Agenda Item 4
BOROUGH OF POOLE
COUNCIL EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS
OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY REPORT
4 April 2012
REVIEW OF INVESTMENT IN CUSTOMER SERVICE
PART OF THE PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN – YES
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Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this report is to:
a) Briefly review the history and current position of our investment in an improved customer
service infrastructure and service delivery approach, which began 7 years ago with the
initiation of the original Customers First XL Project.
b) Explain what is already planned for 2012/13 for further development &/or greater usage of
existing capabilities.
c) Seek initial member views on some potential development options for the future.
2 Decisions Required
2.1 It is recommended that Overview and Scrutiny note the content of the report, review and
comment on:
 Current usage of the corporate infrastructure for customer service delivery
 Existing plans for further activity / development in 2012/13
 Emerging ideas on possible developments for future years, should additional funding and
resource become available in due course
3 Background
3.1 Since 2004, the development of the Borough’s approach to customer service has been largely
driven through the Customers First Project (aka ‘Stage 1’) & the subsequent Customers First
Programme (aka ‘Stage 2’). Some continued linked project activity has also been carried out
since. An overview of key deliverables over the 7 year period is provided in Appendix 1.
3.2 The original XL project (2004 – 2007) was focused on setting up an infrastructure for improved
contact management, resulting in procurement of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
system, sophisticated process design and setting up the Customer Services Centre to manage
inbound calls and emails for largely high-volume services.
3.3 By late-2007, over 200 services from 7 Service Units were being supported this way. This led
to significant improvements in phone answering in particular and in customer satisfaction with
contacting the council, with improvements sustained every year since (see chart in Section 5).
3.4 Informed by an E&E Committee review in first half of 2009, Cabinet then approved a more
wide-ranging approach for the subsequent Customers First Programme (2008 - 2011), with
greater focus on support for the more vulnerable members of our community & capturing
tangible efficiency savings. A dedicated programme team then drove work on 11 projects from
1
mid-2009, delivering a wide range of process and service improvements. Expertise has been
built up in effective use of technology & new process review techniques (eg. systems thinking).
3.5 Confirmed financial benefits of £148,000 p.a. were captured, largely from headcount reductions
enabled by improved processes and reduction of avoidable contact / ’waste’. Further savings
are anticipated from continued work on self service and service review activity. However, these
are largely enabling wider cost savings through the MTFP process and ERPs (eg. Street
Scene), rather than generating additional cashable savings themselves.
3.6 Unfortunately, the programme had to be closed down in March 2011 due to lack of ongoing
funding, although some monies remained from the original allocation. This residual funding
allowed a small portfolio of projects to be continued. Under the banner of ‘Customer Service
Improvement Projects’, this included completion of several existing projects (eg. Website
Transformation), plus some new activity (eg. ‘Tell us Once’). It also helped us to learn more
about ‘systems thinking‘ through the Service Review Project and linked Streetscene ERP.
3.7 Although our capacity for driving major changes has been greatly decreased since loss of the
Customer First resources, the Customer Services & Communications team has also maintained
focus on continuous improvement, using customer data and feedback to inform improvements
in processes, communications and systems (see below). This has helped to steadily remove
causes for avoidable contact, decreasing overall customer telephone demand year by year.
3.8 Notable progress has also been made over the last year in enhancing our online capabilities.
With ever-growing online usage by Poole’s residents (78% were active users of the internet in
2010, including 64% of the over 60s), we have seen huge year on year growth in use of the site
and our electronic forms, enhancing availability whilst also reducing telephone traffic.
3.9 Our discretionary resources for 2012/13 are largely focused on key corporate priorities such as
Streetscene and some long-planned infrastructure enhancements such as Map-Based
Reporting, a likely upgrade to our core Customer Relationship Management System and Loop
(Intranet) Replacement. Further details are provided in Section 6.
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3.10 Additional service improvement activity is carried out direct by most Service Units, for whom
support or access to analysis tools is provided on request.
4 Customer Service Infrastructure
4.1 The key elements within our corporate infrastructure to support customer service delivery are:
a) Call Management Technology – various systems enabling inbound calls to be routed
correctly. Within the Customer Services Centre, this includes a sophisticated system to
match available staff with the right skills and experience to a given topic. It also allows calls
to be switched between locations at pre-determined times (eg. enabling seamless access to
open libraries throughout the week and on Saturdays) and selective use of advisory voice
messages or hand-offs to other systems (such as automated payments for Council Tax).
We also currently have a separate Switchboard system, which is now due for replacement.
b) Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) – a customer database and
workflow management system, used by Customer Services and supported units for
management of contacts and service requests. It is also used by most units across the
Council for complaints management & by Control Room for reporting ‘out of hours’ contacts.
c) Customer Services Centre – a sophisticated telephone and email / e-form contact
management operation, currently supporting 250+ largely high-volume / low-complexity
services for 8 Units. They aim to quickly and effectively respond to queries and requests,
resolving as many as possible there and then and tasking specialist officers / teams for
action. They also manage the corporate switchboard and Civic Centre Reception.
d) Borough of Poole Website – the most actively used channel of all, with 1 in 3 residents
now accessing it at least once a month for information on or to report, apply, book or pay for
services. This also acts as hub for nearly 50 other online sites, systems or databases (eg.
Family Information Directory, Planning Portal, Agenda Reports & Minutes system, etc).
e) Electronic Forms – actively used within the website and fast growing in use – eg. 55% of
all Garden Waste applications received to date. These are now ‘intelligent’, adapting to
customer inputs and transmitting all the details needed straight into our workflow queues
ready for action by specialist officers (subject only to some residual manual customer
matching currently). For Garden Waste, we have also recently directly linked the forms to
payment systems as well, providing a fully-automated solution.
f) Social Media – a rapidly evolving set of online channels ever-growing in popularity with
Poole customers. We currently provide an official presence on Twitter (2,100 formal
followers currently, with audiences of up to 50,000 a day), Facebook, Flickr (photo
database) and You Tube (video database).
4.2 The above channels and tools are managed, maintained and developed on behalf of the
organisation by Customer Services & Communications, supported by ICT. To support effective
service delivery, the unit also provides key publications (eg. Poole News & the A-Z Guide of
Council Services) plus process design, PR / advertising activity and service / system training.
5 Benefits Delivered
5.1 The key benefits realised to date from our approach to customer service include:

