1

(Confidential until ratification by Strategic Board)

Scrutiny Report

Customer Service and Access.

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Prepared by Customer Scrutiny Panel Date of issue: November 2013.

Homes for Northumberland Scrutiny Review

1 Acknowledgements, page 2 2 Introduction, page 3 3 Background, page 3 4 Methodology, page 4 5 Recommendations, pages 5 – 9, 6 Approach to Scrutiny Review, pages 10 – 11 7 Findings and recommendations, pages 12 – 18 8 Conclusion and next steps, page 18 9 Appendices, pages 19 - 32

Customer Scrutiny Panel Members:-

Lillian Clark

Peter Davison

Ian McLeman

Mary Moore

Dawn Pearson

**Dave Vinten** no longer a Scrutiny Panel member

Thanks to:-

Homes for Northumberland Customer Inspection Team

Gillian Blackett, Customer Services Centre Manager, Homes for Northumberland

Customer Services Officers, Homes for Northumberland

Gillian McLaren, TPAS Consultancy Manager Northern

Julie Turner, Customer Insight Officer, Homes for Northumberland

Michelle Mordue, Performance Officer, Homes for Northumberland

All Homes for Northumberland customers who offered their opinions and views

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Introduction

For its test case the Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP), decided to review the contact centre specifically looking into the service standard around call handling time

The test case ran from July 2013 until November 2013 All evidence collected as part of this review is contained in the Scrutiny Panel’s

evidence file. This report has been put together by the Customer Scrutiny Panel with the support of

Homes for Northumberland.

2.1 How we chose the contact centre as our test case

We reviewed HfN Performance Management quarterly reports and the Performance Report and Service Standard report

The CSP received an internal request for a scrutiny review from Susan Ogle, Transformation Team Leader (prior to Better Business Manager)

The CSP, after reviewing all performance information agreed to carry out the above review as the issues raised could have a major impact on all tenants who use the HfN contact centre

2.2 How we carried out the scrutiny

We are an independent group of tenants who carry out Customer-Led Scrutiny on behalf of

HfN. We had access to any information we needed to carry out the scrutiny (except certain

confidential and protected information) and to all staff from HfN.

We met regularly to discuss the project and we used the following methods to carry out this

scrutiny exercise:

Presentations by service specific managers Reading key documents Discussion groups, observations and interviews with staff Benchmarking with other Housing organisations Customer Inspectors telephone survey

Our scrutiny is a snapshot in time, and some of our recommendations may be overtaken by

events. However, the recommendations remain the same, and we expect them to be applied

to any reviews that are undertaken.

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2.3. How to read this report

This report is designed to be read by key staff and Strategic Board Members. Once this report has been agreed by the Strategic Board a summary report will be made available to all.

We begin the report with a summary in which we have highlighted our key recommendations, which are set out in table below. There are six of them and we have grouped them by themes.

Theme 1 – Training Theme 2 – Communication Theme 3 – Procedures Theme 4 – Targets Theme 5 – Staff Views Theme 6 – Customers views

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2.4 Summary Table of Recommendations

Recommendation Cost

Implications

Outcomes / Changes for HfN as a

result

Theme One:- Training

1. There needs to be a more formalised mentoring programme for new staff to ensure they are picking up good working practices

Staff time A more effective contact centre with

staff who feel confident to answer

queries

2. All contact centre staff need to have the opportunity to have full team training to ensure consistency across the team

No To be able to share experiences,

what’s working well, and what is not

and to develop a more ‘team

approach’ to this process

3. Investigate having a bank of trained staff from each department to provide cover for the contact centre staff. This would also release the contact centre staff into having team meetings etc.

Staff Time To enable more staff to have a good

understanding of the workings of the

contact centre

To enable staff to have a better

understanding of HfN customers

4. Investigate a ‘back to the floor’ development programme for managers throughout the organisation within the contact centre. This would enable managers to understand more fully the pressures on staff.

Management

Time

HfN managers would gain a much

better understanding of the workings

and daily routine of the contact

centre and to more fully understand

the pressures on the staff.

5. To investigate the use of recording calls – that can be used by the manager in one to ones to identify any training areas for improvement for individual staff or to share good practice by staff member with other staff.

