NI 14 Final Guidance

8/3/2019 NI 14 Final Guidance

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Reducing avoidable contacta guide to NI 14


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contents

oreword by Alexis Cleveland page 2

oreword by Janet Callender OBE page 4

how to use this guide page 7

the aims o the guide page 7the structure o the guide page 7

urther inormation page 8

NI 14 background and context page 9

part one a tool or improving services page 11

getting to grips with avoidable contact page 11

a tool or improving services page 13

understanding the sources o avoidable contact page 14

the myths versus reality page 15meeting the challenge page 18

part two defning avoidable contact page 20

part three making the business case page 23

benets ramework page 24

cost ramework page 25

part our putting NI 14 into place page 27

setting the context page 27

establishing the right governance and reporting arrangements page 28engaging stakeholders page 29

communicating the message page 34

part fve collecting data page 37

services page 37

channels page 38

measuring web contact page 39

customer expectations page 40

exceptional circumstances page 40

using inormation systems to record avoidable contact page 41manual recording o avoidable contact page 45

sampling methodologies page 47

training sta page 49

part six case studies page 51

London Borough o Southwark page 51

DVLA page 52

appendix i reporting perormance page 53

appendix ii using support tools page 54

appendix iii NI 14 training quiz or sta Dudley MBC page 57

appendix iv contributors page 58

appendix v denition o NI 14 page 59

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oreword rom Director General or Transormational Government

All o us involved in the delivery o public services are increasingly valuing

the input our customers give us. We are learning to use customer insightto redesign service delivery to meet our customers expectations.

However, many o us are only just starting out on the customer insight

journey and we all still need more inormation rom our customers to

ully understand their needs

As the Cabinet Oce lead on service transormation, I am keen to

ensure that all sectors responsible or delivering public services develop

a real understanding o the needs o their service users, and use that

understanding to drive lasting service improvements.

The new Local Government Perormance Framework or the CSR07

period and with it, a condensed list o national indicators, reduces the

burden on local authorities. In line with this approach, we have designed

National Indicator 14 (NI 14) to build on the existing good work, and to

develop a deeper understanding o service delivery rom the viewpoint

o the service user.

NI 14 is a prompt or those involved in the design and delivery o servicesin every authority to consider their users and customers demands. Sta,

managers, and elected members will be able to draw on their existing

knowledge, and that o partner organisations, to build a richer picture o

our customers needs, wants and expectations. On occasion, however,

such consideration and evidence will highlight avoidable contact.

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Capturing this evidence o avoidable contact and using it to help redesign

services to meet needs more eectively and eciently are at the heart othis guidance and the use o NI 14. In so doing we can build on the

initiatives o many local authorities to redesign services rom the customers

perspective, resulting in endtoend service transormation that joins up

local service delivery irrespective o the delivery organisation.

NI 14 is not, by itsel, a tool or transorming services, nor is it a ready

made solution to the problems acing organisations that deliver public

services. But it demonstrates that we are listening to the voice o the

service user, as we attempt to identiy the services where current deliverydoes not meet customer expectations.

This inormation, together with other sources o customer insight, will help

to ocus eorts and resources in the right place to make eective changes.

I hope this guidance document helps you to understand how to use

the data you collect or NI 14 and will assist you on your

transormational journey.

Alexis Cleveland

Director General or Transormational Government

and Head o Cabinet Oce Management

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oreword rom Chair o the Local Government Delivery Council

For most people their local council represents a undamental contact

point or accessing public services. We want that experience to be onethat is responsive, timely and ecient and which meets their individual

needs.

Achieving this means designing and delivering services in ways that make

sense to our customers rather than being convenient to our

organisations and our own internal structures. It means looking or the

opportunities to better join up what we do and giving people choice in

the way they can access services.

Time is valuable to everyone. The concept o avoidable contact is easy to

understand and reducing it has clear and obvious benets in terms o

improved customer satisaction and eciency. I viewed and used as an

improvement tool, NI 14 provides local government with a great

opportunity to better understand how and why our customers currently

use and access our services.

By identiying the contact that is avoidable we are much better placed to

redesign how services and inormation are made more accessible or ourcustomers. This means they dont have to make unnecessary and

valueless contact that is both rustrating or our customers and costly or

the council.



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As a sector we are already doing much to improve our service oerings.

The Front Oce Shared Services (FOSS) project has highlighted many greatexamples o partnership and shared service delivery. The work o the Local

Government Customer Insight Forum and the electronic service delivery

(esd) toolkit Customer Proling project are both testament to how we are

already using our knowledge and understanding o customers needs to

improve their experience o public services.

I believe that NI 14 will help us take our thinking about customer insight to

the next level. It will help us to understand what really matters to the

people we serve and as a development and improvement tool its impactwill be signicant and arreaching.

I hope this guidance document acts as a catalyst to continue to improve

public services in ways which really matter to local people and will help us

all deliver on our ambitions or our communities.

Janet Callender OBE

Chie Executive, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

and Chair o Local Government Delivery Council

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how to use this guide

the aims o the guideThis guide is aimed at managers within localgovernment responsible or implementingNational Indicator 14 (NI 14) Reducingavoidable contact: Minimising the proportiono customer contact that is o low or no valueto the customer.

The document sets out the practicalapproaches to implementation that pilotauthorities have adopted and the lessons theyhave learnt (including, at times, what not todo). Where possible, we have included shortcase studies and examples o practical toolsthat the authorities have developed or theirown use.

There is much work still to do onimplementing NI 14 and we do not pretendthat this document is the nal word. NI 14will continue to evolve. The guidance willthereore need to be updated at a uturepoint. In the meantime, however, we hopethat this guide provides real practical helpand enables you and your colleagues to actwith more condence and speed in using thisindicator to improve local service delivery.

the structure o the guideThe concept o avoidable contact may notbe well understood in your organisation orrecognised as an important priority. One othe key challenges o implementing NI 14successully and exploiting its ull potential isto capture the attention o senior membersand managers and to gain their supportor tackling this issue as, used well, it isundamental to improved and more costeective service delivery.

Ater a brie summary o the context or theindicator, part one o the guide thereoresets out the strategic arguments or treatingavoidable contact as a priority, both orour customers and our organisations. Thissection has been deliberately designed toact as a standalone document, which youcan circulate to senior decisionmakers in itscurrent orm, or rom which you can drawarguments or your own briengs.

part two then addresses the question odenitions. A key message here is thatconcerns over detailed denitions, althoughimportant, should not unduly delay practicalaction.

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NI 14 background and context

NI 14 is one o the 198 indicators againstwhich local government will be assessed

within the new perormance managementramework agreed between Communitiesand Local Government and the LocalGovernment Association. The ull text o NI14 is given in appendix v o this document.

Local authorities will be required to report onthese indicators at dierent requencies. Inthe case o NI 14, the reporting interval willbe annual. Local authorities will rst report NI14 data in April 2009, with councils expectedto have the mechanisms in place in time or

data collection to begin in October 2008.

Where the partners in a Local AreaAgreement choose NI 14 to be one o theirkey indicators, a ormal target or reducingavoidable contact will be agreed (as per theLAA rameworks).

More commonly, authorities will be expectedto report annually on perormance against NI

14 to the Department o Communities andLocal Government via the Data InterchangeHub. The Audit Commission will use thenational indicator set to inorm its assessmento perormance and improvement orComprehensive Area Assessment. Appendix io this guide sets out the Audit Commissionslikely approach.

Although NI 14 is an important measure inits own right, many authorities are alreadyseeing the reduction o avoidable contact

as a key part o their wider programmes toimprove services to customers and reducecosts. It will become clear, as you read thisguide, that this is the approach we believewill oer the most value to our councils andour customers

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part one

a tool or improving services

1getting to grips withavoidable contactThe ocus on avoidable contact can be seenpositively as a valuable new opportunity tounderstand our customers better and tochange the way we work, or it can be seennegatively as another box to be ticked.

Councillors and senior managers in localgovernment will have a crucial role in shapinghow their authorities react. What will berequired?

a new way o thinking

First, we need to recognise that we are beingasked to think in a dierent and systemic way about our services, how they workand how well they are designed to respondto the needs o our customers, residentsand services users. This will undoubtedlymean less emphasis on how we nd theresources to meet our existing volumes ocustomer contact and more emphasis onunderstanding the real nature o customerdemand.