Easier To Deal With - calls are now answered more quickly & more effectively at the first
touch. Our website is one of the most actively used in the country, helping to provide easy
24/7 access to self service information and transactions.
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
Choice & Convenience - enhanced availability of many services - e.g. phone access to
libraries increased by 42% (now minimum of 50 hours per week). Due to lack of customer
demand, Customer Services opening hours returned to ‘normal’ in 2009, with no noticeable
impact on performance or satisfaction levels.

Seamless & Consistent Service – we have high-quality staff trained to the same standards
& style for all supported services. Many processes are now better integrated (e.g. tree &
flooding enquiries, previously spread over 5 different units).

Right First Time – we have driven continually reduced error rates and avoidable contact
through a combination of communication & process enhancements, training & regular
partnership meetings with Service Units.

Efficiency – the tracking of contact history enables faster handling of follow-up enquiries,
with reduced duplication of records. Use of the website within the CRM system helps to
enhance usability, design & content for all users. Ever-growing channel shift to the web also
helps reduce transaction costs by up to 96% (2011 LGIU benchmarks show call handling
averaging £5 and equivalent online transactions just 17p).

Financial Benefits – a wide range of efficiencies have been enabled in many different units,
but it is hard to attribute specific cashable savings in all cases. However, as part of its
overall targeted benefits, the Customers First Programme (Stage 2) delivered confirmed
annual savings of £153k by the end of 2010/11, with subsequent additional savings (eg. a
further £15k+ for Web Transformation). Continued reduction in ‘waste’ demand and growing
channel shift from phone to web has also reduced avoidable costs.