No All staff will have a similar approach

to customers and share good

practice.

The contact centre manager will

have a greater awareness of any

training needs etc.

6. Introduction of a “jargon buster” manual for new members of staff and prospective bank staff members to ensure a consistent approach to repair logging is undertaken.

No All staff will use the same

terminology to ensure repairs are

logged effectively.

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Theme 2 - Communication Cost

Implications

Outcomes/changes to HfN as a

result

1. Need to establish a formalised procedure when the contact centre staff are required to be involved in a large mail shot to ensure adequate staff cover.

No A more coordinated approach to mail

shots to ensure staff are aware and

prepared for an increase in

queries/calls.

2. Need to investigate whether staff from other departments could be utilised to help with large scale mail shots

Staff time This would increase staff awareness

regarding the impact large mail shots

have on the company and its day to

day running.

3. Need for all staff to formally communicate with the contact centre if a mail shot will increase the number of calls to the contact centre.

No Staff would be prepared for an

increase in queries/calls.

4. Investigate whether direct numbers for staff should be put on mail shots rather than general contact centre number.

No The customer can deal with the

member of staff in question and

ensure that the time taken to deal

with their query is swift.

5. To ensure that all HfN staff keep their electronic diaries up to date as this has an impact on the effectiveness of the contact centre.

No Calls dealt with more effectively and

with more efficiency as operatives

can see at a glance where any

member of staff is at any time.

6. More publicity about what NCC deals with and what is dealt with by HfN to try to reduce calls that can only be dealt with by NCC.

No Increased customer awareness of

service provision. Reduction in

volume of calls to HfN.

7. Explore the possibility of utilising recorded message/waiting time to inform customers about the difference between NCC and HfN services.

No Customers given a greater

awareness of services provided by

NCC and HfN. Less waiting time.

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Theme Three:- procedures Cost

implications

Outcomes/changes for HfN as a

result

1. Need to investigate the way in which calls are recorded – currently if the contact centre cannot deal with a call at first point of contact and have to pass it on – this is recorded as a ‘Failed call’.

There is the need to look at changing the terminology regarding the following:-

Abandoned calls

Referred calls (currently failed calls) when they have to go to another member of staff.

Call handling time etc To do this would ensure that

referred calls and all other calls would

be classed as first point of contact.

No Staff will have a more positive

outlook on their work and a change

in terminology will produce more

positive results.

2. To enable the contact centre to work in an effective and efficient way – a CRM system should be seen as a priority for the organisation. This would streamline the system for the staff and enable them to deal with calls much more effectively.

Yes – major

financial

implication.

CRM system will improve efficiency

due to information available on one

system, rather than using several

systems to deal with customer

queries.

3. Monitor calls that are referred to other departments to show up any trends or training needs for contact centre staff. If calls are being referred to one department it might be there is a need for training or understanding the processes better.

No Contact centre staff have a greater

awareness of call handling within

other departments. In-house training

can be provided to ensure all HfN

staff are confident in their abilities

when dealing with customers. This

will lead to greater customer

satisfaction.

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Theme Four - Targets Cost

implications

Outcomes/changes for HfN as a

result

1. Investigate the reasons behind the current target to get consistency between HfN (20 secs) and NCC (40secs)

No Increased satisfaction for the

customer and consistency between

HfN and NCC.

2. Hold discussions with NCC about their 0844 number (very expensive) people phone HfN number which is a reduced rate and can then be transferred by HfN on the lower tariff to NCC – direct to the person rather than going through the NCC switch board.

No Better/more cost effective service for

customers.

3. Consider the results of the customer satisfaction survey carried out by the Customer Inspectors which indicated that customers would rather have their query dealt with to their full satisfaction even though their call may not be answered within 20 seconds.

No Increased customer satisfaction.

4. Although ultimately EMT agree targets for each department – it might be worth investigating how the wider staff from these departments can be involved in this process.

No Staff feel empowered by offering

their views and opinions.

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Theme Five – Staff Views Cost

implications

Outcomes/changes for HfN as a

result

1. There is a need to establish a more realistic rota for cover at the reception desk over lunch times. This could include all staff having a ‘go’.