To understand and begin to quantiy whatis avoidable contact, we will rst have to

understand the current demands beingmade o services. It is clear that, even in thebest services, existing volumes o demandwill include instances o what we havetermed avoidable contact: or example thosetelephone calls we all occasionally make tochase something that should really have beendone already, a call that is o low or no valueto us.

The need to understand and analyse currentdemand is one o the undamental benets

o the use o this indicator.

Understanding demand, and avoidablecontact, will help provide the evidence (andgreater user awareness) to inorm betterservice design, which will in return reducecontact that is o low or no value to thecustomer, as well as oten having a positiveeect on sta morale and reducing the costo providing the service.

This is service redesign and

culture change on the quiet.It gives dierent parts o ourcouncils and our partners something really practical toocus on: How do we reduce theamount o time and eort weand our citizens waste?chie executive, metropolitan council

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a commitment to changeA new way o thinking implies culture changeand, in particular, seeing the way we deliverservices rom the customers point o view, sothat our communications, orms, processesand even the ways in which we groupservices and work with partner organisationsare truly customercentric.

There is a strong link thereore between NI 14and the work many authorities are doing todevelop customer insight and an equally bigchallenge to ensure that we have the skillsand management processes in place to turnanalysis and insight into outcomes that bothour customers and our sta can see.

Fortunately, as the IDeAs recent work onFront Oce Shared Services (amongst otherresearch) has suggested, local governmenthas made substantial progress in reshapingservices rom the customers perspective inrecent years, oten working closely with otherlocal public service organisations.

Moreover, as a result o their daytoday

contact with customers, local authoritieshave tremendous reserves o tacit knowledgeabout the causes o avoidable contact uponwhich they can draw, including eedbackrom customers (either as individuals or asmembers o, or example, residents groups),the insights o councillors and ront line sta,and the experience o partner agencies suchas the local Citizens Advice Bureau whoroutinely help citizens to negotiate access toour services.

I the opportunities o NI 14 are to be ullyexploited thereore, senior decisionmakers

will need to ensure that a wide range ocontributors are involved in the discussions particularly those sta who work withcustomers on a daytoday basis and willalready know what changes could be made and that there is a commitment to reshapeour organisations as a result.

active leadershipAll o the above clearly indicates that eectiveand committed leadership is required toensure that:

therightcontextissetforanywork,reinorcing the ocus on understandingdemand and avoidable contact as a positivetool or improvement

theconceptofavoidablecontactisthus embedded within the authoritys wider approach to improvement and transormation

aone-councilapproachistakenandproblems are seen rom the customers

point o view, even where they cut acrossexisting organisational silos

partnerorganisationsareengagedthrough bodies such as LSPs both togain their insight into demand and thusavoidable contact and also to secure theircommitment to reducing unnecessaryreerrals or duplication between local publicservices

appropriateresourcesaremobilisedtotakeull advantage o NI 14 so that it acts asa prompt or new thinking and ways oworking.



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This is one o the occasions where we canreally talk about winwinwin. By ocusing on

reducing avoidable contact, we can provide:

awinforourcustomers,whoshouldndservices more responsive to their needs

awinforourstaff,whoshouldspendless o their time dealing with irate andrustrated customers and more o their dayproviding positive help

awinforourorganisations,whichwillbeusing their resources more productivelyand in a way that creates greater customer

satisaction, thereby helping to addressthe challenge posed by ComprehensiveSpending Review 2007 o delivering betterservices at less cost.

a tool or improving servicesWhat does avoidable contact mean inpractice and why should we devote resourcesto identiying and reducing it? In essence, theterm reers to those interactions between thepublic services and their customers that oerlittle or no value to either side the chaseup

calls, or instance, that cause citizens muchrustration and stress and take up valuablesta time within our organisations.

The concept o avoidable contact is not new.Similar thinking underpins a range o ormalimprovement methodologies, such as leanand quality management, as well as beingrefected in the more downtoearth idea ogetting things right rst time.

Measuring avoidable contact is

not about avoiding contact withour customers, but it is aboutreducing the need or customersto contact us because we haveailed to deliver a service orinormation.Extract rom a metropolitan borough councilbrieng document

By ocusing our attention on reducingavoidable contact, we are responding to the

requirements o the new local perormancemanagement ramework, and indicator NI14 in particular, as well as the governmentwide Service Transormation Agreement,whose key aim is to reduce the number ounnecessary contacts that people need tohave with government.

But, just as importantly, we are exploiting anapproach that will help us to:

understandourcustomersandtheirneedsbetter, including those groups who nd itparticularly dicult to gain access to ourservices

reviewandrethinkthewayinwhichweand our partners deliver services rom acitizens perspective

demonstratethatwevaluebothourcitizens time and our own ecient use oresources in times o nancial constraint

designservicesthatreecttheneedso customers not arbitrary targets or perormance measures

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empowerourfront-linestaff,helpingthem to minimise unproductive work and

enabling them to concentrate their eortson those service requests that really needtheir attention

deliverrealpracticaloutcomes,suchashigher customer satisaction, reduced levelso complaints and greater eciency.

Reducing avoidable contact would thereorebe an important element o our drive totransorm services even i the specic NI 14indicator did not exist. But the presence o NI

14 in the national indicator set oers a realopportunity to galvanise our organisationsinto practical action.

Avoidable contact isnt somedry abstraction. Its about howwe deliver ecient and eectiveservices in ways that suit ourcustomers.chie executive, district council

understanding the sources oavoidable contactThere are many ways in which avoidablecontact can be triggered.

The most obvious is a ailure to deliver aservice within agreed timescales or to anacceptable standard. But oten we createavoidable contact through our own actions.A couple o examples, drawn rom realpractice, will illustrate the point:

A council wanted to announce

important changes to the parkingregulations in a major market town.A junior ocer in the ParkingSection was given the task owriting a letter, which was thensent out to local residents. The letterwas poorly drated, ull o technical

jargon and was despatched inone bulk mail shot. No other parto the council was alerted. Chaosensued, as the councils contactcentre and the Parking Sectionwere bombarded with calls. Whenresidents ound they could not getthrough initially, they phoned timeater time and were oten angry anddistressed by the time they spoketo a council ocer. It was severalweeks beore things returned tonormal.



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A realistic score is important.

Given the sensitivity around any newperormance measure, it will be temptingto declare an unrealistically low level oavoidable contact. But doing this willsignicantly reduce the value o NI 14 tothe organisation and could oster cynicismamongst rontline sta in particular, who arewell aware o the actual scale o the problem.

In contrast, a realistic score, which may wellbe signicant, backed up by appropriateplans or rapid and sustainable improvement,

could be taken as a sign o an organisationthat is really willing to invest in understandingits customers experiences, to appraise itsservices honestly and to set ambitious goalsor transorming itsel, including workingmore eectively with partners.

Scores rom across a variety o serviceindustries suggest that it is not untypical or40 to 60 per cent o overall contact to beclassied as avoidable.

Action can be relativelysimple and cheap.

Measuring avoidable contact does notnecessarily require an investment in new andcomplex computer systems. A combinationo alterations to existing systems andsome manual intervention will oten provesucient. Similarly, many o the actionsrequired to reduce avoidable contact areneither new nor resourceintensive. Theyinclude:

beingclearerup-frontaboutouractual(asopposed to our notional) service standards

conrmingagreedactionswithabriefemail or text message and contacting people in advance to remind them o appointments

activelyinformingcustomersofadelay,explaining why the delay has occurring andgiving a new timescale

usingplainEnglishinwrittencommunications and on the web

makingpeopleawareofwhatcanbedoneelectronically when they phone or visit uswith a specic type o enquiry.

The skills to make these changes are typicallythere in our organisations, whether inindividual service departments or in corporateunctions. The challenge is oten to get thedierent parts o the organisation workingtogether.

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dening avoidable contact

1meeting the challengeUnderstanding demand and thus avoidablecontact will not necessarily be easy. Theapproach will appear to challenge manyexisting ways o doing things. I notintroduced careully, it could be perceived bysta as an implied criticism o their work, oras a requirement to be disloyal to colleaguesby blowing the whistle on poor perormance.

Moreover, to analyse the scale and natureo demand and hence o the problem oavoidable contact we will need to collectreliable and inormative data.