Overall Customer Satisfaction – customer ratings of contacting and dealing with the
Council have improved every year since 2004, across all elements measured. We believe
this has contributed greatly to overall customer satisfaction with Council, backed by robust
national research findings. This is next due to be assessed in Spring 2012.
59%
Data from Poole Opinion Panel surveys
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5.2 Use of the corporate customer service infrastructure does however demand some compromise
by Service Units - eg. forgoing specialist solutions or requiring staff to learn to use additional
systems. Some bespoke system integrations have been developed (eg. between Waste
Operation’s Flare system and Lagan CRM), but these can be very costly and time consuming
developments. ICT are considering some more flexible technology to enable simple exchange
of data between systems to help overcome this.
6 Development / Activity Planned For 2012/13
6.1 Within our overall business plan for this year are the following key deliverables:
a) Streetscene – our primary customer services focus for this year and next. It will involve
major redesign and improved linkages across over 50 services to improve efficiency. The
new, integrated service will make active use of our entire infrastructure, and particularly our
Customer Services Centre, CRM system, e-forms and website.
b) Map-Based Reporting – providing the ability for customers and officers to report, manage
and track location-based problems / service requests. At a cost of £23k, this will significantly
enhance the handling of issues not linked to a property (eg. in open spaces) and is a key
enabler for Streetscene. It would also support possible future developments such as handheld workflow devices for officers and maybe smartphone applications for customers.
c) Loop (Intranet) Replacement – our intranet performs a number of roles, being a gateway
to web-based applications (eg. Employee First) and various business tools (eg. our phone
directory), an information portal and a means to share documents corporately. It is longoverdue replacement, having last been upgraded in 2003, and we have now secured the
£60k funds needed. The new system will also reuse the content management platform
procured for our website last year, ensuring greater consistency and ease of use.
d) Further e-Form Enhancements – some residual technical work is needed to complete the
upgrade of all forms on the website, to automate the matching of customers within our CRM
system and to extend the linkages to payment systems already set up for Garden Waste.
This will also help to finalise capture of targeted efficiency benefits that had already been
assumed in the revised headcount for our unit from April 2011.
e) Selected Web / Digital Enhancements – having implemented a very sophisticated and
flexible platform last year, our current concentration is on improving ease of navigation and
the quality and consistency of content. Where resources allow, we will also take
opportunities to consolidate existing separate websites / applications, using the powerful inbuilt capabilities of the new system to gradually remove the need for separate, bespoke
systems (eg. the consultation portal). In addition, we intend to improve our support for social
media, but this is dependent on securing new resource (see next section).
f) Lagan CRM Upgrade – we are currently assessing the costs and benefits of upgrading to
latest version of the system (from V7 to V8) during this year. We are contractually obliged to
stay within 2 releases of the latest version, so will have to upgrade in due course and have
allowed for this in our MTFP. An enhanced ability in the latest version to record task start
and finish timings would improve the quality and accuracy of management information,
which could prove particularly helpful for high-volume activities like Streetscene.
g) Switchboard Upgrade – our current switchboard system is nearing the end of its useful life
and we are currently reviewing potential options with ICT; one of which could involve
replacement with automated voice technology (see next section). However, we do not
currently have any funding for this purpose and so would need to seek new money.
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h) Control Room / Out of Hours Services – a review is just starting with Housing &
Community and Adult Social Services to identify and potentially pursue options for better
integration of accommodation, systems and management of these services. The Control
Room (Borough Operations Centre) has also recently started using Lagan CRM to manage
service requests received out of normal Council opening hours.
6.2 Simple examples of what these developments could mean for us and our customers are:
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
If a customer called to report a blocked drain, our advisers would no longer need to work
out which of 5 different units / teams would need to handle the request and would be
able to follow a much simpler process. This should also help to improve response times
by always guaranteeing to get the request direct to the team that will do the work.

When reporting a broken bench in a park, a customer or officer could then easily pinpoint
the location on an online map. This would greatly assist contractors / officers in locating
the problem. Also (although this would require further development), it would potentially
allow us to show other customers visiting the website that the issue is already known and
being acted on, so reducing repeat reports and freeing up officer time.