Staff time Staff development with all staff

gaining a better understanding of

HfN customers and day to day

business on reception.

2. Investigate the possibility of increasing the number of staff allowing for the possibility of a rota system to ensure busy/emergency periods are covered.

Yes –

financial

implication.

Adequate staffing levels during busy

periods or inclement weather.

Theme Six – Tenants Views Cost

implications

Outcomes/changes for HfN as a

result

Results from the Customer Inspectors

survey indicated that HfN customers

would rather have their query dealt with

to their full satisfaction even though their

call may not be answered within 20

seconds (question 9 Customer

Satisfaction survey). This needs to be

investigated further.

No Greater customer satisfaction and

improvement in performance.

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4 Approach to the Scrutiny Review

Scrutiny of the contact centre entailed an overview of current service delivery, performance

and customer feedback and staff feedback and observations to explore what currently works

well, identify where improvements could be made and recommend actions to implement

these changes.

The project commenced in June 2013 with the group meeting frequently to complete the

process with a lot of the work being completed out of the formalised meetings and in sub

groups to ensure good effective working.

4.1 Stage 1 - Fact Finding – Desk top research

Customer Services standards Service Standards booklet Call information broken down on a monthly basis Information regarding the Service from the Website Copies of articles from the magazine (Your News) Additional information requested by the group – number of refusals Corporate KPI’S Profile of the types of calls Number and nature of the calls Satisfaction information Complaints information Record of Contact documents

Further Evidence gathering

Contact centre staff interviews were carried out by CSP members with two call centre staff 7 Aug.

Observation of contact centre staff working by CSP 5 April. Written replies to CSP questions by Gillian Blackett 23 July Viewing Annual Tenants Report 2011 / 2013 - looking at past targets and

achievements for all departments including the contact centre.

Viewing Service Cluster Reports for HfN (organisational summary) April and May 2013

Website comparisons of comparable sized Housing Associations and ALMO’s (where possible)

Service Cluster Report for Performance Scorecard ( organisational summary March 2013).

HfN Customer Access Strategy 2010 / 2013.

HfN Guide to Customer Service Charter, see page 2..."Our Promise" (contact centre)

Information provided to Scrutiny Panel 20th June "Performance Scorecard Format” April 2013

A document/extract from "Tenant Involvement and Empowerment" showing a matrix of contact centre targets and achievements and overall ratings for the years 2010/11 2011/12 and 2012/13.

A document from the Service Cluster Report for Performance Scorecard (Organisational summary) Mar 2013........First Point of contact and percentage of Calls answered within target.

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Customer Inspectors telephone survey of the contact centre with collated results. Projected annual cost of re-directing calls from HfN ( Oct 14th ) Michelle Mordue

4.2 Stage 2 - Compare and Challenge

Initial scoping of the project resulted in the identification of six key areas of focus:

Theme 1 – Training Theme 2 – Communication Theme 3 – Procedures Theme 4 – Targets Theme 5 – Staff Views Theme 6 – Customer views

Three main activities were then utilised to facilitate further exploration of the service in more

detail. These included the following:

1. Literature Review and Benchmarking – Documentation considered included, policy, service leaflets, newsletters, suite of letters, website appraisal and benchmarking with other organisations

2. Customer Views – Customer Inspectors carried out a telephone survey on behalf of Scrutiny Panel – The telephone survey was carried out with customers who had recently contacted the contact centre

3. Staff Audit – CSP members carried out observations in the contact centre and one to one interviews with staff

4.3 Stage 3 - Analysis and Recommendations

The CSP worked in smaller sub groups to undertake all of the work that was required. All

findings from the Scrutiny sub groups were shared together and recommendations were

then formulated for the service. All members of the CSP influenced and prepared the

finalised report

4.4 Stage 4 - Implementation

The Report will be shared with HfN’s Executive Team. Any comments will be fed back

through to the CSP. The report will then be presented to the HfN Strategic Board by the

Scrutiny members resulting in an agreed action plan for improvement.

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5. Findings and Recommendations

5.1 Quick Wins

Theme 2, Communication

2.3 Need for all staff to formally communicate with the contact centre if a mail shot will

increase the number of calls to the contact centre.

