Council slammed over ‘failing’ call centre
SNP man says customer contact ‘not fit for purpose’
26.01.2017 Council chiefs have been slated over their “failure” to sort out problems swamping their customer contact centre.
A report reveals less than half of constituents ringing Renfrewshire Council’s Customer Contact Centre are being answered within the authority’s 40-seconds target.
The authority’s target is for 70 per cent of calls to be answered in that time.
However, the council’s Finance and Resources Policy Board’s report reveals the figure for the year to date is only 46 per cent.
SNP group leader Kenny MacLaren accused the Labour administration of repeatedly failing the public with a call centre “not fit for purpose.”
Councillor MacLaren, member for Paisley North West, said: “It is no wonder Labour refused the SNP’s help to have a cross-party group look into the failings of the customer contact centre.
“This report highlights Labour’s complete failure to provide a contact centre that is fit for purpose.
“One of the supposed solutions is to allow callers to contact departments and council officials directly, completely by-passing the customer contact centre.
“This questions the actual viability of the contact centre and why it was established in the first place.”
Authority bosses have also been criticised for slashing hours at the trouble-hit centre, which constituents phone to report housing repairs, query council tax and fix their benefits.
From this week, centre hours have been cut by 10.
Its hours of operation are now scaled back to 8.45am to 4.45pm ( Monday to Thursday) and 8.45am to 3.55pm (Friday) when then previous opening hours were 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday).
Councillor MacLaren added: “Labour have compounded the problems of the contact centre by reducing the opening hours by over 10 hours per week and then this was made worse by the online reporting systems failing, leaving residents unable to report faults with street lighting and road faults.”
While the report also highlights a high turnover in staff in 2015, a staggering 30 per cent of workers left the centre.
And even though the staff turnover figure improved by 17 per cent for the first half of 2016, bosses face an uphill struggle to find replacements, with it taking up to three months before staff were fully trained.
Managers admitted that recruitment of skilled and trained staff has “proved challenging for a prolonged period” with bosses looking to hire more staff every two weeks to make up the shortfall.
And callers trying to get through this month are advised of a frustrating delay.
The report said: “Members are advised that the start of January is historically a period of highest demand for the Contact Centre, with performance levels routinely dropping by 25 per cent from optimal levels, with the seasonal impact of winter weather a significant factor that may impact the reported performance moving into January.”
However, ove ra l l the performance at the centre has been moving in the right direction, with the primary target of answering 90 per cent of calls surpassed, where 95 per cent of calls answered in December 2016.
And their total for the year of 2016, reveals 89 per cent of all calls were answered, only one per cent short of their target.