It will thereore be essential or seniordecisionmakers both political andmanagerial to recognise and addressthe potentially disruptive eects o such achange o emphasis, to lend their weight tothe new approach and to back appropriateinvestments in sta (e.g. training), processesand systems.

Active leadership will be required. However,the prize is worth the eort, even i some o

the detailed work may be arduous. We arecondent that local government will seize theopportunity.



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2Customer contact is dened as an externalcustomer (citizen or business) contacting the

council across any channel (telephone, email,post, website or acetoace) with regard tothe services set out in the Communities andLocal Government documentation on thenew perormance management ramework(see appendix v or the specied councilservices listed in NI 14)

It includes customer requests or a serviceor inormation, reports o ailure to delivera service, progress chasing and responsesto council correspondence. Website contact

is assessed as the number o webbasedtransactions in the specied service areas(see measuring web contact in part 5 o thisguide).

Whether or not contact is avoidable dependson what caused the customer to makecontact. A contact should be deemedavoidable i one or more o the ollowingoccurs:

A. The customer is seeking unnecessary

clarication: Any query received as aresult o a previous contact during whichthe council was not able to provide thenecessary inormation or service, orexample:

a phone call resulting rom onlineservice being unavailable orinadequate inormation on thewebsite

an email asking or claricationollowing a council letter or other

communications material which ispoorly worded or has presentedincomplete, inaccurate or out o dateinormation


part two


B. The contact is caused by poor signpostingor poor call transer to council services

or example, the customer rings thewrong number because contact pointsare not clearly advertised, or the customeris passed to planning services when theirquery relates to parking.

C. There is repeat contact with the customer,who has to provide the same inormationa number o times in order to carry outtransactions with the council and itspartners or example, a customer beingasked to provide inormation about a

change o address to multiple parts o thecouncil.

D. The customers are progress chasing,asking or reassurance or making otherunnecessary service delivery ollowup. This category includes any contactwhich results rom a council or partnersinability to deliver a service as expectedor promised (or example, a missedappointment to collect soa or disposal oraulty boiler in council house not properly

xed); in other words i the council haddelivered the service as promised rightrst time, the customer would not haveneeded to contact the council.

E. There is repeat contact ater prematureclosure o a previous contact, or example,customer returns to a onestop shop.



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In considering these denitions, you shouldbear in mind the ollowing practical points:

ideallytheassessorshouldbetheindividualhandling the contact at the point at whichthe contact rst reaches the council

theassessmentofwhetheracontactisavoidable relates only to what caused thecustomer to make contact (as opposed toevaluating the customer satisaction withthe contact or whether ollowup contactswill subsequently be needed or whetherthe outcome o the avoidable contact

nally resolved the original issue).Where there are questions over whethera particular instance o contact should becategorised as avoidable or not, we wouldencourage authorities:

nottogettoofocusedonthenerdetailso denition i this is getting in the way opractical action, as the bulk o avoidablecontact is likely to be airly easy to identiy.Rather than ocusing on oneo incidentsthat generate avoidable contact, local

authorities should look or what is regularly(in other words predictably) being raised bycustomers as a problem

toadoptabroaddenitionasthisismorelikely to stimulate new ideas on how servicedelivery can be improved. For instance, youmay have tried unsuccessully to contactsome customers on their landlines beorethey call back. Logging their repeat call asavoidable contact may prompt you to thinko other ways o getting in touch with

them e.g. text messages to a mobile.

2Note that, when determining the scopeo the services covered by the indicator, a

useul starting point is the esdtoolkits LocalGovernment Services List (LGSL). This oersa standardised list originally developed oregovernment reporting.

For inormation on contact arising romexceptional circumstances and rom customerexpectations, see part ve Collecting Data.

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part three

making the business case

3Building a business case is critical to engagingsenior stakeholders and persuading the

organisation to devote resources to theprogramme o measuring, learning rom, andimproving as a result o NI 14.

An eective business case can reinorcethe message that this is not just a simpleperormance measure, but a key elementin a wider programme o improvement andchange. Given the political complexion omany authorities at the moment, it is alsouseul to stress that organisations in allsectors are beginning to ocus on avoidable

contact.

The business case should consider a range obenets, both tangible and intangible. Theseinclude the nancial value o measuring andmonitoring avoidable contact, both cashableand noncashable. The council should alsoactor in the value o measuring or theorganisation, in terms o improved learningand capacity. The business case should alsoincorporate an external perspective, refectingthe value to the customer in terms o time

and eort saved rom reducing contact, andthe political value o the outcome to thecommunity.

The benets ramework below outlinesexamples o these our actors. The ramework

broadly refects the Audit Commissions newuse o resources assessment or 2008/09,which considers how well organisations aremanaging and using their resources to delivervalue or money and better and sustainableoutcomes or local people. The AuditCommissions new use o resources assessmentis structured into three themes that ocus onthe importance o:

soundandstrategicnancialmanagementstrategiccommissioningandgoodgovernanceeffectivemanagementofnaturalresources,

assets and people.

From 2008/09, the Audit Commissions KeyLines o Enquiry (KLOE) are more broadlybased than previously and embrace widerresource issues such as people and workorceplanning, and the use o natural resources.The KLOE ocus more on value or moneyachievements, outputs and outcomes rather

than on processes, and are more strategicand less detailed.

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making the business case

benefts rameworknancial valuemeasuringandunderstandingthecauses

o avoidable contact provides an evidencebase or improvement initiatives which canunlock a range o relatively straightorwardservice improvements

byreducingavoidablecontact,thecouncilcan release resources rom both the ront-line (which no longer needs to manage thecontact) and back oce (whose workloadis lowered because the amount o errorsand rework in service delivery is reduced.)The demands on partner organisations (e.g.contractors) and thereore their costs mayalso be reduced

thesebenetsmaybecashable.Alternatively, some authorities maychose to take the benets in the orm oincreased capacity in the workorce (andpotentially among or example, members)to ocus on more worthwhile activities, i.e.doing more with the same. The LondonBorough o Haringey, or instance, islooking at avoidable contact as a meanso increasing the capacity o its customerservices unction.

organisational valuebyprovidinginsight,measuringavoidable

contact provides a major learningopportunity or councils

thetraininganddevelopmentofpersonnelcan result in a more engaged, empoweredrontline

NI14mayhelpdemonstratetootherpartso the council the contribution made by thecontact centre unction and encourage awhole council approach to improvement.

The London Borough o

Haringey anticipates that theevidence provided will help itand its partners to understandhow a poorly worded letterdirectly results in a call rom thatcustomer seeking clarication orurther inormation, and howthe promises and expectationsset in letters, leafets andposters (such as an applicationorm will be processed in tenworking days) result in customercontact, cost and potentiallydissatisaction when thesepromises are not met.

customer valuedataonavoidablecontactcanhelpidentify

those improvements in processes and

systems that will have the greatest impacton the way in which customers experienceservices. East Hampshire District Councilstransormation team, or example, will usethe data when planning their programmeo work on process improvement, givingpriority to projects that the data hashighlighted as particularly important

reducingthecausesofavoidablecontactwill save customer time and eort in contacting the council

reducingthecausesofavoidablecontactwill improve the customers experience oendtoend service delivery and recordedcustomer satisaction



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afocusonavoidablecontactshouldleadto improvements in communications,

access channels and service design thatshould benet those customers who ndit most dicult to deal with complexbureaucracies or instance, by promptingcouncils to emphasise Plain English.

political valuereducingavoidablecontactwillenhance

the reputation and trustworthiness o thecouncil with the local community

reducingavoidablecontactbyimprovingcommunication will help to ensure councilsbetter reach people who are eligible orservices and benets.

cost rameworkAny benets need to be set against costs.

The costs o implementing NI 14 are primarilya unction o the breadth and depth o datarequired and the methods used to collect andanalyse data.

However, it will be impossible to improve

how services are designed and delivered and thereore to identiy cashable eciencysavings, or instance without also investingresources in analysing and understanding theunderlying causes o avoidable contact. Thecosts o exploiting the data need thereore tobe taken into consideration.

In the small minority o local authorities withsystems that can track avoidable contactwithout extension or human intervention,the costs o collecting data will be negligible,

underlying the arguments or investment insystems which automate the process.