2.4 Investigate whether direct numbers for staff should be used on mail shots rather than the

general contact centre number.

2.5 To ensure that all HfN staff keep their electronic diaries up to date as this has an impact

on the effectiveness of the contact centre.

5.2 What Worked Well

What Worked Well

1. In September issue of 'Your News' page 13 the latest Performance Indicators for Customer Services shows an improvement in the percentage of abandoned calls.

2. Staff are always polite when commencing and ending calls (observed by CSP). 3. Staff worked well together. (CSP). 4. They deal with 75-80% of calls themselves. (CSP) 5. Phones appeared to be answered immediately (CSP). 6. 1 to 1 meetings with Gillian Blackett work well. Staff are able to discuss individual

issues /concerns/ problems and also put forward any good ideas they may have (obtained from staff interviews and Gillian Blackett).

7. Staff have regular breaks covering for each other. (CSP). 8. They do get compliments from customers. They have a compliments board in the

office which is a good morale booster (supplied from staff and Gillian Blackett). This, to a degree, can be verified from the information gathered from the Customer telephone interview carried out by the Customer Inspectors.

9. Flexi or overtime, when required, is paid e.g. if there is a "rush" due to inclement weather needing them to stay behind (staff interview)

10. Equal sharing out of calls and emails between staff (CSP) 11. The results from the Customer Inspectors telephone survey showed very positive

reactions re contact centre staff handling of their queries. 12. Staff are committed to their work. (staff views and observations)

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6 Theme One – Training What evidence do we have?

Recommendation 1.1 – 1.5; evidence obtained during interviews with staff and management.

Theme One – Recommendations

1. There needs to be a more formalised mentoring programme for new staff to ensure they are picking up good working practices

2. All contact centre staff need to have the opportunity to have full team training to ensure consistency across the team

3. Investigate having a bank of trained staff from each department to provide cover for the contact centre staff. This would also release the contact centre staff into having team meetings etc.

4. Investigate the ‘back to the floor’ development programme for managers throughout the organisation within the contact centre. This would enable managers to understand more fully the pressures on staff.

5. To investigate the use of recording calls – that can be used by the manager in one to ones to identify any training areas for improvement for individual staff or to share good practice by staff members with other staff.

6. Introduction of a “jargon buster” manual for new members of staff and prospective bank staff to ensure a consistent approach to repair logging is undertaken.

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Theme Two – Communication

What evidence do we have?

2.1 observations with management and staff

2.2 observations with management and staff

2.3 observations with management and staff

2.5 observations with management and staff

2.4 CSP observations

2.6 Documentary evidence

2.7 CSP observations

Theme Two – Recommendations

1. Need to establish a formalised procedure when contact centre staff have to be involved in a large mail shots to ensure adequate staff cover.

2. Need to investigate whether staff from other departments could be utilised to help with large scale mail shots

3. Need for all staff to formally communicate with the contact centre if they are doing a mail shot that will increase calls to the contact centre.

4. Investigate whether direct numbers for staff should be put on mail shots rather than general contact centre number.

5. To ensure that all HfN staff keep their electronic diaries up to date as this has an impact on the contact centre handling time.

6. More publicity about what NCC deals with and what is dealt with by HfN to try to reduce calls that can only be dealt with by NCC

7. Explore the possibility of utilising the time on the waiting/recorded message facility to inform customers of NCC/HfN services.

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Theme Three – Procedures

What evidence do we have? 3.1 Documentary evidence

3.2 Management interview

3.3 CSP observation

Theme Three - procedures

1. Need to investigate the way in which calls are recorded – currently if the contact centre cannot deal with a call at first point of contact and have to pass it on – this is recorded as a ‘Failed call’.

There is the need to look at changing the terminology of the following:-

Abandoned calls

Referred calls (currently failed calls) when they have to go to another member of staff

Call handling time etc To do this would ensure that referred calls and all other calls would be classed as “first

point of contact”.

2. To enable the contact centre to work in an effective and efficient way – a CRM system should be seen as a priority for the organisation. This would streamline the system for the staff and enable them to deal with calls much more effectively.

3. Monitor calls that are referred to other departments to show up any trends or training needs for contact centre staff. If calls are being referred to one department it might be there is a need for training or understanding the processes better.

