Agenda item

To receive a report from the Director of Strategy and Resources providing an update on transformation work at the Contact Centre and information on work volumes and current performance. This follows previous interest in the Contact Centre principally through reports considered in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 municipal years.

Members received a report from the Director of Strategy and Resources providing an update on transformation work at the Contact Centre and information on work volumes and current performance. This follows previous interest in the Contact Centre principally through reports considered in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 municipal years.

In attendance for this item were:

·  Mariana Pexton, Director of Strategy and Resources

·  Cllr Debra Coupar, Executive Board Member for Resources

·  Gemma Taskas, Deputy Chief Officer HR and Shared Services

·  Elisha Barker, Deputy Head of Shared Services

The Board received a presentation to support the report covering key issues linked to performance and channel shift which is ongoing work to encourage the use of other means to contact the council such as online forms and apps.

It was particularly noteworthy that the average score for general satisfaction was 84%, which is an improvement of 4% compared to the same period in 2022 and that customer satisfaction benchmarking with other local authorities indicates that Leeds is performing well in this area particularly in relation to waiting times.

Responding to comments and questions from Board members the following issues were covered:

·  The Board welcomed the improvements in performance at the Contact Centre both in terms of general satisfaction but also on waiting times which have been significantly reduced since the last time this report was considered, by more than half.

·  Members wanted more information on the limited comparison available with other local authorities. The reason for this is that local authorities offer a varied range of services through their call centres and along with differing size of authorities it makes comparison difficult. It was also noted that Leeds delivers many of its services in house, including the Contact Centre, as opposed to other areas that use outsourcing for these services. It was agreed that more comparative data, including with regional neighbours, will be shared outside of the meeting but with the important caveat around the difficulty in making accurate comparisons and that this work needs to be proportionate.

·  Responding to a question around staff reductions and budget savings and how that might impact upon performance in the future and also retention of staff with skills in customer contact, the Board heard that there are budget savings planned across shared services (totalling just over £2m in 2024/25) and these include the Contact Centre. This will be done through the voluntary leavers scheme, but it is likely that this will impact on the Contact Centre in terms of the total of staff available to take calls. To mitigate against that and potential impacts on performance, increasing the pace of channel shift is an option that could be pursued which would see a reduction in call volumes and more digital means of contact.

·  The Board were interested in development of online chat technology, apps and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce waiting times and improve services. In response, the Board heard that the new telephony system ‘Genesys’ will be deployed from April 2024. This will initially provide improved telephony functionality, with future phase 2 developments that will see the introduction of additional digital technology at the Contact Centre.

·  Members were concerned about the March/April 2024 deployment of the new telephony system which is at one of the busiest times of the year. There is an option to retain the current phone system for a further 6 months if the Genesys system is not ready to be deployed in March.

·  The Board were keen to draw comparison with some waiting times experienced in the private sector and how good the Council’s waiting times are when compared to those with many well into double figures in terms of length of wait.

·  The Board asked about the volume of emails received in Leeds over 75,000 over a 6 month period much higher than in other local authority areas and there were concerns about the amount of time it takes to deal with that type of query. In response the board heard that channel shift is the key element in reducing the volume of emails with plans to introduce more self-service options to free up staff time, improve performance and improve the customer experience.

·  The Board were concerned about the possibility of digital exclusion for those who are not able to access IT or are not confident in using digital means of contact. The Board heard that an EDI assessment will take place to ensure that people are not excluded and that there is a commitment to always having a phone number available to residents which is also supported by the community hubs that offer face to face services as well.

·  Responding to member questions about who to contact when members have concerns about customer contact services the Board were advised to contact senior officers and this will be further supported by a generic email address for members to use when there are service concerns.

·  The Board also heard about innovative recruitment approaches which has seen more varied shift patterns offered to staff, for example based around the regular school run which has enabled better deployment of staff. In addition, a programme of training has been developed to upskill the workforce and create more varied expertise amongst staff to enable wider deployment on the various phone lines.

·  The Executive Board Member, Cllr Coupar, also welcomed the improvement that has been made in this service and thanked the staff that have contributed towards this, the Chair of the Board, Cllr Khan, supported those comments and added his thanks for the improvements that have been taking place at the Contact Centre. It was agreed that these thanks should be passed on to the teams working in the Contact Centre.

Resolved:

The Board noted the content of the report and the progress that has been made against the actions that were reported to this Board in September 2022.