Where processes cannot be automated, thereis a tradeo between the level o detail o

the data, and the costs o collecting, collatingand analysing it.

For example, monitoring avoidable contactcontinuously rather than annually will helpcouncils to identiy the trends that areevident, and will also give more uptodateinormation which will acilitate easier, morerapid improvement. However, there is a riskthat such an approach will be perceived astaking time away rom the ront oce.

Each authority will thereore need to chooseits sampling method to refect its prioritiesor service improvement and the scale oprospective benets. Many o our pilotauthorities, however, would no doubt arguethat collecting data on avoidable contact isas important as logging call volumes andcollecting customer satisaction statistics, allo which authorities typically already do.

Potential methods o collecting data onavoidable contact, including sampling

approaches, are discussed in part veCollecting Data.

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part our

putting NI 14 into place

4setting the contextMeasuring avoidable contact is merely thebeginning o the journey, the end being animproved outcome or both the council andthe customer.

An eective implementation o NI 14 willthereore involve:

afocusonthelocaldriversandtheoutcomes your local authority is seeking todeliver. For example, the London Borougho Southwark chose to pilot their measureo avoidable contact in their revenues

service, as it was a high prole service withone in three households being on somebenet support. They were thereore keento improve perormance

awholecouncilapproachthatlooksathow all the dierent parts o the council(as well as key service delivery partners) canachieve endtoend service improvement.Hence, local authorities should considerthe relationship o NI 14 data to existingbusiness process improvement projects

arealcommitmenttomakingchangesand redesigning services in ways thatbring tangible benets to customers. Forexample, the London Borough o Haringeyconsiders avoidable contact in the contexto delivering services right rst time.

Much o this will be amiliar rom previouschange initiatives, such as the egovernmentprogramme and the work that manyauthorities have done to establish corporatecontact centres. Similarly, business processimprovement projects can both inorm, andbenet rom, measurement o avoidablecontact.

At the same time, anyone amiliar withchange programmes will know howmuch uncertainty and opposition theycan generate. With NI 14, there is a riskthat some sta could interpret the ocuson avoidable contact as a criticism otheir current work or a timeconsumingirrelevance. To preempt or overcome thisuncertainty, the rationale and benetso spending time measuring and gainingknowledge on the causes o avoidablecontact needs to be made clear through

brieng and training.

The support o both senior ocers and keymembers will be critical. It is vital, thereore,to devote as much time and eort tocommunicating with senior stakeholdersand putting in place eective governancearrangements as to establishing datacollection systems and training sta.

We outline some o the ideas emerging romthe pilot authorities below. As a starting point

within your own authority, you may wishto review the experience rom any previousmajor change initiatives, including:

supportivegovernanceandprogrammemanagement arrangements

practicaltoolssuchascommunicationsplans

successfuloperationalmanagementarrangements, or example to osterdialogue between contact centre and

service department stamanagementresponsibilitiesforactingon

knowledge gained to enable improvement.

All o these oer a basis or your NI 14 work.

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establishing the right governanceand reporting arrangementsThe governance arrangements your authorityestablishes or NI 14 will have a signicanteect on whether the measure is seen as animportant driver or service improvement ormerely another indicator to be reported on.

A key message emerging rom the pilotauthorities is that, wherever possible, youshould aim to place avoidable contact withinthe remit o a seniorlevel body that hasresponsibility or corporate transormation or instance, a service transormation boardor an access to services committee ratherthan under the wing o a perormancegroup, where there is a danger, as one chieexecutive put it, o hitting the target butmissing the point. It is particularly valuablei the body includes members, as well asrepresentation rom other public servicedelivery bodies and key private sectorpartners.

Avoidable contact in Wigan MetropolitanBorough Council, or example, will bethe responsibility o the authoritys PublicService Transormation Board, chaired by adirector and including the portolio holder,and representatives rom the Housing ArmsLength Organisation (ALMO) and the LeisureTrust. Quarterly reports will go both to theCabinet and senior management team.

Typically, ocers have ound it valuable toemphasise the theme o learning about

services in any initial reports to such potentialsponsoring bodies, where possible alsodrawing on relevant corporate strategies orreviews. The London Borough o Eneld,or instance, had recently had an AuditCommission Access to Services review, whichprovided a useul context or their paper onNI 14. The council has also launched a Leanerchange programme in which NI 14 will play asignicant role.

We recognise that not all authorities have

such options, however, and you may needto be pragmatic. In York, or instance, thecouncil has an EASY (Electronically AccessingServices in York) board, ocusing on accessto services which, although concentratingprimarily on electronic contact, represents thebest home or avoidable contact.

Ideally, your sponsoring body should have thepower to allocate resources to establishing theright inrastructure or measuring avoidablecontact within your authority and the ability to

direct urther resources to resolving any issuesraised (or instance, poor perormance in aparticular department). It should also be ableto resolve any interdepartmental disputes, byhaving representation rom a range o serviceunctions.



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Overall responsibility or the collectionand presentation o data should sit with

a senior ocer, who has direct access tothe councils senior management team.This is a sponsorship and advocacy role.The ocer needs to be senior enough toengage the major services o a council onan equal ooting. You may also want toconsider having a lead member or NI 14.Many authorities took this approach whenthey aced the task o monitoring theirprogress against the egovernment targetand appointed both member and ocer

echampions.A ew o the pilot authorities were lucky inhaving relevant, seniorlevel appointmentsunderway. In this case, you could considerincluding NI 14 in a job description and aspart o the discussions during interviews.

engaging stakeholdersThe workload in measuring, reporting andacting to address avoidable contact is non-trivial. Initially, measuring avoidable contactwill require a degree o internal advocacy,evangelising and training to encouragemanagement and sta to understand thevalue o addressing avoidable contact.

A key step in demonstrating the value omonitoring avoidable contact is presentingthe resulting data or discussion and analysiswith stakeholders such as sta, seniormanagers, service managers, members, andpartners.

Customers can make an avoidable contactwith the ront oce, the back oce, anddirectly with contractors and other servicedeliver partners. Local authorities areexpected to collect all avoidable contact datarelating to the prescribed services, regardlesso oce or channel and to pay particularattention to those services that support thedelivery o local priorities.

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Since an authoritys customer servicesdepartment may account or a large

proportion o contact with customers, thepilot authorities have typically tasked theircustomer service managers with collectingdata arising in contact centres and onestop-shops.

However, in some authorities the customerservices department may not yet support allo the services that require measurement.Your councils measurement eort shouldrefect the councils priorities or improvementrather than solely those services that are

supported by customer services.

It is also essential to emphasise to seniorstakeholders that avoidable contact is awhole council issue. The ront oce can helpto detect levels o avoidable contact (wherethey deal with the customer); however, theront oce cannot be held solely responsibleor resolving the underlying causes oavoidable contact.

The Borough Council o

Wellingborough is using NI14 as a transormation toolto deliver the organisationsculture change, rom a service-ocused to a customer-ocusedauthority. Avoidable contacthas been articulated as animprovement tool, with nomention o the specic NI 14indicator. The implementationo NI 14 will sit within thetransormation programme,along with communityengagement, customer insightand communications. Thisprogramme is sponsored bythe Deputy Leader and willreport to CMT.



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The chie executive is using

the monthly managementbulletin to communicatethe rationale and potentialo NI 14 to stimulate serviceredesign around the needs othe customer. CMT has alsosuggested that each teamdevote one o its weeklyteam talks to how to dealwith complaints as a way ointroducing the concept oNI 14, rather than discussing thetechnical detail o the indicator.

All o the above underlines the engagementand communication task that NI 14 involves.You and your sponsors will need to sell thebenets o measuring and reducing avoidablecontact to the rest o the organisation andbeyond, or example to key partners.

To do so, the language needs to be positive.Avoidable contact needs to be regarded in acontext o delivering services right rst time.By providing an evidence base, measuringavoidable contact illuminates opportunities toimprove the customers experience o councilservices.

Furthermore, placing avoidable contacttogether with amiliar concepts like repeatcalls and complaints (which both contribute

to avoidable contact) will help sta readilygrasp the value o measuring it.

A number o key stakeholders need to beconsidered.

ront oce staMany o the pilot authorities have remarkedupon the importance o customer serviceadvisers understanding the issue and beingkeen to ensure that avoidable contact isrecorded properly.

