Agenda item

 

ORDERED that Executive approve:

 

1.    The new Customer Strategy 2024-27.

2.    The commitment of the estimated customer programme budget of £1.975m for inclusion within the 2025/26 to 2028/29 capital programme and Flexible Use of Capital Receipts strategy that would be incorporated into the 2025/26 Budget and MTFP report to be considered by Council on 19 February 2025.

The Executive Member for Finance submitted a report for Executive consideration.

 

The purpose of the report was to consider the Customer Strategy that supported the Mayors vision, as set out in the Council Plan 2024-27 and was an integral part of the Council’s wider Target Operating Model.

 

A recent review highlighted that the Council significantly lagged behind a number of Local Authorities. The Strategy would shift the Council from the current ‘As Is’ position, advancing to a Majority Local Authority and progressing over time to a Mature Authority as detailed in the report.

 

In 2023/24 over 125,000 calls were made to the Council’s Customer Centre. There were over 4,700 in-person visits and the website attracted over 2.9 million visitors. This was only a small proportion of the Council’s interactions with customers. There were many more interactions that occurred directly with service departments and were managed outside of the Customer Centre telephony system; however, this data was limited.

 

Work was currently underway to explore the possibility of extending the existing telephony solution corporately to ensure all calls were managed through a single solution, where appropriate. This would further assist with the monitoring of call volumes, understanding the call purpose, identifying alternative channels, better call signposting and reducing unnecessary calls.

 

Further features could also be introduced within the telephony solution which would immediately support services such as automatic call distribution, call routing and interactive voice responses were amongst some of the potential improvements.

 

Executive welcomed the strategy and it was recognised the strategy highlighted the need to invest in frontline services in order to ensure customer experience was right first time.

 

OPTIONS

 

The strategy provided a clear vision of how the Council could provide and deliver improved customer service benefits whilst realising savings through the intended

approach.

 

If the strategy was not implemented e.g. do nothing or scaled back, the Council would not be able to implement the change necessary to transform customer services and may have only been able to achieve partial benefits and savings.

 

ORDERED that Executive approve:

 

1.    The new Customer Strategy 2024-27.

2.    The commitment of the estimated customer programme budget of £1.975m for inclusion within the 2025/26 to 2028/29 capital programme and Flexible Use of Capital Receipts strategy that would be incorporated into the 2025/26 Budget and MTFP report to be considered by Council on 19 February 2025.

 

REASONS

 

The Customer Strategy was one of six transformation programmes, it had an approved business case (programme delivery document) and sought Executive approval. It offered a brand-new approach which aimed to fundamentally review, redesign, and reshape all of the Council’s customer-facing and business process solutions that complemented the Neighbourhood Model.

 

The approach met the requirements of the Council’s transformation portfolio and

forecast expenditure as outlined and agreed in the Budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP), the Transformation Report and the Transformation Governance Arrangements, as outlined in the Executive Summary of the report.

 

The strategy was a key decision that would incur expenditure/savings of over £250,000 and impacted all wards and as such required Executive approval.

 

The strategy supported the desire to move towards neighbourhood working and was part of the proposed new Target Operating Model. The customer approach would ensure early resolve and thus reduced/avoided more complex matters from forming and escalating into services or the Neighbourhood model which would be both timely and costly.

 

Delivering excellent customer services required significantly changing the Council’s operating model. With a shift in the town’s demographic and a growing diverse and relatively young population, the opportunity to meet the expectations of customers and modern-day requirements demanded a new approach.

 

The Council needed to provide efficient, timely, personalised, proactive, connected and affordable services. The strategy sought to redesign and streamline business processes to provide a more efficient service for customers and ensure staff received quality training and an increased knowledge base to be able to provide early resolve and intervention at any point of contact.

 

The strategy would align the multiple ‘front doors’ that could lead to an inconsistent customer experience. To achieve this, some employee reporting lines and structures may change. Any changes would be subject to appropriate Human Resources (HR) policies and procedures and relevant Trade Union consultation when necessary.

 

The approach was intended to reduce duplication and minimise handovers between services to provide a steady shift to early resolution of customer enquiries. To achieve this the approach sought to make best use of modern technologies and automation where appropriate whilst providing a route for customers to transact with the Council in a clear and concise way.

 

The strategy was supported through the better use of data to help predict demand trends and inform delivery solutions which provided an ideal opportunity for the Council to shape the customer journey. Over time, the Council intended to progress to a ‘single view of the customer’ which would, in turn, provide a more advanced approach to responding to and planning for the needs of customers.

 

Utilising the principles of the new customer tiered operating model would enable processes to be organised around the customer, help gain a deeper understanding of the root cause of issues and provided end to end solutions that would significantly improve the customer experience. Consequently, this was intended to reduce costs and provide a more affordable long-term approach than the Council’s current arrangements.