Should a customer complete an online form to report a broken traffic light at 11pm on
Friday (we receive requests 24/7), it would immediately appear in the work queue for the
relevant team in Transportation, rather than being processed on Monday morning. This
could enable the problem to be fixed much sooner and also reduce repeat reports.
Possible Future Development Options
7.1 The opportunities listed here are currently feasible for development and delivery in 2013 or
beyond, but will require some additional staffing (on at least a temporary contract basis) and
most will also require additional investment funding too. For example, and in no particular order:
a) Expand Customer Services Centre – bring more services into the contact Centre,
immediately capturing economy of scale cost savings and improving service levels and
resilience too. Among the many potential opportunities here are:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Car Parking (originally in scope for Stage 1)
Expanded Council Tax handling (eg. to include change of circumstances)
Registrars enquiries
Various Helpdesks
Event Booking (eg. Upton House)
Out of Hours Service
Support for other Councils / Public Agencies
b) Adopt Voice Response Technology - we are extremely keen to add this technology to our
corporate infrastructure, as used by many other Councils and public bodies already (inc.
Bournemouth Hospital and Dorset Police soon too). The market leading supplier is based
here in Poole & their core infrastructure could be implemented rapidly, enabling many
improvements at less than the human-equivalent cost, eg:
o Replacement of our switchboard (adopting for this purpose alone could pay back a
£35k investment in full within 2-3 years)
o Adoption of a single contact number for the Council (UK-wide best practice), instead
of the 200+ we currently maintain and publicise
o 24/7 phone reporting, adding to our existing ‘all-hours’ digital capability
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o Supplementing our adviser resources by providing overflow capacity for peak
demands (eg. Council Tax billing, Xmas bin arrangements, etc)
o Many other uses, such as real-time satisfaction monitoring for inbound callers, public
consultations, leaflet ordering, etc.
c) Smartphone Reporting Application – with half of the UK population now using
smartphones, many Councils are developing apps or are using ‘off the shelf’ solutions (eg.
Fix My Street, Your Council, Street Report, etc). Further analysis would be needed to
establish costs, timescales and likely take-up / channel shift benefits, and our preference
would be to use a tailored portal for our customers to enable ‘straight through processing’.
d) Social Media – over the last year, we have actively used Twitter & Facebook in particular to
signpost key news and information and are also starting to generate customer information
enquiries / service requests through these channels. The recent ‘Social Poole Day’ helped
us to gauge customer & SU interest in an expanded and more active presence. However,
We have been very reliant to date on a temporary contact role which is due to expire in June
and our options will be very limited if we cannot extend it.
e) Extend Lagan CRM Usage – our customer database / workflow system is incredibly
powerful, but also under-utilised. More active commitment across the organisation to adopt it
as a default system unless a strong business case exists to the contrary could enable us to
improve consistency and efficiency and enable a variety of legacy systems to be switched
off, with consequent cashable savings. This is now a key assumption in both the Customer
Service Strategy and for Streetscene.
f) Drive for Website Consolidation - this already forms part of the agreed Communications &
Marketing ERP and was highlighted as a key action following Website Transformation. A
concerted drive to bring the majority of web content ‘in house’ would enable us to reduce the
current plethora of separate, inconsistent websites. This would improve how well informed
customers feel (a key driver of our reputation) and help generate some modest cost savings.
g) Outsource / Partner Customer Services – in vogue with some Councils currently, but
demands high commonality of policies, services and processes and the cost-benefits of
outsourcing in particular are very suspect. We are exploring opportunities to share selected
services with other local councils / agencies, but no firm options have yet been identified.
8 Equalities, Legal & Risk Implications
8.1 All of our existing and planned developments have actively considered the needs of all
equalities groups in Poole and have been designed with those in mind.
8.2 For example, our website supports speech reader software, enables instant text and contrast
changes and can be automatically translated into various languages. Our Customer Services
Centre uses the Big Word language translations and BT Type Talk (for the hard of hearing),
both of which we implemented for use by all other Service Units too. Our key publications (eg.
Poole News) are also available in alternate formats, such as audio and searchable PDF.
8.3 The Data Protection Act is a key consideration in making more effective use of our customer
information. This may require us to seek express consent in future for certain uses (eg. to
proactively advise selected customers on service changes that may directly affect them). We
are also working to meet / exceed the government’s requirements on transparency, with an
ever-increasing range of data (eg. all Council spending over £500) now readily available on our
website, helping to reduce the time and cost spent on Freedom of Information Requests.
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8.4 Government restrictions introduced last year on the frequency of publicity have unfortunately
made it harder for us now to effectively inform customers on service issues and developments.
However, we will continue to make active use of all options available to us; particularly web,