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Theme Four – Targets

From the evidence of calls received and dealt with by the Customer Service Centre – there

showed to be a significant amount that were not for HfN. In fact they were for NCC. This

could be happening for one of two reasons:-

1. The wider tenant base does not know which services are delivered through HfN and which are delivered through NCC:- and / or

2. The NCC number is a higher cost to ring direct to – however if the call is transferred from HfN to NCC then the cost to the tenant is at the lower rate

“Using the quarterly figures provided for the CSP Michelle Mordue – HfN Performance Officer projected the figures to give me an annual total and then calculated the annual cost to the service of the above to HfN”. Customer Service Centre – Salary Band 5 (£19,621 per annum which equates to £10.19 p/h) Annual Hours spent transferring non HfN Calls** (For the quarter April/May/June this equated to 55 hours and 10 minutes –If we project this to an annual total it comes to 220 hours 40 minutes) The amount of annual hours x hourly rate comes to £2245.87. Incoming calls June 2013 Cancellation 20 Caretaker 3 County (Blyth) 577 County (Alnwick) 44 Complaints 4 Compliments 3 Emails sent 277 Gas Service 73 Homefinder 123 Log pre inspection 134 Log repair (Blyth) 1945 Log repair (Alnwick) 117 Miscellaneous 223 #NCC 90 Pest control 81 Procurement 89 Recharges 7 Rent (Alnwick) 81 Rent (Blyth) 535 Repair enquiry 876 Right to buy 5 Silent 56 SNU Unit 17 Telephone payments 21 Valley Care 7 Estates (Blyth) 264 Estates (Alnwick) 27 Alnwick repairs 117 Alnwick pre inspections 13 Council tax payments 5 Welfare Reform 4

Homeless 1 RPU 1 Allendale 1 IT problems 1 Call Transfer Log Alnwick rents 5 Blyth rents 56 Alnwick repairs 15 Alnwick Estates 10 Blyth Estates 87 Finance 10 Procurement 43 MTF 20 RI 2 Named 205

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Calls are connected to NCC switchboard with option numbers supplied. This is classed as resolved. Outgoing calls Month Initiated Handled Time spent April 1123 867 19.22.36 May 1033 909 17.20.01 June 1030 915 18.28.33 **Non HfN calls – calls transferred or redirected to NCC**

What evidence do we have?

4.1 CSP observations 4.2 CSP observations and information provided by Michelle Mordue 4.3 Results from the Customer Inspectors survey indicated that HfN customers would

rather have their query dealt with to their full satisfaction even though their call may not be answered within 20 seconds (question 9 Customer Satisfaction survey)

4.4 Obtained from management interview and CSP observations.

Recommendations

1. Investigate the reasons behind the current target to get consistency between HfN (20 secs) and NCC ( 40secs)

2. Hold discussions with NCC about their 0844 number ( very expensive) people phone HfN on their number which is a reduced rate and can then be transferred by HfN on the lower tariff to NCC – direct to the person rather than going through the NCC switch board

3. Consider the results of the customer satisfaction survey carried out by the Customer Inspectors which indicated that customers would rather have their query dealt with to their full satisfaction even though their call may not be answered within 20 seconds.

4. Although ultimately EMT agree targets for each department – it might be worth investigating how the wider staff from these departments can be involved in this process.

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Theme five - Staff Views

What evidence do we have? 5.1 & 5.2; CSP observations and staff interviews.

Recommendations

1. There is a need to establish a more realistic rota for cover at the reception desk over lunch times. This could include all staff “having a go”. This could be part of staff development thus all staff gaining a better understanding of HfN customers.

2. Investigate the possibility of increasing the number of staff allowing for the possibility of a rota system to ensure busy/emergency periods are covered.

Theme Six - Customer Views

What evidence do we have?

6.1 Results from Customer Satisfaction survey (question 9)

1. Consider the results from the Customer Survey (question 9) which identified that customers would rather their queries were dealt with at the first point of contact even if they had to wait longer than the twenty seconds for someone to answer the phone.

