Quarter 3 and Quarter 4) of incoming calls were answered corporately within 20 seconds cumulatively.  The departments narrowly missing the key customer service standard of 93% for those periods were;

 

·         Housing and Community Safety 92% in Q3

·         Planning 92% in Q3.

 

Cumulatively, performance is 98% over 2019/20.

 

Contact Centres - Target - 80% of incoming calls to be answered within 20 seconds

 

Contact Centres achieved 80% and 76% for Q3 & 4 respectively (78% cumulatively).

 

Cumulatively performance was 78% over 2019/20, which fell just short of the target of 80%.

 

Revenues & Benefits - Target - 60% of incoming calls to be answered within 20 seconds

 

Revenues & Benefits ‘direct dial’ achieved 81% and 81% for Q3 & 4 respectively (81% cumulatively).

 

Cumulatively performance was 77% over 2019/20, which exceeded the target of 60%.

 

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

 

6,488 email enquiries (3,388 in Q3 and 3,100 in Q4) were received from the public through enquiries@bolsover.gov.uk - all were acknowledged within 1 working day and 99% were replied to in full within 8 working days.

Emailing remained the popular method of contacting the Council with more e-mails received by the public in the reporting period compared to the same period in 2018/19 of 4,798 emails.

 

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

 

Waiting times were monitored for 1 week (w/c 15^th July 2019) in 2019/20 due to the Contact Centre being closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Of the 813 customers who called into the Contact Centres, 812 (99.9%) waited less than 20 minutes to be served.  This exceeded the corporate target and demonstrated excellent service.

 

During the same period, 199 callers were served on Meet & Greet at The Arc, bringing the total number of callers served during the monitoring period to 1012.

 

Compliments, Comments and Complaints

 

Compliments

 

Written compliments received for the period by department were set out at Appendix 3 (A) attached to the report.

 

In total 218 written compliments were received from customers who appreciated excellent service.  These included 44 for Leisure, 35 for Streetscene, 35 for Revenues & Benefits and 26 for Housing.  As some compliments cross cut departments, the number did not correspond with the total above when viewed in this way.

 

A Member referred to the several compliments received for a Tutor who had delivered training in relation to safeguarding and protecting children and requested that a letter of thanks be sent to the Tutor from the Committee acknowledging how well she had done.

 

In relation to compliments, comments and complaints which cross cut departments, a Member requested that these be broken down by department on future reports.

 

Comments

 

Written comments received for the period were set out at Appendix 3 (B) attached to the report.  100% (all 39) were acknowledged and passed to the respective department within the target time of 3 working days for consideration when reviewing their service.

 

Complaints

 

Frontline resolution (stage one)

 

The number of Frontline Resolution complaints received by the Contact Centre service and recorded on the Customer Information System (Firmstep) by department were set out at Appendix 3 (C) attached to the report.  The customer service standard for responding to these complaints was 3 working days. 

 

 

 

 

Formal Investigation (stage two)

 

Formal Investigation complaints by department were set out at Appendix 3 (D) attached to the report.  110 complaints were received during the period and 92% were responded to within the customer service standard of 15 working days.

This had not met the target of 97% and was due to officer availability who were dealing with contingency plans in relation to the Covid 19 pandemic which consequently impacted on response times.

 

As some complaints cross cut departments, the number did not correspond with the total above when viewed in this way.

 

Internal Review (stage three)

 

Stage three complaints received for the period by department were set out at Appendix 3 (E) attached to the report.  These were complainants who had already made a stage two complaint and still felt dissatisfied.

 

Thirteen stage three complaints were received, 77% (10) of which were responded to within the standard of 20 working days.  Again, this did not meet the target of 100% due to the Covid 19 pandemic impacting on the availability of officers and consequently response times.

 

Ombudsman

 

The status of Ombudsman complaints for 2019/20 as at the end of March 2020 was set out at Appendix 3 (F) attached to the report. 

 

Three cases were received during the period – 1 decision was ‘Not upheld: no maladministration’, 1 was commuted to the Internal Review stage as the complainant had not fully completed the complaints process and a decision was still awaited regarding the third.

 

A table in the report provided a summary of performance for compliments, comments and complaints for 2019/20 with comparative data from previous years.

 

Complaints Feedback

 

Whilst there were no real trends leading to service improvements during the financial year some issues had been identified around the New Bolsover regeneration project, which was currently the subject of a Scrutiny Review.

 

A Member requested clarity on the number of stage 2 complaints which cross cut service areas and the % responded to in time.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer advised Committee that 3 or 4 different departments could be involved in a complaint and she referred Members to the ‘out of time’ column in Appendix 3 (C).  For future reports the Customer Standards and Complaints Officer would list each department involved in a complaint and the % of who had responded in time.

 

Another Member noted that as Covid 19 had only impacted on the last two weeks of March 2020, from the report, there were clearly some complaints raised prior to the pandemic that were not completed in the designated timescale.  She queried if any of these cross-cut more than one service area or if they only related to stage 2 complaints raised in March.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer confirmed that the 15 working days response time for some complaints received towards the end of February had been impacted ondue to the Covid 19 pandemic impacting on the availability of officers who had been deployed to other service areas and also that some officers had been unavailable due to displaying symptoms of Covid 19.

 

With regard to Stage 3 complaints failing to meet their target, a Member queried at what point these had been received by the Council in relation to the timing of Covid 19 and how far over the 20 day response time they had been completed.

 

The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer noted that again these were complaints received by the Council towards the end of February and had gone over target due to officer unavailability for the same reasons as stated previously.  However, she asked Committee to note that this had affected only 3 Stage 3 complaints which were completed in 22 working days.  She added that this situation was being monitored going forward

 

Another Member queried how a number of similar complaints sent in by Councillors on behalf of constituents were counted.  For example, 10 separate complaints received by a Councillor regarding the same issue.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer replied that if these complaints were for a service request, they would be put through to the Contact Centre but if they were formal complaints regarding the same issue, it would be counted as 1 complaint.  If it included more than one department it would be counted as a complaint against each department involved but responded to as 1 complaint.

 

A Member referred to Appendix 1 in the report and a gap in data for Quarter 4.  She queried if monitoring had not taken place in the early part of Quarter 4 or if some data could have been partially reported.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer replied that two periods of monitoring for face to face enquiries took place each year, however, the second period of monitoring did not take place in March due to Covid 19.  The grayed out boxes in the table in the report were the periods where monitoring would not normally take place.

 

A Member queried how Stage 3 complaints were now dealt with following the departure of the Chief Executive Officer and which officer was the final point of contact and signatory. 

 

The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer replied that Stage 3 complaints were now dealt with by the Council’s 3 Directors and also the Monitoring Officer as she had a role in the complaints process and the Ombudsman complaints. 

 

A Member queried if a Director would deal with a complaint in relation to their own directorate.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer advised Committee that they could.  However, if a complaint was in relation to that Director or they were part of a complaint, then the internal review would be passed to another Director to carry out. 

 

In relation to the ‘Summary for 2019/20’ in the report, a Member noted that there had been more written complaints and this went against the Council’s aim to generally encourage more digital transactions where possible.  There had also been more Stage 2 and Stage 3 complaints which required greater investigation.  Although this showed the complaints system was accessible at the higher stages, the Member queried if it were an indication that customer standards were not being met in certain areas.  The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer replied that the Ombudsman was now recognising that the volume of complaints received by a council was not an indicator of how poorly it was performing but that it was about justified complaints and service improvements which followed on from a justified or partially justified complaint.

 

Moved by Councillor Rose Bowler and seconded by Councillor Rita Turner

RESOLVED that the report be noted.