Front oce sta need to understand therationale or data collection and the agreedcriteria or recording a contact as avoidable.They also need to have the tools, training,support and motivation to record theinormation, and active encouragement torecommend solutions.

The role o the customer service manager isthereore crucial in organising and monitoringthe process and in ensuring that it is not seenas an additional and meaningless task.

Fortunately, avoidable contact is a conceptthat will already be amiliar to many rontline sta (although they may not call it bythis name). Some pilot authorities haveound that an initial discussion with stain contact centres and onestop shops has

immediately generated a wide range o ideasabout potential sources and solutions, evenbeore measurement systems are in place,emphasising the value o xing things thatsta know instinctively are not working.

Focusing on avoidable contact canalso be seen as a way o engaging andempowering rontline sta and givingthem a chance to use their knowledge andproessional judgement. The higher gradeso qualications such as those oered by the

Institute o Customer Services, or instance,typically emphasise the contribution anapplicant has made to reshaping rather thanjust managing services.

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service departmentsManagers and sta in service unctions arelikely to be particularly sensitive to the wayin which NI 14 is introduced. There is a riskthat ocusing on avoidable contact could beseen as a criticism o the service departmentscurrent work or a challenge to their currentexcellent rating rom the Audit Commission.

Nevertheless, it remains critical or you towork with your back oce unctions and keyexternal contractors. Much o the contactthey receive may be managed in an adhocor unstructured manner, making collectingcontact data challenging. However, it is inprecisely these situations where some analysiso contact may prove most illuminating andthereore the council will need to agreehow practical measurements can be put inplace going orward. Analysis o contactcan prompt and support business processimprovement initiatives.

Key messages here will include:

measuringNI14isaboutraisingperormance to the next level, not aboutcriticising past perormance

arelativelyhighscore(e.g.40percentormore) is typical o many industries, not justlocal government. Indeed an unrealisticallylow score may suggest data quality issuesand call into question the reliability o theresults

justasfortheircolleaguesincontactcentres or onestop shops, this is anopportunity or sta to help design services

that are more eective or everyone

reducingavoidablecontactmayhelpreduce the daytoday stresses on sta, or

instance those involved in dealing with iratecustomers, as well as reeing up time to domore productive work.

senior managersThe arguments or senior managers havebeen set out in Part 1 o the guide. Thekey message here is that NI 14 should bea stimulus to service improvement andtransormation rather than a mechanicalreporting exercise.

Councils addressed a similar scenario whenmonitoring BVPI 157 where they identiedand appointed an egovernment championto drive work on projects to deliver serviceselectronically.

elected membersElected members have a potentially crucialrole to play in NI 14 and you need to considerhow best to engage them.

All members will have direct experience oavoidable contact through their councillorcase work. They will have real examples owhere services are delivered in silos and notdesigned around the customer, or o poorlyworded letters sent to local residents. Theyare thereore a valuable source o inormationabout sources o avoidable contact andpotential solutions.

Members can also have an important roleto play in identiying which services shouldbe targeted as a priority, derived rom thecommunity strategy and vision.



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At the same time, members are importantallies in helping to nd the resources required

to monitor and act on avoidable contact ona systematic basis. They may also be able tointervene where parts o your authority arenot showing a willingness to engage.

Furthermore, a member scrutiny committeethat is keen to make a practical impact onthe councils daytoday service deliverymay choose to ocus on avoidable contact,exploring the underlying causes and hearingdirectly rom local customers as well ashelping promote and monitor a councilwide

approach to using the data on avoidablecontact to help drive service improvement.

partnersThere are a number o dierent types opartner who have a role to play.

You will need to plan ahead or engagingcontractors and other service providers,reviewing existing Service Level Agreementsand seeking to negotiatein measurementso avoidable contact.

The objective should be to create awinwin outcome or both the council andthe contractor. In the longterm reducingavoidable contact should prove moreeconomical or the contractor as well as thecouncil as it will help identiy blockages andwaste in the existing processes. Anecdotalevidence rom the pilot authorities indicatesthat rontoce partners (such as providerso call centre services) are keen to participateas they appreciate the benets o analysing

customer contact.

It will also help both parties to betterunderstand the experience o their shared

customers so they can better redesign theprocess to be more customer ocused andcost ecient.

Local authorities should also engage publicservice partners, such as health agencies,in direct discussions and share inormationrelating to avoidable contact that arises romcustomers calling an inappropriate publicbody, or due to poor reerral processesbetween partners. Where problems areapparent, you may wish to consider

discussing evidence raised by NI 14 at LSPand LAA levels.

Discussions on customer contact withkey community and voluntary groupssuch as the Citizens Advice Bureau orAge Concern will also be valuable, asthey may have views on the underlyingcauses o avoidable contact (particularly ordisadvantaged customers) and how theserelate to the wider picture o need in the localcommunity.

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part fve

collecting data

The value o measuring avoidable contact isto provide the evidence base to illuminate

opportunities or improvement. But howuseul the data proves as an improvementtool is largely dependent on its robustness.Without trustworthy data the organisationwill nd it dicult to take orward initiativesto reduce avoidable contact.

This section looks at how you can report onservices and channels, using both ICT andmanual methods. Underpinning the sectionis an assumption that the quality o yourdata will be adequate. Some authorities are

involving unctions such as internal auditto ensure that appropriate policies andprocedures around data quality are in place.

servicesLocal authorities are expected to measureall the services listed in the NI 14 guidance.However, in the short term, you may needto exercise inormed managerial judgementto prioritise your measurement eortson services that are critical to deliveringyour local priorities (or instance, servicesspecically identied in your LAA or corporateplan), or where there are known perormanceissues, recognising that you will need to beable to provide a valid rationale or yourdecisions and that this rationale may berequested i relevant to an Audit Commissionassessment

One key variable is the level o detail required.At a minimum level, local authorities shouldbe reporting the percentage o total contactdeemed avoidable. However, or the purposeso inorming your authoritys wider approachto improvement and transormation, you willalmost certainly want to go urther lookingat patterns o avoidable contact by dierent

customer groups, or instance, and loggingthe underlying causes. A number o the pilot

authorities have already started to do this aspart o more indepth investigations ollowingan initial sample.

Local authorities have a duty to involvecustomers, and NI 14 data will provemost useul when combined with otherinormation that councils are collectingabout customers and channels or instance,when analysed alongside the results ocustomer journey mapping exercises. Youwill be able to get most value rom the data

i you consistently log the same personalcharacteristics rom each customer. TheCustomer Insight Protocol developedby the LGA and IDeA with the NationalConsumer Council recommends that theseare gender, date o birth, ethnic group andpost code. Clearly there needs to be somejudgement about how much inormationcan be captured at each contact, but theessential point is to get maximum value romall the inormation the council holds on its

customers.As regards to the criteria or ocusing onspecic services initially, transaction volumesindicate use o services, thereby giving agood indication o local need and priorities.However, your authority also needs toidentiy the services and interactions thatare critical to delivering outcomes that yourlocal community values and these may not besolely high volume services.

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collecting data

In summary, you should:

recognisecontactdataasavaluable

source o knowledge on local needs, andanalyse the data alongside the outputsrom community consultation, citizenengagement and customer insight exercises

considerthekeyoutcomesyourauthorityis seeking to deliver to the locality whenprioritising and planning your datacollection exercise

considercollectingsupplementaryinormation relating to the underlying

causes o avoidable contact, and withrespect to equalities where appropriate(gender, age, ethnic background and soorth).

channelsTo promote the use o the measure as animprovement tool, local authorities areencouraged to retain data according to theservice and channel in which it was collected.

Although CLG requires a single gureindicator to be reported, to encouragethe sharing o evidence and good practicebetween authorities we recommendrecording the data in the tabular ormatdepicted below.