11 Conclusion

Overall the CSP were impressed by the co-operation, professionalism and positive approach demonstrated by all members of staff involved as part of this scrutiny review and look forward to receiving an update as to the progress of the service action plan as and when agreed.

12 Next Steps

This report was sent to the Executive Management Team for their comments The report will then be presented by members of the CSP at the Strategic Board

meeting.

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Appendix 1 – Results from Customer Inspectors

There were a number of contacts duplicated several times Customers did not have time to answer questions Some numbers were incorrect or disconnected Some could not remember phoning in and had to be prompted Two had other people ring on their behalf

(Total No 113)

Question Response Number of response

1) Was the member of staff able to deal fully with your query or were you transferred to another member of staff Yes 35

No 1

Not Sure 4

Both Yes & No 1

Transferred 1

2) How satisfied were you with how your query was handled Very Satisfied 28

Satisfied 7

Neither 3

Unsatisfied 1

Very Unsatisfied 3

3) Was your call answered within 20 seconds Yes 26

No 4

Not Sure 12

4) Did you find the staff knowledgeable Yes 34

No 2

Not Sure 5

Both Yes & No 1

5) How satisfied were you with the member of staff's attitude and courtesy Very Satisfied 30

Satisfied 9

Neither 1

Unsatisfied 0

Very Unsatisfied 2

6) Were you placed on hold, if so how long Yes 13

No 24

Not Sure 5

No Answer 0

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7) Whilst on hold, did you listen to a recorded message Yes 9

No 24

Not Sure 4

No Answer 5

8) How satisfied were you with the overall experience of telephoning the contact centre Very Satisfied 31

Satisfied 9

Neither 0

Unsatisfied 0

Very Unsatisfied 2

9) When contacting us, what us the most important factor for you: a) Your call answered within 20 seconds b) That your query is dealt with to your full satisfaction even though your call may not be answered within 20 seconds A 9

B 26

Both A & B 1

No Answer 6

Customer comments

Positive

xxxx stated that she rang on a Sunday and got ‘very quick service’ Very polite and helpful No improvement, - got what he wanted – very happy with situation – sorted out in 24

hours. Only two plasterers between north and south, lack of communication between

departments and customers, i.e. order not in place for job so not having the job complete until November, But the centre staff are lovely

The staff are very good, no complaints When replacing fires etc., more notice to be given. Happy with contact centre – very

polite No Suggestions ok Council not dealing with trees in area. This damages the walls and paving stones.

Did not know that he could put in a complaint, also, when contractors were knocking down walls/fences in Chestnut Ave area lack of security. But otherwise contact centre good

Satisfied with the work apart from the grass cutting and left in clumps. Contact Centre very helpful and polite.

Do a good Job No NLO dealt with it promptly, nothing but praise for the staff

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Really good at their jobs Very Satisfied with the staff Very satisfied with the service. Always satisfied Found the staff very pleasant Very satisfied Satisfied but still waiting from a call from her NLO. Message passed on.

Negative

Not Happy with Grass cutting xxx preferred BVBC, she could come in and talk to whoever she wanted. Happy with the service but put some updated music on; it’s horrible. Change the music; makes you feel like jumping in front of a bus. No problems with

the contact centre staff very polite and professional. Can’t get repair done when needed Last contact was May/June, not happy at the length of time the repair took

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Very Satisfied Satisfied Neither Unsatisfied Very Unsatisfied

Nu

mb

er

of r

esp

on

ses

Response

How satisfied were you with how your query was handled?

22

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Yes No Not Sure

Nu

mb

er

of r

esp

on

ses

Responses

Was your call answered within 20 seconds?

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Yes No Not Sure Both Yes & No

Nu

mb

er

of r

esp

on

ses

Responses

Did you find the staff knowledgeable?

23

24

25

26

Appendix 2- benchmarking

A1 Housing

13/14 Target for call centre: (CRM 1012)

95.25% calls answered

23 seconds response time

4.75% abandoned

20% calls referred to service areas

85% customer satisfaction

Year to date

96.60 calls answered

26.74 sec

3.40% abandoned

35.501% referred

92.20% satisfaction

Ashfield Homes

3 star from Audit commission (Housemark)

Cannot find call centre standards

Colchester Borough Homes

Call centre has been transferred to Council’s service centre. Cannot find SLA for this, must

be in Board meeting notes somewhere.

