Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Valerie Anslow, Ian Jelley and King Lawal. Cllr Kevin Watt was acting as substitute for Cllr Lawal.

RESOLVED that:-

The minutes of the Service Delivery, Performance and Customers EAP meeting held on 23^rd November 2022 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Adele Wylie, the Executive Director of Customer and Governance introduced a paper that had been considered by the previous meeting of the Service Delivery, Performance and Customers EAP in November 2022 regarding the introduction of a process for member enquiries received by the Council and the method for responding to these.

The meeting noted that comments from the previous meeting had been used to develop a draft Member Enquiry Process designed to ensure all contacts submitted were dealt with in a consistent and efficient manner, reducing duplication of work and delayed responses.

The draft process before the meeting outlined the context of member enquiries, with the meeting noting that responses should be timely and of good quality with accountability being a strong driving factor. A definition of admissible member enquiries was provided, along with those forms of enquiry excluded from the process, which would include all ordinary service requests.

The panel heard that information sought by Members in regard to Council operations should be obtained through the Member Enquiries Process rather than using the Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Information Regulations or the Data Protection Act.

The process further set out the information that members should provide when making an enquiry, aspects relating to confidentiality and urgent enquires. The process also detailed what would happen in the case of multiple enquiries being made in relation to the same subject matter and provided clarity on the exact handling process and timescales for enquiries. Finally, there was section of the document that considered quality monitoring of responses provided to member enquiries.

Members of the panel welcomed the draft process before them and asked questions in relation to the following:

·       Housing repairs and Street Doctor queries

·       The need to empower residents to log their own issues with customer services or via the Council’s website

·       The importance of customer reference numbers in tracking and escalating requests or issues to provide a clear audit trail

·       The Council’s CRM system

·       Back-office recording methods of Member Enquiries

·       The difference between enquiries and complaints

·       The escalation process for queries not initially/unsatisfactorily resolved

Following discussion, it was AGREED that the Member Enquiry Process would be presented to the Executive by Cllr Lloyd Bunday, Chair of the Connect Communities EAP prior to being rolled out. 

The meeting received a presentation from Geoff Kent, Assistant Director for Customer Services in regard to the proposed introduction of a clearer, more focussed Customer Experience Strategy.

It was heard that the existing strategy had been created prior to vesting day since when Customer Services had been in operation as five separate teams with no shared IT systems or telephony. Members noted that a management restructure of Customer Services had recently concluded as a first step towards harmonisation of the service. Further key timeline dates were provided as below:

•       Single Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) – rollout from April 2023

•       New telephone system – rollout from Summer 2023

•       Integration of five Customer Services teams into one single team – 2023-24

•       First point of contact moves from back office to front office – 2023-24 and beyond

•       Other services combine into single teams with single IT systems  - ongoing

Further details regarding the service harmonisation were provided, with the meeting receiving additional information regarding the forthcoming CRM implementation and the installation of a new phone system. It was heard that significant work had been required to understand call-flows to ensure the new system met operational requirements. One noted improvement from the current system would be the removal of the extensive opening menu callers had to listen to prior to initial calls to Customer Services being answered.

Guy Holloway, Assistant Chief Executive reminded the meeting of the variety of formats of interaction between customers and the Council and noted the need to ensure that it was easy to contact and transact with the organisation, whilst limiting the need for unintended contact and increasing the opportunities for queries to be answered online, especially as content migrated away from legacy websites. It was heard that online contact offered a significantly reduced cost profile from other forms of customer contact such as face-to-face or telephone.

The meeting discussed the need to understand how customers interacted with the Council and the information held and provided by the authority and whether this was sufficient or relevant enough to allow for enquiries to be satisfactorily answered online so no further contact was required.

The panel heard that new functions of the telephony system would be a much greater simplification of menus to allow customers to quickly access the correct area for their query and the option to offer call-backs to customers during peak times.

In terms of making the strategy real, significant work had gone into identifying the needs of different customers, with details to be set out within the strategy as to how the Council would aim to assist all of those differing customers and how front-end interaction would be improved to accommodate this. Improved technology and identification of best practice from other similar authorities was important in achieving this aim, as well as the ability to be responsive should something not work.

The Chair requested input from all departments within the Council into the important Customer Experience Strategy, particularly the Customer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Executive Forward Plan for March 2023 to June 2023 was noted. A copy of the Internal Forward Plan had been circulated to members in advance of the meeting.

It was noted that the Forward List of items for the EAP would be circulated to members following the meeting.

There being no further business, the Chair thanked Members and Officers for their attendance and closed the meeting.