Issue - meetings

Report CSD22126

The report provided information on the performance of the Customer Service Contract provided by Liberata for the period 1^st May 2022 to 31^st October 2022. A letter from Amanda Inwood-Field, Contract Director for Liberata, provided her update on each individual element and was attached at Appendix 1 of the report.

The Committee heard that Liberata did not use mystery shoppers, but internal quality checks were carried out with managers listening in to the quality of calls and customer feedback was regularly reviewed, The Assistant Director for Customer Services also confirmed that the Client Team checked a random selection of calls, and the output was discussed at the monthly service review meetings.

A Member reported that an increasing number of complaints were being received from residents who were confused about the call system.  In light of the increasing number of complaints, it was suggested that a review of the call system needed to be undertaken.

The Chairman requested that details of the number of call bail outs, misdirected calls and abandoned calls be provided in a future report to the Committee.  The Assistant Director of Customer Services confirmed that where details of the date and time of misdirected calls were provided it would be possible to track and investigate.  Members noted that steps were taken to rectify misdirected calls where they were identified.

In response to questions around the performance of the Out of Hours Service, the Committee noted that call centres across the UK had struggled with attrition and sickness in the last year.  July was a particular pinch point, as this was one of the main months where staff looked to take annual leave thus further reducing levels of available staffing. Discussions had taken place with the out of hours provider and an improvement plan had been put in place.  In addition, performance meetings were now taking place on a weekly basis and whilst performance had remained slightly below target, it was improving.  The Chairman requested that an update on the performance of the out of hours service be provided at the next meeting or the one after, along with details of the longest elapsed time that someone was waiting for a call to be answered and the longest elapsed time before a call was abandoned.

In response to a question, the Committee noted that the proof-of-concept voice bot had been tested internally and was going live in the Registrars Service on 17 January 2023.

A Member noted that compared with 12 months ago there were less calls but no improvement in performance.  It was agreed that further analysis should be undertaken and reported back to the Committee.  There were a number of contributing factors with calls taking longer and call handlers having to deal with increasingly complex issues.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.