To support learning and benchmarking (both

yearonyear and between authorities) localauthorities are encouraged to record bothreal numbers (together with the sample size)and the percentage or example 448/1000(44.8 per cent), as well as to summarisethe steps taken to address the causes oavoidable contact.

table 1reporting avoidable contact

ace-to-ace telephone post e-mail web transactions average per

cent

street scene

council tax

housing

parking

planning

environmental

health



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At the request o central government theAudit Commission will publish results or

all o the national indicators. Recognisingthe likely variation in the collection o thisindicator locally it has agreed that it :

willpublishasingleaggregatepercentagevalue calculated on the basis o the guresor the required services over these vechannels

willindicatethatNI14guresarenon-comparable across local authoritiesdue to the likely variation in the local

arrangements or calculating the indicatorwillnotpublishaverages,rangesor

represent the data graphically or NI 14in initial years (or urther inormation onthe CAA and the relevance o NI 14, seeappendix i).

measuring web contactThere are a number o ways o measuringweb activity. For the purposes o measuringavoidable contact, we are interested intransactions relating to the required services,

which stay the same whether the customeruses webbased or other channels.

Inormation rom webbased servicetransactions can be used to build up a pictureo avoidable and unavoidable contact overthe web. For the purposes o NI 14, webbased service transactions comprise:

e-Payments(excludingcounciltaxpayments)

e-Bookingse-Transactionsviaautomatedtelephone

payment systems (ATPs) (in other wordsor parking nes, council tax, and mobileparking payments may also be included)

e-Formsandwebsiteemaili.e. reporting a problem that a council needs

to respond to, such as grati or fytipping

requesting a specic service by completing an eorm, or example submitting a planning application

reporting that inormation or a service isunavailable rom the website

reporting a ault with the website.

The categories o avoidable contact remainthe same whether the customer useswebbased or other channels. However, asuccessully completed service transaction willgenerally all into the category o unavoidable

contact. Reporting o a ault or a problemshould be regarded as avoidable contact.

It should be noted that, or the purposes oNI 14, service transaction data is a subseto customer contact via the web, as it doesnot include the visits that customers maketo the website or inormation, or customerresponses to esurveys. However, or the timebeing we are restricting the web componento the indicator to webbased transactions othe types listed above in the specied service

areas.

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5

collecting data

customer expectationsNote that contact should still be loggedas avoidable regardless o whether ornot customer expectations exceed servicestandards, and whether or not the problemis the responsibility o the council or servicedelivery partners in other words wheretenants o the housing trust call the councilregarding services provided by the housingtrust, or citizens in twotier areas call adistrict or borough council or highwaysmaintenance services that are provided bythe county council. This is to ensure that the

reasons or the contact are analysed andappropriate action taken.

For instance, in cases where customerexpectations exceed current service standards,an immediate response could be to make thetimerame or service delivery more explicitin any written or verbal communications e.g.by scripting the message and naming specicdays and dates. in other words thats the26th March, which is in three weeks time.Please call us ater then i the job has not

been completedIn the longer term, however, you may needto consider whether redesigning the serviceto t with your customers expectations isdesirable or easible. Clearly, this will dependon the priorities o your individual authority.

In order to demonstrate how the collectionand analysis o data can drive serviceimprovements, we recommend that youshould log any decisions taken based on yourndings or example, through our analysiso avoidable contact, we have identiedthat current service standards requentlydo not meet customers expectations inservice X, and by addressing and reducing

the number o days to deliver our servicewe anticipate releasing sucient resources

to und such an improvement. This willhelp clearly demonstrate the benets bothinternally and externally, including to theAudit Commission, and will highlight howthe council is using its work on NI 14 to driveservice improvement.

exceptional circumstancesThere will be exceptional circumstanceswhere the contact rom the customer is notlegitimate or valid in other words whereneither the council, nor an associated publicservice agency or partner, is obliged to deliverthe service or resolve the enquiry.

Examples include:

taxed and legally parked removed romoutside their house

aholderofaconcessionarytravelpermitrepeatedly requesting the details o thepermit to be changed, which would haveinvalidated the permit.

These instances, although they can bedicult to predict and address, should stillbe logged as avoidable. Since we wouldexpect examples such as these to makeup a relatively small proportion o youroverall total, they will not make a signicantdierence to your averages. However, themore requently these instances occur themore predictable they become, in whichcase action should be taken to address theunderlying causes.

residentscallingtohaveacarwhichis



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Remember, NI 14 is ocused onunderstanding and substantially reducing

avoidable contact it will not be easibleor economic to eradicate it completely.For example, many authorities carry outanalyses o repair requests to see i there arepatterns o repeat requests and i so whatcan be done to remove the cause (such asmore planned maintenance). But there is noexpectation that local authorities will achievezero avoidable contacts.

using inormation systems torecord avoidable contactLocal authorities have a variety o meansavailable to them to record avoidable contact.Inormation systems, such as telephone callhandling systems and customer relationshipmanagement applications, can help toidentiy and log avoidable contact.

However, relevant inormation may also becontained in key backoce systems as well

as or example in document managementsystems or queue management applications.At an early stage, thereore, you will needto identiy where you will have to ocus youreorts.

Ideally, the processes and systems can bedesigned to identiy avoidable contactautomatically, with no need or any additionalsteps required o the customer serviceagent. The London Borough o Haringey,or instance, is implementing a new CRM

system and has built avoidable contact intothe design (see gure 1 below), although thesystem will not cover all relevant services.

fgure 1.The LondonBorough o

Haringeys dropdown boxesor recordingavoidablecontact andcause

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collecting data

5Discussions at the North West eGovernmentGroup (NWeGG) have suggested that

some types o service request (or example,missed bin collections) can almost alwaysbe classied as avoidable contact and ICTsystems could be programmed to log theseinstances automatically.

However, in most pilot authorities theadvisers have modied their existing systemsto log the data at the end o a contact:

theLondonBoroughofBromleyplansto use its contact centre telephone call

handling system, because this currentlycovers a wider range o council servicesthan its CRM. Existing call codes have beenmapped as avoidable (or not) and whereemerging problems are identied additionalcodes can be added to allow deeperanalysis o the cause

DudleyMetropolitanBoroughCouncilhas tailored the nal screen o its CRM

to enable the customer advisors to recordwhether the contact was avoidable or nonavoidable. Front line personnel make thedecision (see screen shot below).

The dropdown menu at the bottom let othe screen shot shows the options availableto advisors, including ailure demand andvalue.

The other two options are used when eitherlive tests are necessary or where Dudley

Council Plus are contacted by the backocewith a query about something that has beenreerred onto them. This approach enablesmeasurement o services and inormationprovision handled via the CRM, but is limitedin the benets it oers when seeking urtherdetail to establish specic causes o avoidablecontact.

fgure 2Dudley M.B.C.Aspire CRM call wrapup (end task)screen shot



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In a number o cases, a mixture o ICT andmanual recording has been required.

For example, Wigan Metropolitan BoroughCouncil amended its telephone managementsystem to have a popup screen appear aseach call ends. The customer advisor is askedto state whether the call was avoidable orunavoidable and to give a reason or theailure. step 1:

The advisor captures the customers detailsand requirements.

5

step 2: selects the category o avoidable contact e.g.The advisor is then prompted to Select Call progress chasing, midcall transer etc. At the

Activity. This is where they speciy whether it end o the pilot a report was produced on

is avoidable contact or not. I it is, the advisor these categories.

fgure 3Wigan Councilusing itstelephonysystem to logavoidablecontact

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5

collecting data

Note that in Wigan Metropolitan BoroughCouncils acetoace acilities, customer

service advisors complete a proorma. Thismay also be necessary where the systemsdo not cover the complete list o servicesrequired.

In contrast, at the London Borough oSouthwark, a council tax specialist reviewed asample o closed calls rom their CRM systemater the event. The calls were extracted romcompleted enquiries and a specialist thenanalysed the details o notes or the causes othe call.

A number o local authorities have inormedus that they are having discussions with theirCRM systems suppliers, including in their usergroups, to look at how adaptations might bemade to enable the recording o avoidablecontact. I you are not directly involved inthese groups, you should ensure that yourcolleagues in ICT are ully brieed about yourcouncils requirements.

Discussions around NI 14 may also prove a

useul prompt to deciding priorities wherethere is a programme underway in yourauthority to integrate your CRM system moreclosely with backoce systems.

Esd-toolkit will enable local

authorities to upload dataautomatically (directly romCRM or via CSV les) or lateranalyses. Categories to beavailable or data collectioninclude:

service(LGSL)channelcauseofavoidablecontact

customerID(e.g.postcode,

household, name)

timelog(date/time)This data will then beautomatically collated andreported and will be availablevia esd-toolkit or urtheranalyses by local authorities (e.g.customer segmentation/prolingby cause o avoidable contact)including or useul comparisonsto be made between councils.