East Durham Homes

Managers did a Back to the Floor day in February 2013. The aim of the call centre is to

answer calls within 20 seconds.

Target13/14 94% at first point of contact. Actual year to date 95.93%. Call Centre not listed

in Service Standard.

Kensington & Chelsea Housing

Service Standard – to answer 80% of all calls within 40 seconds and respond to emails

regarding repairs within 5 working days.

Year to date 26 seconds wait and 80% of calls answered.

Rykneld Homes, Chesterfield

Aim to answer 97% of all calls at first point of contact. Year to date 94.53% of all calls within

20 seconds 83.76%. Last year only reached 89.4%. Resource support and methods of

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working have been reviewed to ensure the team are as effective as possible. Average wait

time for answered calls last year 41 seconds only 83.76% calls answered within 20 seconds.

Salix Homes

13/14 Targets; 80% of calls within 30 seconds, 90% of all calls answered. Length of calls

360 seconds 0.5% of calls audited.

Year to date; 77.9% calls answered within 30 seconds. 94.5% of calls answered at first point

of contact. Length of calls 382 seconds. 0% calls audited.

Sixtown Housing, Bury, Lancs.

Call centre and Business Support Team merged so that they can increase the number of

calls answered within 20 seconds, as a result calls for last year were:

Calls offered 123040

Within 20 seconds 67427

More than 20 seconds 38762

Calls abandoned 16851

South Essex Homes

Target not reached last year but no action is to be taken.

Sutton Housing Parternship

Last year failed YTD failed average time taken to answer calls is 18.2%. July2013 (passed).

20% target proportion of none phone contact responded to on time is 88.4%. (Failed) target

95% Last year failed YTD failed.

Welwyn & Hatfield Housing Trust

Aim to answer calls promptly. Return call on timescale agreed with customer. Answer 85%

of calls within 6 rings. Answer emails within 3 working days. They are looking to achieve

customer service excellence with 81% customer satisfaction.

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Appendix 3 – Information from meeting with Gillian Blackett. Customer Scrutiny Panel

Interview with Gillian Blackett, Contact Centre Manager

Tuesday 23rd July 2013

Present

Mary Moore Customer

Ian McLeman Customer

Dave Vinten Customer

Dawn Pearson Customer

Lillian Clark Customer

Gillian McLaren TPAS

Julie Turner Customer Insight Officer

Gillian Blackett Contact Centre Manager

As part of the Customer Contact Centre Scrutiny Review, the panel felt it would be

beneficial to interview Gillian Blackett to ensure that they have a good understanding

of how the contact centre is run. Gillian was previously asked to provide information

that the Scrutiny Panel had asked for; this session is to delve deeper into answers

provided and any additional information required prior to reality checks being carried

out.

MM What is Red Box?

GB Red Box is the brand name of the device which the contact centre have

purchased in order to record all calls. There is currently a technical problem with the

device which is delaying its installation.

LC What was the cost of purchasing Red Box?

GB £10K

IM Do abandoned calls cause low morale within the team, and if so how is it

eased?

GB Explained that as the manager it is her role to ensure the team remain

positive, ease tension and justify performance good/bad to the director of

neighbourhood services

LC Does the team have regular meetings?

GB Yes although it is difficult to hold team meetings as it requires all operatives to

leave their station which is not always possible. If the entire team is required then

staff within the organisation who have knowledge of the contact centre are drafted in.

Regular 1 to 1’s take place with individual members of staff, these are valuable as

they offer the opportunity to allow members to offload in a confidential and private

environment.

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MM What other duties do the call centre operatives carry out?

GB They cover reception, carry out various administrative tasks for the

organisation, job fax, emails internal and external.

LC Do the staff have regular breaks?

GB Not allocated as such, a common sense approach is used, and GB ensures

that staff has some variation in their duties to ensure they are not carrying out

repetitive work which will cause any undue stress.

IM Did the visit to Solihull demotivate the staff at all; allowing them to see such

an excellent service when the HfN service is not running at full strength?

GB No it had the opposite effect, staff members had the opportunity to see how

good the HfN contact centre can become.

