Customer Services Performance Report
Renfrewshire Council · 13 February 2025
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 13 February 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board On: 13 February 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Finance and Resources ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Customer Services Performance Report ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 This report details performance across key Customer Service functions including Call Centre, E-mail, Face to Face and Digital Support for customers during December 2024. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Board: Note the contents of the report. _________________________________________________________ 3. Customer Service Provision 3.1 This section details the performance of the customer service centre for December 2024. The report provides an update on the overall contact centre call and e-mail volumes. Face to Face services continue in Renfrewshire House, and details of customer volumes are provided in this report. Demand for Digital Services remains high, and this report will update members on the level of online transactions being completed and provide the first update on the performance of the Council’s new Digital Advisor “Millie”.
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3.2 Contact Centre Performance 3.2.1 High level monthly summary – for the month of December, the contact centre received 17,137 and answered 98% against a primary target of 90% for the period. Table 1 – Customer Service Unit – Primary Target (call handling) Primary target Year Calls Received December Performance Year to Date 90% calls answered 2024 17,137 98% 97% 2023 19,680 95% 95% 3.2.2 The call centre achieved the primary target of answering over 90% of calls received. 3.2.3 The secondary target is to respond to 70% of all calls within 40 seconds. Table 2 – Customer Service Unit – Secondary Target (call handling) Secondary target Year December Performance Year to Date 70% calls in 40 seconds 2024 71% 69% 2023 70% 72% 3.2.4 The contact centre achieved the secondary target of answering 70% of calls within 40 seconds. The process for Free School Meals and Clothing grant applications for the new school session re-opened in June, and to date the team have processed 4,220 applications for Free School Meals and Clothing Grants and paid £701,460 in clothing grants to 5,254 children. We continue to see that applications remain lower than the same period last year, where we processed 4,518 applications and paid £771,570 for 5,776 children. 3.2.5 In addition to the calls outlined above, customers also contact the Council using e-mail as their preferred channel. Since the new contact system was implemented, this has given greater visibility to the volumes handled through this route. The e-mails received in the last three months for each service are outlined in table 3 below.
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Table 3 – E-mail contact volumes Service October 2024 November 2024 December 2024 Blue Badge 391 399 233 General Enquiry 768 777 783 Environmental 27 26 35 Free School Meals / Clothing Grants 74 43 43 Housing Repairs 640 949 1047 Licensing 517 356 299 Mybins 465 648 570 Roads and Lighting Faults 60 68 131 Garden Waste 32 25 14 Total e-mails handled 2,932 3,291 3,155 3.3 Face to face provision 3.3.1 The Customer Service Centre offers face to face support to customers by appointment where this is required. 3.3.2 Table 4 below shows the volume of customers who received face to face support during the month of December 2024. Table 4 – Face to Face Customer Volumes Service Total Customers Birth Registration 59 Marriage Registration 23 Licensing 27 TOTAL 109 4 Digital Service Provision 4.1 Digital Advisor (Millie) In November, the Council introduced the Digital Advisor, Millie. This new service provides customers, who have routine or transactional requests, with 24/7 assistance. We recognise that some customers have experienced difficulty in using this new service, and we continually monitor this using call flow information and customer feedback, to ensure we train Millie to handle calls better next time round. Members should note that the digital advisor is always learning, and can be compared to the knowledge and experience journey a customer service advisor will go through when they first start in their role. For the month of December, the Digital Advisor received 18,791 calls. Depending on the nature of the customers query, Millie will either provide a response or route the customer to the correct customer service advisor.
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Of the 18,791 calls handled, 64% (12,003) were transferred to customer service advisors and 36% (6788) were provided the answer they were looking for by Millie. The top 5 reasons for transfers, which account for 78% of all transferred calls are. Report a new housing repair 28% Make a payment 13% Council Switchboard 13% Council Tax 12% Recycling 12% The digital advisor is new, and Millie continues to learn from every call handled. The service are also learning how to manage and deliver the ongoing training that is needed to continuously improve the customer experience. Overall the call volume received in the call centre was lower than the same period last year. This could be attribute to the introduction of the Digital Advisor however there are multiple factors which impact on call volume, particularly in the winter months. The team will continue to monitor this in the coming months to understand better the impact which this new service is having on contact centre performance. 4.2 Online Digital Services The Council continues to see a high level of requests processed through the online platform, with an additional 9,066 customers registered in the last year. The total number of registered users on the MyAccount platform is now 110,817. Since the start of the financial year, 159,349 online transactions have been completed, which is 7,279 higher than the same period last year. This increase is due to the launch of new services and could also be impacted by the introduction of the digital advisor.
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___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial – None 2. HR & Organisational Development – None 3. Community/Council Planning – Working together to improve outcomes – An efficient and effective Customer Services Unit is vital to ensuring citizens have equality of access to Council services whether this is digitally, by telephone or face to face. 4. Legal - None 5. Property/Assets - None 6. Information Technology - None - 7. Equality & Human Rights - The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report because it is for consideration of performance only. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety – None 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Online Transactions 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25
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9. Procurement - None. 10. Risk - None 11. Privacy Impact - None 12. Cosla Policy Position – Non applicable. 13. Climate Risk – none. 14. Children’s Rights –The administration of Free School Meals and Clothing Grants has a positive impact on article 24 (Health, Water, Food, Environment) and article 27 (Food, Clothing, A Safe Home) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. _________________________________________________________ List of Background Papers (a) None ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Gary Innes, Senior Service Delivery Manager (Customer and Digital Operations)