Issue - meetings

To receive an update on the performance of Customer Services from the Customer Services Manager

The Committee received a report from the Customer Services and Libraries Manager on the customer contact volumes in response to the north waste transformation and silver bin role out. The waste transformation and silver bin roll out was the distribution of silver wheelie bins, for disposing of recyclable waste, to residents of the Borough. The distribution was carried out in two phases; first in the south of the Borough and then in the north.

The Customer Services and Libraries Manager had previously reported to the Committee regarding issues that Customer Services had during the south waste transformation and silver bin role out and was asked to return to the Committee after the north waste transformation to show how Customer Services had performed in comparison.

The Customer Services and Libraries Manager explained that lessons had been learned from the experience during the south waste transformation and Customer Services had performed better during the north waste transformation. Graphs on page 8 of the Agenda showed that peak weekly call volume was 1824 compared with 5785 during the south transformation. Improvements to the waste and recycling pages on the Council’s website played a key role in reducing call volumes for the north transformation.

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that Customer Services was using was the same system as the Waste teams were using which meant customer information from calls received could be shared and better records were maintained. The CRM could be used to check whether there were any patterns in the calls being received to see if there were particular areas of the borough that were having issues with silver bin roll out. Councillors were interested to know more about the CRM and how it would improve Customer Services and help to monitor trends in the calls received.

The Committee was pleased that the Customer Service had shown an improvement in performance and were keen to see continued improvement in the waste collection service.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the report be noted and the Customer Services and Libraries Manager be thanked for attending the meeting.       

(b)  That the Customer Services and Libraries Manager be requested to return to the Committee in April with a report on Customer Relationship Management programmes.

The Customer Services and Libraries Manager left the meeting.