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manual recording oavoidable contactNot every local authority has ICT systems torecord avoidable contact across all o theservice areas outlined in NI 14 or across all thedierent contact mechanisms, including post;thereore, they will need to log avoidablecontact manually.

Manual sampling requires an investment otime and attention rom both managementand sta. The recommended processes areessentially the same as logging contact asavoidable or unavoidable on a screen, but,being paper based, they will result in a needto ensure that sta remember to record thedata and to collate and compile the results.

Again, sta will need clear guidance andtraining and it might be helpul to provide a

proorma to assist in both the collection andthe analysis o the data. The London Borougho Haringey has developed such a proormaand this is included or consideration.

Location

Date

Bene

fitsCo

uncil

Tax

/NND

R

CYPS

Enviro

nmen

t

e.g.

lice

nsin

g,food

safe

ty,pollu

tion,

pes

t

cont

rol

Homeles

snes

s

Build

ing

Cont

rol

Plan

ning

Tradin

gSt

anda

rds

Perm

its/P

CNs

Paym

ents

/SAP

Debt

ors

Avoidable?

- Y -

Avoidable?

- N -

Totals

5

fgure 4LondonBorough oHaringey:

proorma ordata collection

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collecting data

5The London Borough o Bromley hasdeveloped the ollowing pro orma, which

includes notes on the cause o the avoidablecontact.

fgure 5LondonBorough oBromley:proorma ordata collection

service

location

date / time(s)

ocer

avoidable? reason number notes/egs

yes a. the customeris seekingunnecessaryclarication:

b. the contact iscaused by poorsignposting or poorcall transer tocouncil services

c. there is repeatcontact with thecustomer/provisiono inormation

d. progress chasing

e. premature closureo a previouscontact

no n n/a



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sampling methodologiesThe objective o collecting avoidable contactdata is to drive service improvements. To dothis, local authorities need to ensure that:

thesizeofthesampleisstatisticallycrediblethesamplingperiodisrepresentative,in

other words refects variation such as peaksand troughs and seasonality

thedataisreportedaccordingtothewayit was recorded, or example structured byservice and channel.

sampling sizeRegarding sample size, the exact guredepends on the total number o contacts acouncil receives, the level o condence itrequires and the margin or error it deemsacceptable. However, good practice wouldbe a sample size o 1,067, which gives acondence level o 95 per cent and anacceptable margin o error o three per cent.

At a bare minimum a local authority shouldbe reporting avoidable contact based on

a sample o 1,067 contacts to the council.However, to provide a credible evidence baseor service improvement, sample sizes shouldbe set on a serviceby service basis. A roughguide to these sample sizes (all or 95 percent condence and three per cent error) canbe ound at www.idea.gov.uk/ni14guidance

Increasing the acceptable margin o error canalso reduce the sample size required.

London Borough o Haringey

collected data manually overeight days in our o its walk-in centres and its telephonecontact centre, covering theollowing services:

benets,counciltax,NNDRchildrensandyoungpeoples

services

environmentalserviceshomelessservicesbuildingcontrolplanningtradingstandardsparkingpaymentsSampling took place everyweekday except Mondays.

Managers reminded sta torecord data at the start and endo each day.

Customer service agents assessedand recorded e-mails andletters in the same way as callsand ace-to-ace interaction.Collation and data-entry oall hand-written tick sheets

into a single spreadsheet wasundertaken by temporary dataentry sta.

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collecting data

5sampling periodThe sampling period also needs to berepresentative in other words refect variationssuch as peaks and troughs and seasonality.

In practice, you can vary the time spentsampling, or the human resources spentsampling. Approaches you could considerinclude:

all contact personnel record data or one

limited but continuous period o timeduring a year e.g. our weeks

pros: ocuses management attentionon sampling once a year, therebyconcentrating eort

cons: oers a snapshot o activity at justone point during the year, and ailsto capture avoidable contact dataon big events

all contact personnel record data over a(randomised) series o days distributedthroughout the year

pros: captures data rom across theyear, with a greater possibility oincorporating variation

cons: lack o continuity may accentuate themanagement and training challenge

a small number o contact personnel recordcontinuously during the whole year

pros: ocuses the management processesand skills required, refects variation

cons: personnel need to maintaina representative workload

all contact personnel record datacontinuously throughout the whole year

pros: gives the data to support a concertedattempt to reduce avoidable contactacross the authority

cons: needs to be built into the councilsoverall approach to perormancemanagement and requires majorchange in short term



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I your authority chooses the rst option, youshould use the same our week period year

on year to assist comparisons. The our weeksidentied should also be as typical as possiblein other words you should avoid weeks thatare known to have seasonal variationsorexample, throughout August and the endo December or early January or the weeksaround.

Local authorities should consider using thecollection method that best suits each service.For example, the sampling exercise needsto accommodate specic services in which

contact typically occurs during a condensedperiod (e.g. the posting out o annual counciltax bills or when applications or schoolplaces are submitted).

Furthermore, local authorities may chooseto use a dierent approach rom year toyear. For example, where a service has beenidentied as a concern, a local authority maywish to measure all contact all year to gaingreater detail and evidence. Similarly, theymay not want to keep that level o resource

committed yearonyear where it would beinecient to do so.

training staYour authority will need to justiy the eortin recording avoidable contact to sta byillustrating the benets in other wordsusing the data to identiy the potential orimprovement in specic services. Inormedand motivated members o sta are alsomore likely to record the data accurately.

Frontline sta are oten eager to recordavoidable contact data. They are alreadyaware o the problem and are pleasedto contribute to nding a solution. Being

amiliar with the nature o customer contacton a daytoday basis, rontline sta also

tend to nd detecting and dierentiatingavoidable contact rom unavoidable contactto be relatively straightorward. Frontline staare, ater all, more amiliar with the nature ocustomer enquiries and behaviour than anyone else in the council.

Involving sta in participative,interactive workshops can helpto engage them in the processand to contribute to it creatively.

As an alternative to takingrontline sta out o operations,Dudley Metropolitan BoroughCouncil incorporated onlinetraining into stas existingroutine, using a PowerPointsel test quiz or sta to helpexplain the dierence betweenavoidable and unavoidable

contact and to buildunderstanding and enthusiasm(see appendix iii or urtherdetails.)

Customer service team managersthen participated in acilitatedquestion and answer sessionsat customer advisor teammeetings. These approaches

tted around the workingpatterns o sta.

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collecting data

However, councils need to invest time andeort in preparing and training sta to recordavoidable contact. The benets o measuring,and the criteria or recording contact asavoidable need to be made clear.

Training needs to emphasise that avoidablecontact is a symptom o problems with end-toend service ullment, not merely an issueo communication between the customerand the council.

For example, in some instances sta can becynical about classiying missed bins and

streetlights as avoidable contact, remarking:How would we know about these problemsi the public didnt tell us?

Sta at the London Borougho Bromley are continuouslyencouraged by managers tosuggest ideas to bring avoidablecontact down. For example,rontline sta suggestedadvertising bank holiday bincollections in the local paper.The result was a reduction incalls to the contact centre.

Thereore it will be important to engagethese sta in helping them understand whythis is avoidable contact (in other wordsit indicates an underlying service deliveryproblem) and why it is important to log it assuch to address the problem.

Key questions you can use with sta include:

iftheservicehadbeendeliveredproperlyrsttime, would the customer haveneeded to contact the council?

ifthecouncilhadkeptitspromises,orullled its obligations, would the customer

have contacted the council?

couldthecouncilhavedoneanythingdierently that would have removed theneed or this call?

As a way o cultivating buyin, managersat Dudley Metropolitan Borough Councildiscussed alternative ways o doing thingswith the sta who would use the databeing collected. These scenarios includeusing previous data to identiy predictive

maintenance opportunities or to targetprogrammed inspections to areas that areknown to experience greater levels o need.

Examples o benets o measuring andreducing avoidable contact are oered inthe section Making the Business Case, oneo which is the opportunity to develop yourstas knowledge and skills.



