North Lanarkshire Council
Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Our customer services strategy....................................................................................2
Mission, vision and values............................................................................................2
Building on success .....................................................................................................3
3.1 Customer experience..........................................................................................3
3.2 Customer information..........................................................................................4
Understanding our customers and their needs.............................................................5
4.1 Customer groups ................................................................................................5
4.2 Why customers contact us ..................................................................................6
4.3 How well we are doing ........................................................................................6
Improving our services .................................................................................................6
Customer contact .........................................................................................................7
6.1 Ways that customers can contact us ..................................................................8
6.2 Encouraging customers to use the website ........................................................9
Making sure our employees have the right knowledge and skills...............................10
Putting things right if they go wrong ...........................................................................10
8.1 Stopping common problems from happening....................................................11
8.2 Using the website so customers can help themselves......................................11
8.3 Using social media so customers can help each other .....................................11
Putting this strategy into practice ...............................................................................11
We can make this strategy available in a range of languages and formats
including, large print, braille, audio, electronic and accessible formats.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
1. Our customer services strategy
We provide a wide variety of services to the people of North Lanarkshire, local businesses,
partners and visitors to our area. This strategy sets out our plans for delivering these
services to our customers over the next five years. It explains what we will do to:
• better understand who our customers are;
• improve the way we deliver services;
• encourage our customers to contact us in ways that best suit their needs;
• make sure our employees have the knowledge and skills they need;
• put things right if they go wrong; and
• put this strategy into practice.
We need to do things differently to succeed in today's financial climate. We must:
• work closely with our customers and our employees;
• simplify the way we deliver services; and
• make the best use of technology.
2. Mission, vision and values
Our mission, as set out in our Corporate Plan 2013 to 2018 is:
To put ‘Service and People First’ to maximise the benefits of North Lanarkshire's
location creating prosperity, achieving social justice and meeting local needs by
providing best value quality services.
This strategy supports our corporate mission and the key strategic priority of ‘More
customer focus’ with the following vision.
We will meet the needs of our customers and deliver excellent services to them by:
• making it easy for our customers to contact us, how and when it suits them; and
• giving our employees the right skills and tools to do their jobs well.
Our organisational values support both our mission and our vision by helping us improve
the way that we work and making us more responsive, effective and efficient. They drive
and colour everything we do, every day, for every person in North Lanarkshire.
Our organisational values
Respect. We will be open and honest in our dealings, involving and listening to others,
demonstrating respect for our citizens, our partners and each other.
Commitment. We are committed to our citizens and our colleagues, seeking to
understand needs and delivering a quality service.
Pride in the job. We take pride in the job we do for the people and communities of North
Lanarkshire.
Listening and learning. We will continually learn, transform our organisation through the
knowledge, capability and initiative of our workforce.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
3. Building on success
Our previous customer services strategy gave us the building blocks to deliver excellent
customer services. As a result, our customers have a better overall experience when
dealing with us and customer information is more accurate and easier to find.
3.1 Customer experience
We have worked hard to try to make sure that our customers are happy with the quality of
our services. This is from the first contact up until we deliver the service.
Customers now have a shorter wait to see someone who can help them when they come
in to visit us.
We have made it simpler to apply for blue badge parking permits. These let disabled
drivers and passengers park nearer to where they are going.
Over eighty thousand people in North Lanarkshire use national entitlement cards for:
• library and leisure membership,
• free swimming for children aged four to 11;
• school meals in all secondary schools and some of our primary schools;
• free travel on public transport for over 60s and disabled people;
• cheaper travel on public transport for young people aged between 16 and 18;
• discounts and offers on a range of shops, services and travel for young people aged
between 11 and 26; and
• proof of age for young people.
Our customers can use our website at any time to ask for services or get information. This
includes:
• Making payments to us
• Applying for planning permission
• Booking special uplifts
• Renewing and ordering library books and downloading e-books
• Reporting street lighting faults
• Contacting councillors
• Claiming housing and council tax benefits
• Obtaining support for independent living.
We use Twitter and Facebook to keep in touch with our customers and give them quick
and up-to-date information. For example:
• gritting updates;
• school closures because of bad weather;
• lost dogs;
• jobs at the council; and
• events in our parks and at our facilities.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
We publish all our public information notices online at www.tellmescotland.gov.uk. This
means customers can go to one website to find out about, for example:
• road closures or construction work;
• planning or property developments; and
• licensing applications for the sale of alcohol.
