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Response by the Cabinet Member: Thank you for raising your concern over the standard of customer service through the organisation’s telephony points. We are currently experiencing a high level of demand for services across our teams, though in the main the delays being experienced are due to the recruitment issues in Highways, Transport and Recycling and the impact on waste collections, and the subsequent effect on the number of calls coming through the corporate call centre. The Council is intending to carry out a full review of current customer service delivery across all areas as soon as possible, and not limited to just the corporate customer service reception and contact centres. The outcome of this review should result in improved customer service, potentially the implementation of new operating models, and enable the development of a Customer Services Strategy to support the wider Council visions and goals, including the Digital Transformation Strategy. In October 2022 8,842 calls entered the corporate contact centre telephony queuing system, with 7,502 answered by a call handler, and 1,790 being abandoned by the caller. The average wait time before a call was answered by a call handler was 2 minutes and 23 seconds. The average time waited before the caller abandoned the call is 3 minutes and 22 seconds. For Quarter two of this year 2022-2023, 28,078 calls entered the corporate contact centre telephony queuing system, with 22,153 answered by a call handler, and 5925 being abandoned by the caller. The average wait time before a call was answered by a call handler was 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The average time waited before the caller abandoned the call is 3 minutes and 17 seconds. The Council’s current target is for calls to be answered within 2 minutes and 20 seconds. The corporate contact centre cover calls for Blue Badges, Careline, Environmental Health, garden waste, corporate complaints, Highways, Payment, Reception, Refuse, Police calls, Trade waste, with a Welsh line for each. The service also covers calls for other departments as required, such as Planning, Housing, Income and Awards etc. No response time data is collated nationally, since there is little consistency between the delivery of such services by local authorities in Wales, as there are differing routes into the call centre, staffing structures, and delivery models in place. Attempts have been made in the past to gather data nationally, but these have been unsuccessful but something that will be included in the full customer services review if at all possible.
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