social media and radio in lieu of our traditional primary reliance on printed material.
8.5 Our main risks relate to our ability to keep up with growing customer demands for 24/7 service
across an ever-wider range of contact channels given our limited resources. We are continuing
to mitigate this through targeted focus on what matters most, informed by actual service usage,
research and satisfaction data. We are also reinvesting efficiency savings where possible
(limited lately due to the urgent need to reduce budgets across the Council). However, some
additional investment will clearly be required in future.
9 Conclusion
9.1 Over the last 7 years, our investment in customer service has delivered significant
improvements to the customer experience of dealing with the Council and (although only
formally measured since 2009) some tangible financial benefits too.
9.2 Our organisation now faces unprecedented pressures to fundamentally review services and
processes with a view to substantially reducing costs. However, the allocated investment
funding for customer service is almost exhausted. Together with the loss of skilled staff last
March, this has substantially reduced our capacity for driving further efficiency improvements
beyond the current resourced projects and maintaining existing supported services in 2012/13.
9.3 In addition, whilst our coordinated approach has delivered clear service benefits for our
customers, it has not yet been as widely adopted as has been originally anticipated. This has
been partly due to a lack of capacity in other units as well to consider fundamental change and
the natural tendency to prefer bespoke solutions.
9.4 Changing Times now presents an opportunity to better address this. We feel there are
particular opportunities for further efficiency improvements and cost savings by consolidating
some of the multiple bespoke systems & processes that still exist. For example, the Comms &
Marketing ERP identified at least 45 separate web facilities across the Council, many of which
could now potentially be provided through our new website platform.
9.5 The latest draft of the Customer Service Strategy supports this approach and was recently
revised and updated (see summary in appendix 2) with widespread input from across the
Council. It sets out clear principles for how we should design & deliver services to our
customers in future, and is currently being used to underpin the work on Streetscene.
9.6 This involves putting the customer at the heart of what we do in future, demanding a more
coordinated approach. Unless there are clearly justifiable reasons not to, it has been agreed in
principle that services should be designed based on common processes, consider the full ‘endend’ customer experience & make appropriate use of common corporate customer service
infrastructure to ensure consistency and efficiency.
9.7 Given continued rapid advances in customer requirements and technology, I believe it is vital
for us to continue to selectively pursue further developments in future too. Additional investment
is therefore recommended from 2013 onwards, based on a clear assessment of costs and
benefits. Member views are therefore sought to help gauge the desirability or otherwise of
these options so that we can target our attention accordingly in planning for the future.
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9.8 However, I also feel it is very important to secure some permanent additional resource right
now to support the ever-growing demand for our web and digital channels. A proposal will be
produced soon for consideration by the Management Team and Portfolio Holder, referring to the
key findings from the recent nationwide SOCIM benchmarking survey of council websites (yet to
be analysed in full) and feedback from our own recent ‘Social Poole Day’ and website users.
Chris Owens
Head of Customer Services & Communications
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Appendix 1
CUSTOMERS FIRST HISTORY & TIMELINE
1. CUSTOMERS FIRST PROJECT (2004 – 2007)
1.1 This was an ‘XL project’ in the Council’s corporate strategy from 2004 – 2007, with the
business case being approved by Cabinet in April 2005.
1.2 The key driver at the time was to improve customer service and satisfaction. There was also a
desire to improve the efficiency with which the Council handled customer enquiries, requests for
service and payments, and to embrace the fresh approach being driven through the national egovernment programme.
1.3 Key features were a new customer strategy (focused on channel shift) and delivery model
involving integration of our website, a new customer service centre using centralised telephony;
delivering economies of scale, integrating IT systems to reduce the need for manual handling of
paper, reducing costs and improving services. Phone &/or email support was implemented on
a phased basis for around 250 services across 7 SUs.
1.4 The resources allocated to capital and transitional costs were £2.274m. The project completed
delivery of its objectives in 2007. Actual spend on ICT and accommodation resulted in a £400k
saving, with the surplus being carried forward for ‘Stage 2’.
1.5 Various additional developments were implemented too; all delivering cashable or noncashable efficiencies, including redesign of adult learning enrolments, support for the new
Green Bin scheme, Bulky Waste & Trade Waste, remodelled Civic reception, etc.
1.6 Elements of the original plan taken out were local face-face access centres and the transfer to
Customer Services of telephone calls for Job Applications and Car Parking (latter replaced by
transfer of calls about “concessionary fares” from Transportation Services).
2. CUSTOMERS FIRST PROGRAMME (2008 – 2011)
2.1 Following Cabinet’s review in Sept 2007, detailed R&D was approved to design a business
case for further work (then referred to as “Stage 2”). A scrutiny review in late 2008 / early 2009
also informed this work.
2.2 This led to definition of a more wide-ranging transformation of customer service within the
Council’s overall Business Transformation Programme. Key drivers were:

To improve the quality and consistency of our customers’ experience, wherever and
whenever they dealt with the Council; extending the improvements and benefits seen in
Stage 1 to all services, with focus on the more vulnerable members of the Community.

To improve the efficiency & value for money achieved by the Council, using the existing
infrastructure and experience from Stage 1. This would help the Council cope with
increasing public demands and changes to services, as cost effectively as possible.
2.3 Following approval of the Business Case in June 2009, the new Programme involved delivery
of 12 projects over the next 2 years. These were:



Enhance & Expand - restructuring of the Customer Services Centre and its operations
ASC Information & Advice – leading to implementation of the Source Directory. The
originally envisaged ‘Modernisation of Helpdesk’ remains outstanding
Housing & Community Services – detailed process reviews leading to improved telephony
performance and a shared reception with Benefits
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








Blue Badges – transfer of customer applications from Social Services to the CSC
Benefits & Revenues - process reviews leading to improved customer service
Families Information Service – developing a Welcome area in the Dolphin Centre, the new
Family Information Directory and transfer of calls to Customer Services
Lagan CRM Upgrade – major upgrade to this core customer database and workflow
system, now used by all Service Units.
Self Service – making online services more convenient, accessible and efficient, including
the implementation of ‘intelligent’ e-forms and wider online payments
Stage 1 Service Review (now Service Review) – ongoing work to review and redesign
high-volume processes end-end, using ‘systems thinking’
Text Relay & Big Word – implemented new corporate support facilities for hard of hearing /
deaf customers and a mediated language translation service
Website Transformation – leading to a new website & content management system
Feedback Transformation – development of a common and consistent way of dealing with
compliments, comments and complaints.
2.4 All objectives were met by when the programme closed in April 2011, with ‘Improving the quality
and consistency of our customers’ experience’ and ‘improving the efficiency and value for
money achieved by the council, utilising the existing infrastructure and experience gained from
our previous investment in stage 1’ highlighted as particular successes.
2.5 Financially, implementation was delivered within the £985,000 budget and a final balance of
£218,000 was transferred to support future service improvement projects. Annual cashable
savings from 2011/12 were £148,000 pa (£10,500 ahead of those targeted). Future savings
were also anticipated through the Self Service and Web Transformation projects.
2.6 During the Programme’s life time a number of strategies, documents and tools were also
produced. These have been developed into a Service Development Methodology and
Programme Delivery Toolkit for the organisation as a whole to benefit from.
3. CUSTOMER SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS (2011 On)
3.1 Following closure of the programme and disbanding the dedicated team, a small portfolio of
projects was continued using the remaining funds.
3.2 This included completion of several items from the programme, plus some new projects:






Website Transformation – new, internally-hosted website delivered Sept 2011
Service Review – continued review / redesign of targeted processes across the Council
Self Service – follow-up work, including automation of links to our CRM system
Tell Us Once – a national scheme implemented in Oct 2011, better joining up service with
key partners (eg. DWP) for managing advices of births & deaths
Beach Hut Bookings – an integrated solution for automated self service bookings &
payments. Recently tested & currently awaiting implementation for this summer
Map Based Reporting – to add maps to self service reporting to help pinpoint locations.
Currently in initiation and linked to the internal GIS mapping system (IMAP).
3.3 The Borough’s Customer Service Strategy, last updated in 2005, was also reviewed and
refreshed and the key principles were approved by Management Team in summer 2011 (see
appendix 2). They now form a key building block for the Changing Times Programme.
3.4 At the time of writing, sufficient funding remains to support completion of the remaining projects
listed above, plus Loop (Intranet) Replacement, a further upgrade to Lagan CRM (deferred from
2011/12) and possible further systems integration work, which is still being investigated with
ICT. Any future developments / upgrades will therefore require new funding.
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CUSTOMERS FIRST TIMELINE
Sept ‘05
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system procured, senior staff recruited &
Service Unit created
Dec ‘05
CRM installed, business process reengineering (BPR) completed for Phase A and
accommodation fitted out in the Civic Centre
Jan ‘06
First Customer Service Advisers recruited & training started
Apr ‘06
‘Phase A’ services launched in Customer Services Centre (ECPS, Leisure,
Transportation & Libraries)
Nov ’06
Phase B launched (Council Tax & Non-Domestic Rates)
Jun ’07
Phase C completed (Planning & Design Control, Building Consultancy & Adult
Learning)
Sep ’07
Cabinet approve Customers First Project delivery (‘Stage 1’) & authorise Stage 2
Jul ’07
Additional support for Concessionary Fares for Transportation Services
Mch ’08
Initiation of CF Stage 2 / Customer First Programme
Jan ’09
Big Word language translation service introduced across Council
Jun ’09
Cabinet review & approval to commence Programme implementation
Jul ’09
RNID Text Relay service introduced across Council
Sep ’09
E&E Committee Report on ‘Stage 1’ of Customers First
Sep ‘09
Blue Badges supported by Customer Services Centre
Feb ’10
Major upgrade to Lagan CRM (V7)
Apr ’10
Self Service e-forms infrastructure introduced for use by all services
Jun ’10
Telephony improvements in Benefits team
Sep ’10
Family Information Service (FIS) Welcome Centre opened
Dec ’10
Corporate Feedback process introduced
Feb ’11
FIS call supported by Customer Services Centre
Apr ’11
CF Programme closure & Customer Services team restructured
Sep ’11
New Borough of Poole website launched
Oct ‘11
‘Tell Us Once’ service implemented (Registrars & Benefits focus)
Feb ’12
‘Social Poole Day’ – social media experiment
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Appendix 2
CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGY - EXTRACT
1. Our customer commitment – we will:
1.1 Put our customers’ needs at the centre of the way we organise our services and their delivery.
1.2 Treat people with respect and dignity at all times and expect this to be reciprocated.
1.3 Provide our customers with the clear, consistent and accurate information that is necessary for
them to make informed choices about their individual circumstances.
1.4 Ensure our customers have an equal right of access to information and services to which they
are entitled, and proactively support those customers who may find access more difficult.
1.5 Make it as easy as possible for our customers to make contact with us and, when they do,
enable them to carry out as much of their business as possible within a single transaction.
1.6 Where people have complex or multiple needs we will identify them and help them understand
where to go for the information, advice and support they need – whether this be from Council
services, contractors or partners.
2. Our business environment – we will:
2.1 Encourage our customers – and properly authorised representatives acting on their behalf – to
carry out their business, where appropriate, with the council online.
2.2 Always aim to fully resolve an enquiry during the first transaction – “do it once, do it right – in
the minimum possible time.
2.3 Collectively own the relationship with our customers and any associated information and data.
Working within the boundaries of proper data confidentiality and protocols that protect
customers interests, our staff will work together across internal boundaries to resolve each
customer’s needs, ensuring that our customers don’t have to understand the ‘structure of
Government’ to get the help they require.
2.4 Set our customers’ expectations about when or if we will respond to them, and keep them fully
informed of progress, in the event that we cannot complete their enquiry right away. We deliver
on the expectations we have set and do not make promises we know we are unable to keep.
2.5 Continually improve our performance and responsiveness to customers through our regular
analysis of demand, customer feedback and service delivery performance.
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3. We will deliver the principles in practice by:
3.1 Ensuring all the work we do supports our overall purpose
3.2 Being clear about who our customers are and recognising that they have different needs which
we must understand
3.3 Providing a consistent and strategic approach to the development of our customer contact
channels
3.4 Developing services based on common processes, ensuring consistency in our approach
across the organisation
3.5 Redesigning services based on customer demand, reducing failure and maximising value in
line with our purpose
3.6 Providing a clear corporate approach to the co-ordination of customer and service-related
information, recognising its value to the organisation
3.7 Delivering a common corporate customer service infrastructure, and using it in a consistent
manner across the organisation to improve our efficiency and value for money. This includes
the Customer Relationship Management System, Customer Services Centre and Contact
Centre telephony as well as technology connections with our partners and other delivery
providers.
3.8 Identifying the key corporate technology components needed to support customer service
delivery, facilitating the efficient flow of information around the organisation
3.9 Measuring ‘end to end’ customer experience and using the results to support further
improvements in customer service. This includes using customer feedback obtained and
measured through a common corporate feedback process1 to identify areas for improvement
3.10Ensuring staff recognise the role they play in delivering services to our customers and
providing them with the skills and tools they need to deliver excellent customer service
3.11Providing corporate support to enable delivery of the Strategy.
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Recognising that Adult and Children’s Services have their own statutory feedback processes
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