Agenda item

Verbal update on customer service responses and recruitment

Minutes:

Linda Farley, Assistant Director Customer Service and Delivery, provided an update to the Committee on the Customer Service Team staffing levels and retention. During discussion, the following points were highlighted:

 

·       The Customer Service Team now had a full complement of staff with the last three members joining the Team in April 2024 and currently undergoing training, supported by experience team members. The three new members of the team would be operating independently as of July 2024, allowing the experienced supporting staff to return to their normal roles.

 

·       A hybrid work pattern (including flexible working) was introduced for the contact centre, post-Covid. Staff worked across both Lewes and Eastbourne Councils and were able to choose which location they wished to be based at. IT facilities were also provided for staff to work from home. All elements of performance management (including call-listening) were available regardless of where staff were based. A Teams channel was available for all members of the contact centre, where questions could be asked, and queries raised. 

 

·       There had been a significant increase in the number of calls to the team over recent months as a result of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the General Elections. The commissioning of the new waste and recycling collection arrangements, as well as the annual billing for council tax, had increased the demand on the contact centre. The cost-of-living crisis was still impacting on residents and added to the demand. The issues in many of the enquiries received by the contact centre were multiple and complex, which led to longer time spent with each person.

 

·       New staff were ‘buddied-up’ with an existing team member and received training on all areas of the Council’s services. The new staff also received one-to-ones and were set targets as part of performance management. Call-listening allowed qualitative scores to be provided, which were added to any quantitative data collected. Team meetings and shadowing were also provided as support.

 

·       Customer Service staff were provided with full support in instances where difficult calls were received and there was also a protocol for clients of concern. the Employee Assistance programme was available for staff to be referred to if necessary and the training programme included personal resilience. The opportunity for councillors to visit the staff on site and see their work was always available.

 

·       The contact centre provided a starting point for new staff and allowed them to progress into specific service areas. Because of these opportunities, only a small number of contact centre staff left the organisation. The average retention period for staff in the contact centre was approximately two years.

 

·       The chatbot, Ellis, was available on the Council’s website and supported the work of the contact centre by driving down the time advisers would otherwise spend chatting. Ellis worked very well on the Council’s website by signposting customers to the appropriate areas for information. There was further work needed on the phone interaction with Ellis around language and customer behaviour; data from a four-week period of Ellis being available for all options was currently being analysed to make improvements. Updates on the language model were regularly provided allowing the system to be developed and made suitable locally, whilst also dealing with multiple contacts. The Ellis phone system would be live again once it could be demonstrated that all the criteria for its use could be met.

 

·       There were continued challenges in predicting the types of calls that would be received, but it was anticipated that once all staff were fully trained and confident in all areas of the work, call-times would reduce. The focus would, however, always be on providing a quality response with fist-time resolutions. The current telephone system did not include call-recourse and ‘live’ listening was the only option. However, a new telephony system was being introduced that included a call-back option.

 

Resolved to note the update.