More than 100 of our employees who deal directly with customers have passed the
Customer Service Professional qualification. Approved by Scottish Qualifications Authority,
it gives them the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs well.
We established Access Social Work to provide a centralised first point of contact across
the Council and introduced a new service called Fast Track to streamline referrals for
individuals with mobility problems.
3.2 Customer information
The ways in which we keep and use customer information have changed. This helps us to
do a better job for our customers.
Every time a customer contacts us, we keep a record of it. Each record has a reference
number that we use if we need to find it again. This makes things quicker for us and easier
for customers if they contact us again. It also helps us to:
• make sure that the right person is dealing with a customer;
• let customers know if they can use the website to access the services they want;
• cut down on the number of times customers have to contact us; and
• see which services we need to make better.
Every customer has his or her own reference number. We use this to keep accurate and
up-to-date customer records. It also makes it easier for customers to tell us:
• if they have a change of name or address; or
• about other changes that might, for example, affect their benefits.
Every piece of land, building and home has a reference number that we use to identify it
on maps and in our computer systems. This makes it easier for us to deliver our services.
For example, it helps:
• tenants to report housing repairs;
• residents to report dumped rubbish; and
• parents to find out where their local schools are and whether they will get free school
transport.
We use a computer system to keep our files and records. This saves us money because
we do not have to print out so much paperwork. It also means that if our employees need
to see records, they can do it wherever they are - whether they are in a local office, a first
stop shop, the contact centre, out and about in the local area or even in a customer's
home.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
4. Understanding our customers and their needs
We provide hundreds of services; from emptying bins to educating children to giving
advice to local businesses. Some of our customers use many services and are in contact
with us often. Others only contact us now and again or use a few services. Some like to
visit our offices, others like to send us letters, phone us, e-mail us or use our website.
We are developing systems to help us understand the different types of customers we
have. We can then use this information to make our services better and suit their needs.
We are responsible for the personal information we hold about our customers. We take
this responsibility seriously. In line with the Data Protection Act, we use the following
checklist to help us do this. We:
• only collect information we need to deliver each service;
• keep only the information we need to, and only for as long as we need to;
• keep information secure;
• make sure information is relevant and up-to-date; and
• let people see the information we hold about them if they ask.
4.1 Customer groups
Many of our customers have lots in common so we group them together in ways such as:
• Age - children, adults of working age and older people.
• Geography - where people live and work.
• Employment - whether people are in work, unable to work, unemployed, self-employed,
in training.
• People who need help at home - older people, people with disabilities or other special
needs.
• Customer type - whether people are residents, tenants, business customers or visitors.
Grouping our customers together helps us to:
• better understand their needs and what is important to them;
• plan our services to meet their needs; and
• deliver services in ways that best suit them.
Examples
If we know how many children of school age are in a school catchment area, we can
identify how many classes we need and make sure that there are enough teachers.
We can set our budgets for home care if we know how many older people or people with
disabilities might need our help at home.
People who want to visit our area are likely to use the internet to find information about
country parks or family events. So, we keep all that information up-to-date on our website.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
4.2 Why customers contact us
The main reasons customers’ contact us are as follows.
Business as usual. If they want to report something or ask for a service.
Switchboard. If they phone to speak to someone in particular and we put them through to
that person.
Partnership Working. Other agencies seeking assistance for customers.
Service failure. If something has gone wrong with a service and the customer has to
contact us to get it fixed.
Information failure. If we have given out poor information and the customer has had to
get in touch so we can explain what we meant.
By recording customer contact as one of the above types, we can then use this to see:
• where we can improve our information and services, so customers don't have to
contact us when they shouldn't have to; and
• if it is possible to offer services through the website, which costs the least for us and
that our customers can use at any time that suits them.
4.3 How well we are doing
We want to check and see how well we are delivering our services and how happy our
customers are with them. We will do this using the following methods.
Customer feedback. When we deal with customers, we will use this as an opportunity to
ask them how well we are doing, what we can do better and how happy they are with our
services.
