The Chair welcomed the Lead
Councillor for Economy and reminded the meeting of Councillor John
Redpath’s areas of responsibility: Economic Development;
Social Enterprise; Rural Economy; Heritage and Community Assets;
and Customer Service including Web Services. The Chair indicated that customer service would
likely be the focus of questions for the Lead Councillor for
Economy.
During the ensuing discussion
with the Lead Councillor a number of points were made, and
responses offered:
- In reply to a request
for the priorities for each area of his portfolio, the Lead Councillor for
Economy outlined the achievements of the Council’s
Economic Development team over the past year, including the
distribution of several government grant schemes. The Lead Councillor for Economy stated that the
connection of rural homes and businesses to highspeed broadband was
a priority. With reference to the
heritage and community assets element of his portfolio, the Lead
Councillor for Economy indicated that options for the future of the
heritage service were being prepared.
The Lead Councillor for Economy advised the Committee that he
favoured an accessible museum located in one of Guildford’s
new town centre developments.
- The Committee was
informed by the Lead Councillor for Economy that customer services
was the most challenging area of his portfolio. He linked the deterioration in the customer
service at the Council to cuts to the Council’s funding by
government and advised that the Future Guildford transformation
programme had introduced a single team of twenty-one staff to
handle customer enquiries to the organisation, with seventy-five
percent of queries handled online. The
Lead Councillor for Economy indicated that difficulties staffing
the customer service team and insufficient options online were
responsible for a shortfall in customer service at the
Council. He advised that key
performance indicators for the Council’s customer service
were made available to the public and discussed at the Corporate
Governance and Standards Committee.
- The Lead Councillor
for Economy indicated he had somewhat limited involvement in social
enterprise projects.
- A member of the
Committee suggested that, even accepting funding issues and the
changes introduced by the Future Guildford transformation
programme, there had been a rapid deterioration of
Guildford’s customer service, to such an extent that the
Council was now ranked very low in terms of its customer
service. Councillors advised the Lead
Councillor for Economy that they were using their own MyGuildford
accounts to report constituents’ issues and questioned
whether there were plans for a version of the MyGuildford portal
for Councillors. In reply, the Lead
Councillor for Economy suggested the value in Councillors helping
residents to use the Council website and register for a MyGuildford
account.
- With reference to the
Council encouraging the transferral of service demand online,
members of the Committee questioned whether the Council could do
more to aid the provision of sustainable and reliable
broadband. Suggestions were put forward
by a member of the Committee that the Local Planning Authority
should require provision of broadband to new properties and that
the Council should consider involvement in the Gigabit Broadband
Voucher Scheme. In addition, another
member of the Committee suggested the establishment of a social
enterprise company to help solve issues around the provision of
broadband. In reply, the Lead
Councillor for Economy indicated he would explore the
suggestion.
- With reference to the
Future Guildford transformation programme, Councillors suggested
that Ignite, and consultants in general, had an optimism bias in
relation to the public’s willingness and keenness to go
online, and that household budgeting cuts might lead to less
take-up of broadband, especially by vulnerable
residents.
- Councillors
questioned how written enquiries, both electronic and paper, were
dealt with by the Council’s customer services, and suggested
they were handled differently from phone calls. A member of the Committee asked if
residents’ email queries were forwarded on or sent direct to
services which no longer had dedicated customer service staff and
the quality and timeliness of responses therefore
varied. In reply, the Lead Councillor
for Economy indicated that publication of analytics to inform the
public of the best times to call customer services was
planned. He indicated that the aim was
for customer service staff to answer ninety percent of enquiries
themselves. In addition, the Lead
Councillor for Economy offered to update Committee members on how
email enquiries were handled by individual services.
- The Lead Councillor
for Economy advised the Committee that when customer service became
part of his portfolio the customer service team had about ten
staff, many not fully trained.
- In response to a
question, the Lead Councillor for Economy indicated he hoped that
Guildford town centre businesses would support the continuation of
the Experience Guildford Business Improvement District in the
upcoming ballot.
- A member of the
Committee advised the meeting that the Council responded to queries
on Twitter and Facebook quicker than those made by phone or
email.
- With reference to an
unanswered online enquiry from a resident about a missed food waste
collection, a member of the Committee asked if there were Service
Level Agreements for responding to such online forms and
enquiries. In response, the Lead
Councillor for Economy requested the customer reference number be
forwarded to him and asked all Councillors to advise him of such
issues.
- With reference to the
request from the Lead Councillor for Economy to be advised of
customer service issues experienced by residents, members of the
Committee questioned why there was need to advise the Lead
Councillor for Economy; they suggested the Council should have a
process in place to identify any gaps or patterns of failure in
customer service. A member of the
Committee proposed that the Lead Councillor for Economy ensure
officers embed processes to seek out and identify customer service
issues.
- The Joint Chief
Executive confirmed customer service team recruitment was an issue
and advised the meeting of the importance of data to progress
improvements.
- Several members of
the Committee questioned the need for an opt in tick box to get
feedback on an issue reported by residents online. Some Councillors suggested that an opt-in should
be the default, while others advised that residents could be
legitimately re-contacted with updates on specific
enquiries. The Lead Councillor for
Economy confirmed he would progress the matter with
officers.
- A member of the
Committee questioned whether the customer call centre and online
methods were suitable for reporting urgent or emergency
issues.
- In response to a
member of the Committee asking if the Council analysed customer
demand at its call centre and reception to help identify customer
service gaps online, the Lead Councillor for Economy agreed the
importance of such an approach and advocated changes to the
Council’s online customer service to better identify service
demand and further develop the online menu of customer service
options.
- Councillors advocated
improving the marketing of MyGuildford, the possible value of a
targeted direct mail campaign to increase registrations, and banner
advertising of MyGuildford on the Council website.
- In response to a
query, the Lead Councillor for Economy explained that residents did
not need to be on MyGuildford to use the Council website to report
an issue.
The Chair thanked the Lead
Councillor for Economy for attending and answering
questions.