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case studies

London Borough o Southwarks

One Touch Team is a team orontline ocers dedicatedto serving new residents oSouthwark. Rather than haveresidents contacting the localauthority multiple times orseparate services such asapplying or a parking permit,registering or council taxand on the electoral roll, andapplying or library and leisurecards, customers now contactthe One Touch Team whothen ensure the appropriateinormation is exchangedbetween the customer and thecouncil, and across the councilto deliver all the services. TheOne Touch Team also helps to

ensure that a new residents rstexperience o the local authorityis positive.

DVLARecent success at the DVLA demonstrates theopportunities and benets o ocusing on thecause and eect o customer contact in yourorganisation.

The DVLA answers in excess o one millioncalls per month. It was keen to reduceavoidable contact, not least to releaseresources or an expansion o services.

The DVLA created a small team o peoplewith detailed knowledge o their business aCustomer Channel Team (CCT) to track call

volumes by major call type and category. TheCCT conducts indepth research and analysisinto the individual call categories, by listeninginto large call samples to ascertain exactlywhat the customer actually said and thus thereal cause o the call.

As a result, the DVLA has accumulatedsubstantial inormation about call cause,eect and solutions. The DVLAs CustomerService Improvement Team has used thedata to reduce the number o calls, ocusing

on inormation and process. Inormationimprovement initiatives include creating aspeed review process to revise and simpliy thecontent o all customeracing literature, andcreating new literature where appropriate.

Process improvements include reducing processtimes or application handling, even thoughperormance was already inside target, therebyreducing the number o progress chasingcalls the DVLA was experiencing. From theseinitiatives, the DVLA has reduced the volumes

in its top nine call types by 24 per cent over thelast twelve months (2007 to 2008 operationalyear), delivering both operational ecienciesand an improved customer experience.



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appendix i

reporting perormance

iUnder the orthcoming perormanceramework the Comprehensive Area

Assessment (CAA) the Audit Commissionand the other public service regulators will beseeking evidence that demonstrates that LSPshave eectively addressed the ollowing:

theyunderstandtheirlocalcommunityandhave identied local needs and prioritiesand these are refected by the targets in theLAA

thedesiredoutcomesarebeingdeliveredand leading to positive changes or local

peopleplansareinplacetoensurethat

improvement can be sustained over time.

Measuring and reducing avoidable contact isrelevant to all three areas.

Monitoring and analysing contact romcustomers should be part o local authoritieseorts to identiy local needs and issues.Contact data is a valuable source oknowledge about customer and community

needs, to be considered alongside theoutputs rom community consultation, citizenengagement and customer insight initiatives.

Though arising in an operational context,customer contact constitutes an activeexpression o preerence and need thatoers signicant opportunities or learning.Attending to avoidable contact demonstratesthat a local authority is listening to customers,analysing needs, and acting on evidence.

The Audit Commissions approach to

inspection under CAA will be proportionateand riskbased. I relevant, it is likely that theAudit Commission would seek to establish:

howalocalauthoritysmeasurementandreduction o avoidable contact maps to

local area priorities

howwellthelocalauthorityisusingand applying NI 14 data in service improvement.

The Audit Commission, as part o theorganisational use o resources assessment,will look at management process, policiesand training relating to data quality.

Specically, in reporting the national indicatorset, it has been agreed that the Audit

Commission:

willpublishasingleaggregatepercentagevalue calculated on the basis o the guresor the required services over these vechannels

willindicatethatNI14guresarenon-comparable across local authoritiesdue to the likely variation in the localarrangements or calculating the indicatorin the initial years

willnotpublishaverages,rangesorrepresent the data graphically or NI 14 ininitial years.

Local authorities are required to submit apercentage gure to one decimal place.Data is to be submitted via the CLGs datainterchange hub.

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iiESD ToolkitMany local authorities are already esd-toolkit users. Local authorities pay an annualsubscription o between 700 and 2150.

Local authorities have previously used esd-toolkit to submit returns such as their annualIEG assessment or BVPI 157 and AnnualEciency Statement or inspection.

Esdtoolkit is currently used or recording andsharing data on every service provided bythe council with links to supporting materialsuch as business processes, responsible

ocers, Gershon eciency streams, nationalindicators, citizentypes, delivery channels,costtoserve indications.

The programmes key ocus during 2008 to2011 is set to support the Citizen Insight andService Transormation agenda.

The esdtoolkit currently supports NI 14through its capabilities to identiy, link andrecord:

services provided to customersprocesses,activitiesandinformationassets

elements which make up services

costs cost elements that make up a service

customerneed generic needs which can be mapped across customers

customerproles local segmentation o customers

customertakeup measurement denitions

customersatisfaction scoring mechanism

appendices

appendix iiusing support tools

functions legislation giving powers and duties

partners organisations which are involved in theservice or process.

Local authorities can crossreerence theirdata to Gershon eciency work streams, the198 national indicators, CAA targets, otherorganisations and contacts within them whoare excelling in particular areas or are in needo support and assistance.

During 20089 esdtoolkit will enable

subscribing authorities to:useavoidablecontactdatatoidentifykey

points o leverage or end to end serviceimprovement

fevelopsharedunderstandingthroughuseo an esdtoolkit wiki or similar

analyseavoidablecontactdataacrossa variety o criteria (or example, time,service, channel, customer identication,cause o contact, and so orth) on a service-byservice basis (via automatic transer romCRM or via manually prepared CSV les)

aggregaterawdatatoenableavarietyo automated analyses and reports (orexample, NI 14 summary report and NI 14service groups; use o customer identicationdata to integrate with segmentation analysesor customer insight use)

identifytrendsinavoidablecontactovertime and enable comparisons to be madewith other LAs

supportavoidanceofavoidablecontact

across organisation boundaries and services(or example building on Chorleys circles oneed concept).



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To achieve all this, the esdtoolkit programme200809 will:

consultwithLAs,centralgovernment,associated agencies and technical suppliers

recommendtheuseofrobustauditableprocesses and methodologies

enablethesharingofsuccessesandcasestudies, ocusing on quantiable outcomesor customers.

Potential benets to local authorities include:

betterdatatohelpwiththeimprovemento services (customers perspective)

betterunderstandingofhowtoincreasecustomer satisaction

betterunderstandingofprocessestohelpreduce unnecessary and avoidable contacts

identicationofefciencysavingsidenticationofwaystoincrease

organisational capacity.

The advantages o using esdtoolkit or yourNI 14 reporting are that collection, collation,aggregation, calculation, analyses and reportswill be automated and will also allow userdened interrogation or comparative andother purposes. You will be able to use thesedata to identiy points o leverage or serviceimprovement.

There is no additional cost or NI 14support or annual subscribers. For urtherinormation, register or ree at www.esd-toolkit.org.uk and contact your local esd-toolkit administrator or the core project team

at [email protected] esdtoolkit news page on NI 14 isregularly updated and is ound at http://www.esd.org.uk/esdtoolkit/News/NewsDetail.aspx?Item=455

GovMetricThe GovMetric service uses a range o datarecording methods (including touch screenkiosks, web screens, and PABX) to monitor

customersatisfactionbychannelcustomersatisfactionbyserviceinteractionvolumebychannelinteractionvolumebyservice.The GovMetric service is being extendedto record avoidable contact and provide NI14 data or customer contact in person, bytelephone, by email and by post. Customer

agents can record whether the contact wasavoidable or nonavoidable via telephoneinput or by logging the data on a web screen.

Hence, using GovMetric helps to measureavoidable contact across these channels, andsince it measures total volume o contact itwill help to ensure that the percentages oravoidable contact are accurate. GovMetricwill also enable councils to review theiravoidable contacts against measures ocustomer satisaction.

The data is stored on the GovMetricdatabases, and the ees include the option tobenchmark your Council against your peers.The service also enables you to plot customersatisaction against avoidable contact.

The GovMetric NI 14 solution also providesunctionality that surveys the customer ortheir perception o whether the contact wasavoidable or nonavoidable.

In the uture GovMetric will also add the

ability to plot the data against demographicdata rom Experians MOSAIC.

ii

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appendices

iifgure 6GovMetric

The service excluding monitoring oavoidable contact is priced on a populationbasis. For example:

asmalldistrictcouncilwouldpay7,000to 8,000 to implement the system initially,plus 5,000 to 6,000 per annum

alargeunitarywouldpay15,000to


NI 14 Final Guidance

Documents

Transcript of NI 14 Final Guidance