Agenda item

ADMISSIONS CUSTOMER SERVICES SATISFACTION

To consider a report by the Director of Children’s Services which provides information on customer feedback performance indicators

 

(Report attached)

Minutes:

Members considered a report by the Director of Children’s Services which provided information on customer feedback indicators.

 

Addressing the report Mrs Buckland spoke on the following issues

 

Online applications

It was reported that this year 71.5% of parents applying for secondary places used the online service.  Although this fell a little short of the government target of 80%, the national average was 66% and the local Yorkshire and Humberside average was only 42.3%.  These figures show Leeds performed well both locally and nationally in the online service it offers to parents.

There were 69% of parents applying for primary places that chose to do so online.  Data was not collected nationally for primary applications so no comparisons were available with other local authorities.  During the application rounds for both primary and secondary school places, that equates to almost 11,000 parents applying online. 

Feedback from questionnaire

Each year a questionnaire is provided inviting feedback from parents on the quality of the information published and on the customer service they have received if they have had reason to contact the admissions team.  This year 503 chose to complete and return some, or all, of the questionnaire.  There were both a paper version and an online interactive version.  Although only 30% of parents applied using a paper preference form, 84% of those returning a questionnaire said that they had applied on a paper form.  The questionnaires were returned prior to the transfer of telephony to the contact centre and are reflective of communication directly with the Admissions Team.

Summary table of responses

Question

Good or excellent

Poor

How would you rate the information in the summary guide?

86%

1%

How would you rate the information in the full guide for parents?

87%

0.4%

How would you rate the explanation of the admission process?

85%

0.6%

If you applied online, how would you rate the online application system?

74%

13%

If you used the website how easy did you find the information you wanted?

71%

11%

If you contacted the team by telephone or email how would you rate the promptness of the response?

88%

2.3%

If you contacted the team by telephone or visited how would you rate the staff in terms of being professional, polite and helpful?

92%

0

If you contacted the team by telephone or visited how would you rate the information we gave you?

94%

0.5%

Overall, how would you rate the quality of information and service?

89%

0.8%

 

Contact Centre transfer

In December 2010, as part of the Council’s customer first strategy the public telephony was transferred from the Admissions Team to the Contact Centre.

Mr Paul Broughton, Chief Customer Services Officer attended the meeting and spoke about the transfer of service.

Mr Broughton said that a significant amount of work went into the preparation for the transfer. Customer Service Officers who would be working at the Contact Centre were given the opportunity to spend time in the Admissions Team understanding the back office work, before the transfer of calls.  In turn experienced officers from the Admissions Team spent time at the Contact Centre during the first few weeks of transfer to offer advice and guidance on calls to refine the processes.

Prior to the transfer the Admissions team used to answer on average 65% of the 100,000 calls received each year.  At peak times, in March and September, this answer rate would fall to below 50%.  Since transferring the telephony the performance standards were significantly improved acheiving 96%.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Results (From February 2011)

 

  • Overall customer satisfaction 98.8%
  • Treated with respect 99.6%
  • Is this the first time you have contacted us? 69.5%
  • Acceptable wait time 93.9%
  • Enquiry resolved today 77.5%
  • Next steps clearly explained 98.3%

 

Mrs Buckland reported that all of the evidence and feedback collected to date suggested that the transfer of the admissions calls to the Contact Centre had been successful, achieved its aims, and was delivering a more favourable customer experience.  The relationship between the Contact Centre staff and the Admissions Officers was a positive one. 

In conclusion Mrs Buckland said that performance in relation to telephony standards were significantly improved, providing parents with better access to the service. Parental engagement with the admissions team on the telephone, face to face, and by email was reported to be mainly good or excellent.  The guidance that was produced for parents continues to be well received and offers a good explanation of the application process. The online services needs to focus on ensuring that the web based communications were as clear and easy to use as they could be. 

In passing comment the Chair said the results were a lot better than expected and that is a credit to the officers overseeing the transfer

RESOLVED – That the report be noted and it’s findings welcomed

 

Supporting documents: