Agenda item

To consider the progress made against the actions within the Customer Care Strategy 2023/24 action plan.

79.1          The report of the Director: Digital and Organisational Change, circulated at Pages No. 133-142, provided an update on the progress made against the actions within the Customer Care Strategy 2023/24 action plan.  Members were asked to consider the report.

79.2          The Communications and Customer Experience Manager explained that the Council Plan 2020-2024 included the promise to put the needs of customers at the heart of what the Council did and to listen to what they said, treating people fairly and without bias; there was also an ethos that whatever the Council did would be better for customers and business.  The Customer Care Strategy ran alongside the Council Plan and customer care was recognised as a Council-wide priority.  There was a dedicated Customer Services team which acted as the first point of contact and customer care was embedded across the organisation.  To help achieve the commitments set out in the Customer Care Strategy, it was supported by an annual action plan which was focused on the strategy themes and detailed how these would be delivered.  As set out at Appendix 1 to the report, 10 out of 14 actions in last year’s action plan had been achieved and it was important to note that this progress had been made during an unsettled period for the Customer Services team as a result of staff changes.  Highlights included a new structure for the Customer Services team with a new Communications and Customer Experience Manager and the replacement of a Customer Services Team Leader post with a Senior Customer Services Advisor post; investment in a new customer contact system that would allow use of multiple channels to interact with customers – this would completely reinvent the way the Council interacted with customers; and, the Customer Services team being instrumental in ensuring the customer experience was at the heart of the Council’s digital services as set out in the update in relation to Action 4c.  Four actions had not been achieved last year as detailed at Page No. 135, Paragraph 2.3 of the report.  Following the management restructure which brought together customer-focused services of digital, IT, communications and customer care, consideration was currently being given to how best ensure excellent customer care was provided through strategy delivery, and a suite of new strategies were set to be delivered following the launch of the new Council Plan.  One idea was to develop a new set of customer care standards to set out what customers could expect from the Council when they contacted the organisation.  In addition to this, the Council would be introducing its new omni-channel customer care portal from May which would provide meaningful insight and data in relation to customer demand which would help shape and inform the future approach.

79.3          A Member asked how people were selected for the Citizens’ Panel and was advised that it had been set up so that anyone who wanted to be on the Panel was able to join; however, this approach was being reviewed to ensure it was as representative as possible.  This was in the early stages but the current thinking was that a proportion of addresses across the borough would be randomly selected with the residents being given the opportunity to sit on the Panel; if possible, an incentive would be provided for joining.  Another Member noted that the Citizens’ Panel had been consulted on the new Council Plan and asked how many had responded.  The Business Transformation Programme Manager advised that 79 people had opened the email but it was not possible to know how many had gone on to complete the survey.  The Chair stressed the importance of the Citizens’ Panel being truly representative of the diversity of the community and indicated that he would welcome Officers coming to a future meeting to talk about the role of the Citizens’ Panel going forward, particularly in terms of young people.  The Director: Corporate Resources explained that an area of focus in the new Council Plan was likely to be young people and one suggestion was to have a dedicated youth forum which could be used to sense check policies and strategies with young people in the borough.

79.4          A Member asked whether Public Services Centre signage would be included as part of the office refurbishment work and the Executive Director: Resources advised that the project was to refurbish the first floor of the building.  This work had recently commenced and improved signage would be introduced as part of that; however, the public areas of the building had already been refurbished so he was unsure whether this would extend to signage in the public areas and undertook to circulate a response following the meeting.  A Member noted there was an action in respect of working with Parish Councils and other partners to provide access to services across the borough which included working with Parish Councils in each of the Advice and Information Centre (AICs) areas to establish if a similar approach to the Brockworth arrangement could be adopted.   She questioned whether the Council provided any funding to Brockworth Parish Council to account for staff time.  In response, the Communications and Customer Experience Manager explained that the AICs had initially been run in four locations across the borough – Brockworth and Bishop’s Cleeve were no longer attended in-person but remained as drop-in stations for anyone with enquiries; the staff who worked permanently at those locations were briefed by the Customer Services team.  The number of enquiries was very low and almost exclusively in relation to people picking up food caddies and handing in post for Revenues and Benefits.  The Executive Director: Resources advised that, in terms of the base budget for 2024/25, there was no decision to support any funding for staff time; if the Parish Council wanted to put in a request then it would be considered as part of the budget for 2025/26.

79.5          A Member noted this was the final year of the four year programme and asked how the customer experience had changed as a result of what had been done and how that had been measured to assess how successful the programme had been.  The Communications and Customer Experience Manager advised that the strategy had been developed at a time when there was less focus on data and outcomes and more on customer experience.  With the way things currently operated and the systems in place it would be difficult to report in a measurable way which was why introducing customer care priorities was vital.  The Director: Corporate Resources explained that a lot of the improvements to the customer experience over the last three years had come from the work of the Business Transformation team which was monitored via the Transform Working Group, for instance, online payments, missed bin reporting via in-cab technology, work on the planning application tracker and work to improve the licensing service – this was not necessarily all seen by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The Chair expressed the view that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had asked to consider the Customer Care Strategy and, if it was to continue to do so, it was necessary to see it in a holistic sense – it was nonsense for another Working Group to look at one aspect and he felt that the governance needed to be tidied up moving forward.

79.6          It was

RESOLVED           That the Customer Care Strategy Action Plan update be NOTED.