A question session with the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery, Councillor Joss Bigmore. His areas of responsibility:
l Customer Service l Future Guildford
l Governance including corporate Health and Safety
l Human Resources l Partnerships
l Web Services l Corporate Strategy
l Communications
Minutes:
The Chair reminded the meeting of the areas of responsibility of the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery, including Customer Service; Future Guildford; Governance including corporate Health and Safety; Human Resources; Partnerships; Web Services; Corporate Strategy; and Communications.
Members asked questions relating to poor customer service experienced by residents contacting the Council, including long delays in answering phone calls and emails. In addition, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery stated that the recent level of customer service and performance from the Council’s call centre was below expected standards. He suggested that the situation had been caused by a combination of the amount of planning applications, issues with bin collections, hardware issues, and difficulties recruiting to the customer service centre and delays in training staff. The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery advised the meeting that use of Salesforce and MyGuildford would improve efficiency as more queries would then be dealt with online rather than through phone calls. The meeting was advised that matters relating to the Council’s customer services were advertised through methods including press release, social media, and email. The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that the desired level of customer service would not be achieved before early autumn. He stated that customer services issues were common to other local authorities at the current time. The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that temporary agency staff had been hired to help address the backlog of planning applications.
The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery welcomed a suggestion for the Council’s website to be used to highlight that customer service phone lines are busier than usual and advise residents of the actions being taken to address the situation.
With reference to the Council’s customer service call centre, a member of the Committee asked for details of call abandon rates and average wait times and advocated the establishment of a baseline to measure progress. In response, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that suitable performance indicators for customer services were in the process of being finalised. He suggested that using current levels as a baseline would not be useful.
A member of the Committee suggested the value in a mailshot to all residents to advise of MyGuildford and the Council’s move to online services. The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that the take-up of MyGuildford would be monitored and a mailshot then considered if necessary.
In reply to questions, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated the difficulties of identifying the indirect impact of the pandemic on customer service at the Council. He advised that consolidating customer service in one team was always likely to encounter staff training issues.
Members asked about the reduction in the opening hours of the Council’s customer service call centre to 10am till 4pm. In response, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery informed the meeting that the reduced hours were to facilitate training of call centre staff.
In reply to a question, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery advised the Committee that while the Council’s collaboration with Waverley Borough Council would improve the future resilience of both organisations, both councils were currently experiencing similar issues.
A member of the Committee questioned the user-friendliness for residents of the transfer of existing queries into the new MyGuildford system. The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that he would discuss the matter with the Head of Customer, Case and Parking.
The Head of Customer, Case and Parking introduced himself to the Committee and advised of progress with the Council’s customer service.
In response to a question on the Council’s Future Guildford transformation programme, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery praised the programme. He indicated that embedding the change in working culture envisaged as part of Future Guildford had been delayed by the pandemic. The Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that the success of Future Guildford would be more apparent at the end of the year. He advised the Committee that staff and councillors needed to embrace the new culture and ways of working of Future Guildford and that staff returning to spend half their time in the office was important to help change the culture of the organisation.
In light of the comments from the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery, the Chair advised that the scheduling of an update on the implementation of Future Guildford, currently set for consideration by the Committee in September 2021, would be re-visited.
In reply to a question, the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery indicated that community governance reviews for unparished areas had not been considered as part of the discussions around increased collaboration with Waverley Borough Council. He indicated he had no view at this stage on the creation of a town council for Guildford.
The Chair requested that an update on the collaboration between the Council and Waverley Borough Council be provided to each meeting of the Committee.
The Chair thanked the Leader of the Council and Lead Councillor for Service Delivery for attending and answering questions.