(a)

customer services was one of the areas that had been identified as needing significant change in order to realise the Council’s goals of meeting ongoing budgetary pressures and achieving its aspiration of becoming a ‘Brilliant Co-operative Council’;

(b)

understanding customers, their needs and behaviour patterns in interacting with the Council would ensure that funds were spent effectively in areas of value and that services were relevant and easy to use.  Following a comprehensive review of customer services across the Council  it had become clear that there was –

·         inconsistent service standards across departments

·         a failure to adapt to changes in technology (e.g. growth in mobile computing)

·         a failure to capitalise on the national trend of customers wishing to self-serve

(c)

the approach to this Strategy had been one which would build the capability to meet the city’s needs and improve the customer experience by providing facilities for customers to ‘self-serve’ and services which were designed to get it right first time.  Getting it right first time prevented avoidable/duplicate contact which was an added cost to both the customer and the council;

(d)

the Council acknowledged that not all services could be delivered via digital channels and customers would have the choice to ‘go digital’ or retain ‘face-to-face’/human contact.  The new First Stop Shop would enable customers to make that choice, as well as provide assistance to those who hadn’t previously been able to use, or had access to, on-line services.  In addition, the self-serve option would be available in many of the City’s libraries thereby increasing access to council services and transactions to many customers who would no longer need to come into the City Centre;

(e)

in order to enable (d) above, significant improvements were being made to the Council’s web pages with some being totally redesigned to be more customer friendly and interactive;

(f)

additionally, early improvements were also planned for the Customer Contact Centre.  Currently, customers telephoning the Council did so through the customer contact centre where calls were put into queues until an agent was available.  Installation of the new IVR system would result in customer requests for information being handled through automated messages allowing calls to be dealt with faster and more efficiently.  At all times customers would retain the option to speak to an agent where preferred or where the automated service could not resolve their requirement;

(g)

the new First Stop Shop had been designed around staff and customer feedback and would enable greater staff/customer interaction with the aim being to either resolve customer enquiries there and then, sign-post them to the relevant agency, assist them to self-serve or make an appointment for them so that they can leave as quickly as possible feeling satisfied that their enquiry has been dealt with.  In addition, a trial of extended opening hours on a Thursday evening and on a Saturday morning would allow greater customer access to Council services;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.