Customer surveys. Over the telephone, online and using paper forms.
Service statistics. Information from our computer systems on, for example, how many
people are asking for services, how often they contact us about it and how long it takes to
deliver the service.
Mystery shopping. A 'mystery' customer contacts us to ask for a service then gives us
feedback on how well we dealt with them.
Customer Care Standards. Information from our customers on their overall experience of
the services we provide
5. Improving our services
To deliver excellent customer services, we need to:
• know who our customers are;
• understand what services they need; and
• make it easy for them to use our services.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
We want to give our customers the best services we possibly can. We need to know if they
think that we are unhelpful, our services are poor quality or our facilities are not of a good
enough standard. We will use the information we have about our customers and the
feedback we get from them to improve our services.
We will do this by identifying the levels of service that customers expect and any problems
they have with the way we deliver services. We can then plan how to make things better
and deliver our services well. We will do the following.
Make sure our services meet the specific needs of each customer group, for example
children, older people, or people with disabilities.
Make it easy and convenient for customers to contact us and access our services when
they need to and in ways that suit them.
Make sure that information we give to customers is clear and easy to understand in forms,
leaflets and letters, and on the web.
Be clear about what we will do and when we will do it so customers do not have to contact
us to find out what is happening.
Whenever possible, give customers what they need in a single contact.
Make sure that our procedures for delivering services work well.
Remove unnecessary paperwork and procedures.
Use technology to better manage information and deliver services.
Encourage our customers to be involved in improving services by giving us their opinions
and telling us when we get it wrong.
6. Customer contact
We want to make sure that our customers can access our services in ways that suit them.
They can contact us in different ways to ask for services or get information. Some people
will always visit our offices or write to us whilst others find it more convenient to phone us
or use the website. Whichever they use, our customers should always get a high quality
service.
We will use customer feedback and the information we have about customer groups and
the ways they like to contact us to:
• make sure they can access services in the ways that best suit their needs;
• find out how we can make it easier to contact us; and
• encourage them to contact us in other ways that are new, cheaper or more convenient.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
6.1 Ways that customers can contact us
Traditionally, customers would telephone, write, or visit us if they needed information or
wanted a service. Over the past ten years, email, texting and website services have
become more common. More recently, social media such as Twitter and Facebook have
become popular. Other new ways that customers may want to contact us include
interactive television and smart mobile phones and other handheld computers such as
notebooks and tablets.
However our customers choose to contact us, we want to make sure that we are providing
the best service. The table below shows how we plan to do this.
Telephone (including texting). This is the most popular way that people contact us. We
are working with our employees to make sure that they:
• are polite and helpful to our customers;
• have the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs; and
• can quickly answer customer's questions or arrange for the services they need.
We will also:
• use telephone and computer technology to deliver a modern and professional service
to our customers; and
• look at how we can improve our telephony services.
Visit. We are working with our employees to make sure they:
• are polite and helpful to our customers;
• have the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs; and
• can quickly answer customer's questions or arrange for the services they need.
We will also look at:
• changing opening hours to meet customer needs; and
• how we can improve our face-to-face services.
Website. More and more of our customers are now using our website to get information,
report problems and ask for services. Our employees also use it to help them do their jobs.
We are working to improve our website so that:
• information is clear, easy to understand, up-to-date and relevant;
• popular and important information is easy to find; and
• customers can access more services online.
We will also make sure we stay up-to-date with website technology.
Mobile phones and handheld computers. People often use mobile phones and
handheld computers such as tablets and notebooks to access the internet. We need to
make it easy for our customers to use our website on these devices.
Email. Many people now use email to write to us and ask for services. We will look for
ways to improve how we deal with emails and make sure we stay up-to-date with
technology.
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Customer Services Strategy
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Social media. We have been using Twitter and Facebook to talk to our customers for a
few years now. This has been successful and is becoming more popular. It also has the
benefit of customers:
• helping each other by answering questions about typical service issues that others
post on social media sites; and
• sharing information that we post to keep their friends up-to-date.
We need to understand more about social media so we will investigate how we can best
use it to serve our customers and promote our services.
Post. Many of our customers still need or prefer to write to us or send forms using postal
services. We have mailrooms in each of our main buildings and we will look at how we can
use technology to improve how we run these. For example, using barcodes and scanning
mail into a computer system to get it to the right person.
