Agenda and draft minutes

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2, at the Council Offices, Southfields, Loughborough. View directions

Link: Click here for sound recording

Items
No. Item

39.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 90 KB

The Group is asked to confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 5th February 2019.

 

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 5th February 2019 were confirmed as a correct record and signed.

40.

Disclosures of Pecuniary and Personal Interests

Minutes:

No disclosures of interests were made.

41.

Declaration of the Party Whip

Minutes:

No declarations of the existence of the Party Whip were made.

42.

Questions under Scrutiny Procedure 11.16

No questions were submitted.

Minutes:

No questions had been submitted.

43.

Customer Service Strategy pdf icon PDF 180 KB

The Head of Customer Experience will give a presentation at the meeting regarding progress with delivering the Customer Service Strategy.

Minutes:

The Head of Customer Experience gave a presentation setting out progress with delivering the Customer Service Strategy (item 6 on the agenda supplement filed with these minutes).

 

The Deputy Lead Member for Customer Services and the Head of Customer Experience assisted with consideration of the item and provided the following responses to issues raised:

 

(i)            Customers were considered to include anyone who interacted with the Council but the focus was on residents and businesses.  Parish/town councils and local groups or associations were considered to be stakeholders.

(ii)          The potential isolation of rural customers had not been identified as an issue that needed addressing.  The Council made use of customer segmentation data and that was used to identify potential barriers to access when services were redesigned.

(iii)         The customer service access point provided by the Council in Syston was not heavily used and information regarding the service could be provided to councillors to assist with its promotion.

(iv)         Services were being optimised for online transactions but access was still being provided through telephone and face-to-face channels.

(v)          In response to individual experiences described by members of the Group, it was stated that if councillors’ concerns about customer service were raised with the Head of Service they could be addressed.

(vi)         Satisfaction levels of customers using the Customer Service Centre and the Contact Centre were measured through asking customers to complete a short survey, and were high when compared with other councils.  Information regarding the proportion of customers who completed the survey could be provided to members of the Group.

(vii)        For the Contact Centre, customer satisfaction was prioritised over waiting times but waiting times and dropout rates were monitored.

(viii)       The Head of Customer Experience did not take the lead on the Council’s Customer Service Excellence accreditation but expressed her view that it was a worthwhile exercise.  The reasons for this were that it recognised achievement, had a reputational benefit with customers and stakeholders and maintained a focus on customer service because the accreditation was reviewed annually and required continuous improvements to be made.  The Deputy Lead Member for Customer Services stated that it was an award that the Council wished to keep.

(ix)         Managers were responsible for delivering the actions in the Customer Service Strategy as well as others set out in the Corporate Plan and Team Plans.  Progress was monitored at one-to-one meetings with those managers.

 

The following comments were made by members of the Group:

 

(i)            The introduction of a webchat facility to assist customers using the Council’s website and systems enabling customers to track progress with issues that they had raised were to be welcomed.

(ii)          Some of the messages that were played while customers waited for their calls to the Contact Centre to be answered could be unnecessary or repetitive.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.         that the information be noted;

 

2.         that information regarding the customer service access point provided by the Council in Syston and the proportion of customers who completed satisfaction surveys after using the Customer Service  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

44.

ICT Strategy pdf icon PDF 180 KB

The Head of Customer Experience will give a presentation at the meeting regarding delivery of the ICT Strategy.

Minutes:

The Head of Customer Experience gave a presentation setting out progress with delivering the ICT Strategy (item 7 on the agenda supplement filed with these minutes).

 

The Head of Customer Experience assisted with consideration of the item and provided the following responses to issues raised:

 

(i)            The current strategy was written with an internal audience in mind.  A summary for the public could be provided if that was something that was required.

(ii)          It was acknowledged that the Council’s use of a withheld number for outgoing telephone calls could be inconvenient for some customers.  It was unclear what the reasons for using a withheld number were and the matter could be looked at to determine whether it was necessary.

(iii)         The use of Cloud-based data storage would consume less energy than using servers at the Council’s offices because Cloud-based systems had more efficient cooling systems.

(iv)         The results of the health check of the Council’s IT systems were reported to the Audit Committee.

(v)          Data breaches had occurred at the Council but none of those had been as the result of hacking.

(vi)         The Council had an arrangement with Leicester City Council to provide the Borough Council with an off-site backup facility and therefore greater resilience.  Further details of those arrangements could be provided to members of the Group.

(vii)        The Planning Portal was a national system over which the Council had no influence.

 

The following comments were made by members of the Group:

 

(i)            Any documents produced by the Council for the public domain should be readable by the public.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.            that the information be noted;

 

2.            that it be noted that officers would investigate whether the current arrangements for using a withheld number for outgoing calls could be changed;

 

3.            that further information regarding the Council’s off-site backup facility, particularly in relation to its independence from the Council’s systems, be provided to members of the Group.

 

Reasons

 

1.            To acknowledge the information received.

 

2.            To acknowledge how issues raised by the Group would be dealt with.

 

3.            To provide the Group with further information regarding the matter.

45.

Work Programme

This is the final meeting of the Group for the 2018/19 Council year.  With the exception of one item the Group has completed its work programme for the year.  The remaining item, scrutiny of the development of the Local Plan, will be taken up by the relevant committee in the new scrutiny structure that comes into operation in the new Council year.

 

Minutes:

The Group was informed that, with the exception of one item, the Group had completed its work programme for the year.  The remaining item, scrutiny of the development of the Local Plan, would be taken up by the relevant committee in the new scrutiny structure that would come into operation in the new Council year.

 

The Chair stated that it was the final meeting of the Group and thanked the members of the Group for their work and making the Group a success.