LC What is classed as an abandoned call?

GB Any call which is answered but the caller hangs up prior to one of the

operatives answering, i.e, whilst the welcome message/options are playing.

LC Are outbound calls made by the operatives?

GB Yes they do, these are normally to clarify information or gather more detailed

information prior to passing an issue onto another officer.

LC How are emails and their required responses allocated to other officers?

GB They are printed out, equally divided into piles and sorted by operatives.

DV In the information provided, it states that operatives can have varying

numbers of calls and emails, some differing quite substantially

GB Some calls take longer to deal with, which results in operatives having a

difference in the amount of calls/emails answered.

DV How many staff would the contact centre need to run efficiently?

GB 13 would be ideal. This would allow for 1 spare, 1 on the sick, 1 to cover

reception and 1 to work at the Alnwick office. A business case is currently being put

together to request more staff which will ideally take the total number up to 13.

GM Can the group have a copy of the business case and any evidence used to

build it?

GB Yes.

DP How long is the staff induction?

GB It can just depend on the member of staff being inducted. On average the

process takes two weeks. Once the induction has been completed the call handling

training/job training begins.

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LC If staff have good ideas are they taken seriously?

GB Yes, ideas are discussed in 1 to 1’s and are recorded and have been

implemented in the past.

LC What happens if all of the computers break down/go off?

GB We liaise with other teams, record issues manually, use mechanisms within

the organisation to ensure the work is carried out as normal.

GM Would it be possible for the Scrutiny panel to both observe the contact centre

and interview a sample section of staff?

GB Yes.

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Appendix 4 Trigger Document issued to the CSP in April 2013

Homes for Northumberland Scrutiny Panel

Homes for Northumberland – Request for a Scrutiny Review

DRAFT 2 One formal route for HfN, Executive Management Team, Board and Service Team Managers to bring matters to the attention of the Scrutiny Panel is by raising a ‘Request for a Scrutiny Review’. The Scrutiny Panel will consider if an existing programme of work should be revised to take account of this request.

The request for a scrutiny review needs to come to the Scrutiny Panel via completion of the ‘Scrutiny Request Template’.

HfN Executive Management Team (EMT), Board or Service Team Managers will then send this request to the Scrutiny Panel who will make a decision whether it needs to be included within their programme of work for a scrutiny review or whether there are other mechanisms within HfN that are better placed to deal with the issue.

If the ‘request for scrutiny’ is going to be taken on by the Scrutiny Panel then the scrutiny panel will contact the relevant key contact with their decision.

Representatives from HfN staff members or Board members may be asked to give evidence to the Scrutiny Panel.

If the ‘request for scrutiny’ is not going to be taken on as a scrutiny review, the Scrutiny Panel will formally let the key contact know this, together with the reasons why it is not being taken on / and or if it is going to be dealt with by other parts of HfN.

Once the scrutiny review is complete, the Scrutiny Panel will provide a copy of the final report and recommendations of the review to the key contact who raised the request, subject to confidentiality

Request for a Scrutiny Review – Homes for Northumberland

Key Contact and service team details

Susan Ogle - Transformation Team

Date of request 13 June 2013

Please give details of the scrutiny review required and why you think it needs to happen.

What area will be covered by this Review? Customer Service & Access: This review to focus on the quality and performance of the service delivered through the Homes for Northumberland’s Contact Centre, Northumberland County Council’s Contact

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(Evidence required). Please attach any additional evidence to the back of this form

Centre and Northumberland County Council’s four Customer Service Centres ( NCC deliver this through a Service Level Agreement) What evidence is there to support the request for this review? The Service provided is duplicated and inconsistent with both NCC and HfN providing access to services There is currently limited information available to compare and evaluate performance and satisfaction NCC Contact Centre has a target of answering 80% of calls within 40 seconds. HfN have a target of answering 95% of calls within 20 seconds and dealing with 95% of calls at first point of contact. Current performance of HfN Contact Centre is below target Why is this review required (what action have you already taken)? The current Customer Access Strategy Action Plan is out of date

The rest of these sections to be completed by the Scrutiny Panel Action taken by the Scrutiny Panel

Date report sent to EMT / Board