Agenda item

Quarter 4 Customer Service Updates Report

Minutes:

The Board considered the Making Experiences Count – Quarterly Complaints report which was brought before Members following a recommendation from the Planning Policy Task Group final report. The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources informed Members that as this was the first such report received by the Board it gave them an opportunity to feedback on the level of information within the report and whether further information would be helpful.

It was highlighted to Members that the Council was receiving more complaints and compliments; this was due to officers and members of the public appreciating particular issues as being compliments and complaints. There had also been training for officers in respect of identifying the differences between complaints and services issues. Members were informed that the Council was moving away from the use of targets as these tended to drive particular types of behaviour for example by not logging a particular complaint in order to maintain a target. The decrease in the number of complaints from 2010/11 was due to particular issues in that year which related to garden waste.

From the information available the Council had learnt that the main issue was not keeping the customer informed and not responding in an appropriate manner; the information sent out did not always explain the position and was not written in plain English. An average of 76% of complaints received responses within the target time. Whilst this was a slight increase on the previous year, it was considered unacceptable and Members requested further details on any remedial actions taken to improve this figure.

The Board discussed the following areas in more detail:

Members queried whether spot checks were undertaken – it was confirmed that “mystery shopper” exercises had taken place over various departments (including members of the public) and the results of these would be provided in the next quarterly report.
Concerns were raised in respect of the 15 working days response to a customer complaint. It was clarified that an acknowledgement of a complaint would normally be made within 2-3 days. If a complaint required a more detailed complex response, for example in respect of housing benefits, then the response time could be significantly longer.
The current customer skills training which was being rolled out to employees – both face to face and telephone.
Concerns were raised in respect of agency waste crews being used without the appropriate training. Members understood that there had been funding allocated for crews to receive specific NVQ training.
Officers to clarify the point raised by Members in respect of the weight of bins.
Members noted that a complaint had been received in respect of confidential details being sent in error to the wrong person and suggested that this could be a matter for further investigation by the Audit Board.

Members discussed the overall training needs, which were highlighted within this report.

RESOLVED:

(a) that the next quarterly report includes information on actions taken to improve the percentage of cases responded to within the target time and where necessary any training needs identified to assist with this improvement;

(b) that the next quarterly report includes information on the number of complaints responded to quickly and the number which take more time and therefore have a detrimental effect on the average response percentage; and

(c) that a presentation be included in respect of the training received by staff when the next quarterly report is received by the Board.

Supporting documents: