Customer Services Performance Report
Renfrewshire Council · 12 June 2025
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 12 June 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 ___________________________________________________________________ To: Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board On: 12 June 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 April 2025. ___________________________________________________________________ 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 April 2025. 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 the performance of the Digital Advisor “Millie”.
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2 3.2 Contact Centre Performance 3.2.1 High level monthly summary – for the month of April, the contact centre received 24,954 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 April Performance Year to Date 90% calls answered 2025 24,954 98% 98% 2024 28,864 96% 96% 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 April Performance Year to Date 70% calls in 40 seconds 2025 72% 72% 2024 64% 64% 3.2.4 The contact centre achieved the secondary target of 70% of calls answered within 40 seconds. The total call volume is lower than the same period last year and members will note later in the report an increase in e-mails and onilne transactions as the Digital Advisor provides customers with a choice in how to interact with the Council. The process for Free School Meals and Clothing grant applications for the new school session re-opened in June 2024, and to date the team have processed 4,340 applications for Free School Meals and Clothing Grants and paid £710,610 in clothing grants to 5,505 children. For the same period in the previous year, 4,663 applications were processed for Free School Meals and Clothing Grants and £782,100 was paid in clothing grants to 5,858 children
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3 The applications for clothing grants in this school year closed on the 31st March, however Free School Meal applications remain open. Clothing Grant applications for the next school year will re-start in June. 3.2.5 In addition to the calls outlined above, customers also contact the Council using e-mail as their preferred channel. The e-mails received in the last three months for each service are outlined in table 3 below. Table 3 – E-mail contact volumes Service February 2025 March 2025 April 2025 Blue Badge 376 420 515 General Enquiry 704 798 869 Environmental 70 48 49 Free School Meals / Clothing Grants 29 35 28 Housing Repairs 2034 1,633 1,527 Licensing 369 483 429 Mybins 688 689 741 Roads and Lighting Faults 251 140 170 Garden Waste 38 356 646 Total e-mails handled 4,559 4,602 4,974 The volume of e-mails have increased in the past 2 months, mainly due to an increase in garden waste enquiries as the new permit scheme launched for 2025/26 permits. 3.3 Face to face service provision 3.3.1 The Customer Service Centre offers face to face support to customers 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 April 2025. Table 4 – Face to Face Customer Volumes Service Total Customers Birth Registration 21 Marriage Registration 31 Licensing 32 TOTAL 84
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4 4 Digital Service Provision 4.1 Digital Advisor (Millie) For the month of April, the Digital Advisor received 27,427 calls. Depending on the nature of the customers query, Millie will either provide an appropriate response to the customer or will transfer the customer to the correct advisor in the call centre. Table 5 below shows the performance levels for the month and a total volume since launch in November 2024 through to the end of the financial year. Table 5 – Digital Advisor Performance Calls Received Transferred to Advisor Response Provided April 2025 27,427 19,199 (70%) 8,228 (30%) Last Financial Year 106,576 70,108 (66%) 36,468 (34%) The top 5 reasons for transfers, which account for 76% of all transferred calls are. Council Tax 18% Housing Repairs 17% Automated Payments 16% Recycling 13% Council Switcboard 12% Members will note the increase in percentage of calls transferred compared to previous reports. This will fluctuate over time and is due to the type of calls received during the period. For example, Council Tax is the highest call type for transfer, as shown in the table above, this is due to an increase in customers with more in-depth council tax enquiries following annual billing, these are not seen as routine or transactional calls and are rightly transferred to an advisor for further assistance. The team continue to monitor the performance of the digital advisor, and make regular changes to improve the overall effectiveness of the service. 4.2 Online Digital Services The Council continues to see a high level of requests processed through the online platform, with an additional 11,077 customers registered in the last year. The total number of registered users on the MyAccount platform is now 115,869.
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5 In the last year, 245,927 online transactions have been completed, which is 29,844 higher than the same period last year. This increase is due to the launch of new online forms for neighbourhood services, garden waste permit scheme and changes to some council tax processes along with the introduction of the digital advisor. ___________________________________________________________________ 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. 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Online Transactions 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26
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6 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 9. Procurement - None. 10. Risk - None 11. Privacy Impact - None 12. Climate Risk – none. 13. 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.c 14. Cosla Policy Position – Non applicable. _________________________________________________________ List of Background Papers (a) None ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Gary Innes, Senior Service Delivery Manager (Customer and Digital Operations)