Agenda item

Purpose of the item: To receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Communities on their priorities and recent work undertaken.

Witnesses:

Mark Nuti, Cabinet Member for Communities

Marie Snelling, Executive Director of Customer and Communities

The aspect of the Cabinet Member for Communities’ portfolio that came under the Select Committee’s remit was customer services.

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Cabinet Member praised the work of the customer services team throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, during which they had acted as the first point of contact for residents.

2.    A Member asked what the key issues were in customer services at the moment. The Cabinet Member responded that a key priority was to keep response times as short as possible. Pre-pandemic, the average response time was 20 seconds, but this had not been possible in the last few months due to the pressures of Covid-19 and, more recently, the pressures of school admissions. The service was trying to recruit more staff to tackle this issue. At the height of the pandemic, the average response time increased to 20 minutes, which had now been reduced to four minutes. However, the 20-second response time was still the target, and the Cabinet Member expressed the belief that this would be reached once new staff were in-post by October 2021.

3.    The Cabinet Member stated that the service’s aim was to ensure customers always received the best quality interaction at the point of contact, and in order to achieve this the service was being streamlined, one aspect of which was making online systems available wherever possible. The majority of queries and problems reported could be addressed quickly through automated online systems, which were now in place for a number of services.

4.    The Cabinet Member continued to explain that the Dakota building, from which the customer services team was now based, was a bright, airy and calm workspace. Approximately 40% of the team were working from the office and 60% were choosing to work from home; internal surveys had suggested that staff were happy with this working arrangement. The service had not suffered from the fact that more staff were working at home; if anything, the service had improved recently.

5.    The Executive Director of Customer and Communities praised the attitude and efficiency of staff throughout the pandemic. The team had recently been nominated for two national awards. In fact, the four-minute response time was good when compared to some other local authorities. Also, it could be advantageous at times for teams to work together in person, particularly when handling complex or potentially traumatic calls, as support from colleagues was important in these situations.

6.    The Executive Director welcomed Members to come to visit the customer services offices in the Dakota building in person.

7.    A Member noted that only 40% of the customer services team were currently working in the office, even though, as the Executive Director had just highlighted, it could be advantageous for the team to work in the office together. How did the service balance that? The Executive Director responded that sub-teams were coordinated to try to ensure that who was in the office was based on need within the service. The service aspired to increase the number of staff in the office, but numbers were currently restricted due to social distancing. Whether staff worked from home or in the office also depended on the type of work they did. The service would continue to work to ensure that business need came first but that working styles also worked well for staff.

8.    A Member asked whether it would be possible for data to be collected on enquiries raised by customers relating to specific divisions, and for high-level information on this to be passed onto the divisional Member, allowing members to stay up to date on the pertinent issues within their division. The Cabinet Member replied that the service was looking at putting together a list of frequently asked questions on the top 20 or so types of enquiries. A flow chart was also being produced to show the pathways for enquiries and where delays could arise. The Cabinet Member hoped that this would be provided to Members within the next few weeks.

9.    A Member asked what level of traffic the Council experienced on the Esendex service it used to send out text messages. The Executive Director agreed to provide this information after the meeting.

10.  A Member enquired how the Council was communicating to elderly or vulnerable residents that BT would be switching off its landline service in 2025. Some residents may not be aware of this, and it may be the only method they used for contacting the Council. The Cabinet Member agreed that it was important to think ahead so that residents were not left stranded without a landline. There were many different ways to contact the Council available. The Executive Director expressed the opinion that the Council would probably always have some form of telephony presence. The need to continue to provide choice had to be balanced with the cost and administration of these contact pathways. The Council’s strategy, informed in part by previous discussions with the Resources and Performance Select Committee, was therefore to utilise new technologies and to support residents to be able to use them. The Council recognised that some more traditional methods may be needed, particularly for more vulnerable residents, but that newer technologies should be introduced in line with their use in wider society. For example, a chatbot had been brought in, through which residents could contact the Council, aligned with the use of chatbots on banks’ and other services’ websites.

11.  Regarding the Council’s chatbot, a Member agreed that these had an important place but that sometimes they did not work well. The Cabinet Member stated that the chatbot system had worked well since it was started, with a satisfaction rate of approximately 95%. The chatbot was suitable for residents with simpler questions that could be answered quickly, and having it freed up staff time. The Executive Director added that 40% of the traffic to the chatbot so far was outside of business hours, showing its particular use when other contact methods would not be available. The chatbot was not intended to fully replace more traditional methods of contact, but rather to enable customer services to reduce a large proportion of their contact in order to focus on those who had complex queries and needed telephone-based interaction the most.

12.  A Member asked what the customer services budget was and what the £200,000 in efficiencies planned actually meant. What progress had been made so far on achieving efficiencies? The Executive Director explained that the customer services budget was £2.7m for 2021/22 and the service was on track to deliver £200,000 of efficiencies. Most of the budget was spent on staff. It was important to rationalise the efficiencies made through the use of chatbots by slightly reducing the number of staff. The Member remarked that witnesses had mentioned that new staff would be joining the service in October. How did this impact the efficiencies? The Executive Director responded that the new staff joining in October were funded by NHS England through Test and Trace, so this did not have a negative impact on the customer services budget or efficiencies.

Recommendations:

The Select Committee recommends that:

1.    Consideration be given to the customer services team providing relevant information and data, based on the calls received by them, to the respective elected representatives about their wards/divisions;

2.    Careful consideration be given to ensuring that the roll-out of chatbots does not result in a negative impact on digitally excluded and elderly residents;

3.    An opportunity to visit the customer services contact centre be offered to Members by the service at an appropriate time.

Actions/further information to be provided:

1.    Executive Director of Customer and Communities to provide information on the level of traffic on the Esendex system.