Agenda item

To monitor the progress achieved in relation to developing the Customer Effort Dashboard and the feedback trend from the new telephony system.

 

11.00am – 11.45am

In the absence of the Lead Member for Community Infrastructure the Head of Customers, Communications and Marketing introduced the Service Improvement Manager’s report (previously circulated) which provided the Committee with an overview of the Customer Effort and Customer Satisfaction results. 

 

The report contained examples of verbatim and suggestions for service improvements based on the feedback received.  Members were reminded by the Head of Service that the Customer Effort and Satisfaction Dashboard, had initially been a pilot project, but following its success the system had been introduced as an integral part of the Council’s Customer Services Centre. 

 

Following a discussion with the Council’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) work was undertaken to extend the service to other Council customer facing services, these were services that had a high volume of calls from the public and other stakeholders.  - during the twelve months up to September 2018 the survey has been extended to four council services and up to 13 different sections. 

 

According to the Service Improvement Manager the system had the ability to produce reports on how much effort had been required on the customer’s behalf to resolve their enquiry together with the customer’s satisfaction rate at the end of the process. 

 

Over 12 months, analysis of this information identified 3 emerging themes as to why customers were not satisfied following their contact with the council:

·         the caller having been transferred, or given a direct-dial number to call, their call was not answered;

·         the caller having left a message on an answerphone was not called back; and

·         having had their enquiry logged onto the system and asking for a specific Service to contact them, no call-back was received

That led to the Better Telephony Project  – increasing customers’ ability to ‘get to the right place 1st time’ when dialling the Councils main telephone number 01824 706000.

 

Responding to members’ questions the Head of Service and Service Improvement Manager:

·         agreed to include in future reports actual figures in addition to percentage figures; 

·         confirmed that the number of mobile telephone surveys completed and returned was pleasing and was above the average return figure for surveys in general;

·         advised that the Council was not intending on introducing a mobile phone/tablet App for the purpose of undertaking these types of surveys as local authorities who had introduced them were now phasing them out - due to the complex ICT requirements and ‘back office processes needed to support them. 

Denbighshire County Council’s website was well used by residents and customers for interacting with the authority and developing the website further for this purpose was deemed more effective than introducing an App:

·         advised that the new Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) System which was due to be introduced in late October or early November 2018 would work effectively with mobile phones and would improve end to end processes and consequently support resident/customer interaction with the Council;

·         confirmed that the data received from the surveys was used to improve services with a view to ensuring that all Services complied with the Corporate Standard for service delivery – the Denbighshire Way.  Nevertheless there would always be room for improvement both internally within the Council and externally with stakeholders;

·         advised that the data received from the surveys was analysed by a working group made up from officers from the main customer facing services. 

Service representatives were able to drill down the data and identify which individual advisor within their Service had dealt with the query and address any issues or shortcomings raised with a view to improving service delivery in future. 

Similarly, the feedback could be used to identify best practice and to convey praise and personal gratitude to individual advisors;

·         undertook to investigate why some elected member queries were still registered a ‘pink’ on the members’ queries tracking system (EMMA)

·         advised that whilst EMMA was an effective way for checking progress in dealing with enquiries, it was important that officers responded to enquiries via Emma.  The new CRM system would replace EMMA for member queries;

·         confirmed that all outstanding queries on EMMA were report to the Council’s SLT on a weekly basis;

·         reassured that whilst the aim in the long-term was to increase the number of electronic interactions with the Council via the website, this did not mean that residents etc. would not be able to contact the Council by telephone or face to face if that was their preferred communication method.  By increasing opportunities for residents and others to contact the  Authority electronically at  time which was convenient to them the Council could make more effective use of its resources  i.e. releasing capacity within telephone and customer facing environments to help more vulnerable, and those needing support to transact with the council ;

·         advised that the Council’s Customer Services Department conformed with all Welsh Language Standards which were applicable to its services;

·         confirmed that Society for IT Managers in the public sector (SOCITIM) audited the Council’s website on an annual basis and under its standards it consistently received a 3 out of 4 star rating – Cardiff City Council being the only one in Wales to be given a 4* rating. 

Denbighshire’s website was managed and administered by an internal team of officers and not outsourced, therefore the Team’s focus was permanently on the Council’s website and Council services’ micro-sites;

·         confirmed that residents, officers and councillors alike were all regarded as customers when raising enquiries with the Customer Services Department.  The new CRM system will refer all enquiries directly to the relevant service;

·         acknowledged that elected members were often approached by residents with day to day enquiries which could easily be resolved if they contacted the Council directly. 

The Authority had a presence on a number of social media platforms and whilst officers could not trawl for individual queries left on social media sites elected members could direct residents to those platforms for general information, telephone numbers or updates on issues etc.; and

·         advised that discussions were currently underway with ICT and the company responsible for supplying the visitor registration terminals called ‘Entrysign’ in Council offices’ reception areas on ensuring that the information displayed on the terminals was entirely bilingual.

 

At the conclusion of a detailed discussion the Committee:

 

Resolved: -

(i)           subject to the above observations and the actions identified above being progressed to receive the report; and

(ii)          to request that a report be presented to the Committee in twelve to fifteen months’ time reviewing the implementation of the new Customer Relationship Management System and its performance in delivering efficient and effective customer focussed services in line with the product specification and the Council’s expectations