Interactive television. Many people now use interactive services through their televisions
so we will look at how we can use this as a new way to give information and services to
our customers.
6.2 Encouraging customers to use the website
It costs us £0.15 each time a customer uses our website to get information, report a
problem or ask for a service. This rises to £2.83 if they phone us and almost £9.00 if they
visit us1. The website also has the benefits of being available at any time, every day and
there are no queues so it is quick to use. We will actively encourage our customers to use
the website by doing the following.
Make sure that the information and services they want to access online are on the website.
Make our online services easy to use, whether customers are using a standard computer,
a mobile phone or handheld computer.
Raise awareness about the website and online services using the following.
• Advertising. For example in the North Lanarkshire News, local press and leaflets, and
on council vehicles.
• Word of mouth. For example, when customers ask for services when they visit or
phone us, we will let them know that they can also use the website for these services.
• Social media. For example, using Twitter and Facebook.
Help customers by showing them how easy it is to use the website, if they are unsure
about it or are not used to computers.
1
Better Connected 2012, Society of Information Technology Managers
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Customer Services Strategy
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Some services we can't deliver online and we understand that there are customers who,
for various reasons, will never use the website. So, we will still give them other ways to
contact us and get services. However, there may also be services that we can only offer
through the website. If this happens, we will help our customers by giving them access to
computers through our libraries if they don't have their own computers.
7. Making sure our employees have the right knowledge and
skills
To deliver a high standard of service to our customers it is important that we have the right
people, in the right jobs, in the right place and at the right time. We will make this happen
by doing the following.
We will staff our services with the right numbers of employees to give the level of services
our customers need. For example, we have more people available to take payments at the
end of the month, because this is when rent and council tax are due.
We will organise our employees in a more flexible way to make the best use of their talents
and time, in a way that best meets the needs of our customers.
We will train our employees so that they have the skills and knowledge they need to do
their jobs well.
We will make sure our employees are multi-skilled. This means they will be able to help
customers with lots of different services rather than only knowing about a few.
We will give our employees the right tools they need to do their jobs.
We will make sure our employees have the information they need to help our customers
and deliver services.
We will listen to our employees and encourage them to work with us to improve services.
8. Putting things right if they go wrong
We know that sometimes things can go wrong. When our customers have a problem with
how we have dealt with them or with the standard of our services, it is important that we fix
it quickly. Generally, customers contact us with their complaint through our complaints
process and we then investigate to remedy the problem. However, this can take time and
we want to find other ways to help our customers, including:
• identifying common problems then stopping them from happening;
• making information available on our website so customers can help themselves; and
• encouraging our customers to help each other by sharing their experiences and
knowledge through social media sites.
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Customer Services Strategy
2013 to 2018
8.1 Stopping common problems from happening
We have lots of information on our computer systems about our customers and services.
Our employees also have great knowledge about what works well and what does not. We
can use all of this to stop common problems from happening by, for example:
• making information clearer to avoid causing confusion; and
• changing procedures to make services simpler.
8.2 Using the website so customers can help themselves
We plan to make more services available on the website so customers can help
themselves. We will do the following.
Make sure that we have online help that is easy for customers to access and understand.
Use online forms for customers to fill in so we can get back to them if they need help.
Give customers the choice to get help by chatting to someone online or on the phone.
8.3 Using social media so customers can help each other
Our customers have a lot of knowledge about our services and have opinions on how we
could do better. This also means that they often understand why things go wrong and what
we need to do to put things right. We want to look at ways to help them share this
knowledge and understanding with each other by:
• investigating and developing how we use social media to deal with customer
complaints and suggestions; and
• finding out how interested people would be in being a part of this social media service.
9. Putting this strategy into practice
We will draw up a detailed technical plan that explains how we will put this strategy into
practice. It will include information on how we will do the following.
Change the ways that customers access our services.
Look at how we can make services better.
Support our employees to deliver quality services.
Listen to our customers and learn from their experiences.
Measure how well we are doing and how happy our customers are with our services.
Let our customers and employees know about our plans and ask for their opinions.
Report on how we are doing.
Link with the corporate Customer Care Standards
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