Witnesses:
Rachel Basham, Member Services Manager
Key
points raised during the discussion:
- CM said
that following the Contact Centre visit he had spoken with the
Member Services Manager about the initiatives she was taking, and
had circulated a paper written by the Member Services Manager on
this topic prior to this meeting.
- The Member
Services Manager expressed hope that the recommendations of the
Task Group might support the work that she was doing on Member
interaction and training with Customer Services. The Leader of the
Council had asked for work to be initiated on improving a joined-up
approach between Democratic Services and Customer Services, to
ensure that Customer Services provided quick, good quality
responses to Members’ enquiries. The Member Services Manager
met with the Customer Relations and Service Improvement Manager
monthly to receive performance info, and would report this to
Members every six months.
- Around half
of Members never used the councillors’ customer service
hotline. There was a need for training for Members, as many Members
were not confident in using the online self-serve reporting tool.
The Member Services Manager was working with Customer Services on
developing a training course on this and hoped to roll out a pilot
in summer 2020.
- Work would
be done on the quality of responses that Members received through
dip-testing.
- It was
important to acknowledge that there was pressure on Customer
Services at the moment because of Covid-19. A new inbox for
Members’ Covid-19 related enquiries had been set up; it had a
24-hour turnaround and was a collaboration between Democratic
Services and Customer Services.
- BG
responded that he did use the online reporting system to report
issues that residents had raised in-person with him. He was of the
opinion that guidance for the public was also important, so that
they knew that they could report issues online rather than having
to report via Members.
- Also,
Members agreed that it would be useful to receive feedback on
reporting and on whether each enquiry would be followed up or not.
NH remarked that it may be easier to collect this information for
online enquiries than telephone enquiries. NH further expressed
preference for online enquiries as they provided a more permanent
record of the enquiry, meaning that it might be more likely that
enquiries would be followed up and resolved.
- NH said he
had thought that the Customer Services Members’ enquiries
inbox was only for highways related enquiries, so he had been
surprised to learn recently that it was for enquiries relating to
all services. The Member Services Manager said it was useful to
know this and perhaps efforts should be made to ensure all Members
were aware it was not only for highways enquiries.
- RW said
that he used the Members’ inbox for all enquiries after
discovering it could be used so, and he found it satisfactory.
However, the responses came directly from Officers to Members,
meaning that these could contain sensitive information and would
need to be edited before they could be passed on to residents.
Members may therefore need to alter the wording to tailor the reply
to the resident.
- The Member
Services Manager assured Members that the Council was keen not to
stop or discourage Members from contacting individual
Officers.
- The target
for response rates to Members’ enquiries was 90% within five
working days; currently achievement figures stood at just under
90%.
- NH
requested that the Member Services Manager share the monthly
Customer Services reporting with the Task Group. The Member
Services Manager agreed to this and added that she would continue
to share the six-monthly reporting with all Members.
- NH
mentioned a slideshow he had sent out with screenshots from the
online pothole reporting process. He had seen some YouTube videos
put together by the Finance team that he found quite effective, and
he suggested that a similar video could be created for the pothole
process. RW agreed that YouTube videos were an effective way to
reach residents, including younger residents, and could be created
for a number of topics, such as tree planting, verge enhancement
and what it means to become a councillor. The Member Services
Manager informed Members that there was already a Becoming a
Councillor video on YouTube starring Will Forster, and she would
send a link to this video to Task Group Members.
Actions/further information to be provided:
- For the
Member Services Manager to share monthly Customer Services
reporting with the Task Group;
- For the
Member Services Manager to send to the Task Group a link to the
Becoming a Councillor YouTube video.