Agenda item

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the West Bridgford Customer Contact Point report to the Group and thanked Members who had attended the site visit earlier in the week.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager explained that the Council had moved to Fountain Court in 2020, a few weeks before the pandemic began, at a time when it was experiencing around 10,000 customer visits per year to its customer service site in West Bridgford. He said, however, that the pandemic had changed behaviours and interactions and visits subsequently dropped to around 3780 in 2023. In light of this, the Council had reviewed its customer access provision at all its sites, including at Cotgrave situated in the HUB, at Bingham situated in the Medical Centre and East Leake in their Library, to ensure that they were fit for purpose, met customer needs and were accessible. The Council had identified that moving the West Bridgford centre to the Library would both improve service and provide financial savings. He updated the Group with information about opening times and dates, currently Monday, Thursday and Friday which had been identified as the busiest times of the week and confirmed that if any changes in need were identified, these timings would be reviewed. He said that being situated in the Library had made the customer centre easier to find and more accessible.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council continued to monitor how people chose to interact with customer services and confirmed that most contact was via the telephone, followed by emails and then webform contact and then site visits, with a total of 6000 visits over the year in total to its contact points.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager outlined the main types of service enquiries that it received, being in relation to Council Tax, waste collection, garden waste, benefits and environmental health.

In relation to provision for holding private conversations, the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council had noticed that post pandemic, most private enquiries were coming through via telephone or digital communications. He said that customers had requested a private room at West Bridgford Library on two occasions over the past year and that a library meeting room had been utilised for these on both occasions. He added that should a room be unavailable, a private appointment could be held in a meeting room at Rushcliffe Arena on the same day, if needed. Councillor Plant expressed concern should there be occasion where there were many people wishing to hold private conversations at the same time and the Communications and Customer Services Manager confirmed that the Council was monitoring demand and would look at additional options should there be need.

For comparison, the Group were provided with information about face-to-face customer service provision across the County.

Councillor Phillips asked whether the Library would be able to cope if customer visits returned to pre pandemic levels and the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council continued to monitor provision and would look to adapt should it experience a change in demand, with the Library being a flexible partner in this.

In response to questions regarding LGR, the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council was working with other local authorities as the process progressed and was working to put the Borough in the best position for the future and would champion for this to continue. He thought that AI may bring changes to service provision in the future.

Councillor Billin asked whether staff moved around the different customer contact sites and the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that this varied and that the Council tried to base staff where was convenient for them. In addition, some staff would work in contact centres close to where they lived and this helped to provide further reassurance to visitors to the contact points through local ownership and knowledge of local issues

Councillor Plant asked how information about customer service contact points was communicated and the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that this information was printed on the back page of all Rushcliffe Reports newsletter but that it would look at how to increase prominence of this information.

Councillor Grocock asked about queries regarding matters that the Council was not responsible for and the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that Officers would always try to signpost to the appropriate agencies and people.

Members of the Group thanked the customer service staff for their hard work, wide level of knowledge and sensitivity to customers. Councillor Wheeler, as Portfolio Holder was pleased to note the positive comments from members following the visit to the library and would ensure that these were passed on to the staff concerned. In his view the move had been a sensible decision to make at the time and that the joint arrangements in the library worked well with a more central location, next to the largest car park in the town centre, allowing greater accessibility for residents to visit.

It was RESOLVED that the Communities Scrutiny Group considered the content of the report (and presentation from officers) and identified any follow up actions required.