Councillors hope review will improve Broxtowe council’s customer services previously slammed ‘abysmal failure’

Councillors have criticised the authority’s customer services in the past.

A scathing assessment was previously made by Coun Philip Owen, Conservative member for Nuthall East and Strelley, on the phone system, one of the most common issues raised by residents, calling it an ‘abysmal failure’.

A review of ‘Telephone Answering and Customer Services’ was published this month and was discussed by the council at its latest meeting.

Coun Owen, who chaired the review, said: “This week alone I have made three calls and left messages for three different officers, one out of the three have got back to me.

“That is simply not good enough.

“A system is only as good as the people prepared to operate it and it’s a mixed bag across the authority.

“It seemed strange there was not the level of monitoring by senior managers of the times officers answered the calls.

“That needs to change, there needs to be much greater management oversight of what operators are doing.

“This ties in with working from home, where there has got to be much closer monitoring by managers.

“If there is a pattern of not answering, that needs to be tackled urgently and questions need to be asked.

“To my mind, there is nothing more infuriating than the message you get at the moment which says ‘we are extremely busy feeling with other calls’.”

The authority’s target is that calls are answered within six rings – or 20 seconds.

The review put forward five recommendations, including that temporary staff are used during peak call times.

It also recommended officers should only use answerphone messages if they are away for no more than 24 hours and messages should be replied to the following working day.

When asked if the review’s recommendations will improve the system, Coun Owen said: “I’m hoping so, but at the end of the day it comes down to whether the staff answer the phones or not, and the level of management oversight which clearly has been insufficient.”

The review found the service was ‘improving’ in the first three months of the year, due to a greater presence of customer services officers within the council building.

The review said: “It was positive there had been improving levels of call answering, but a fluctuation caused further concern.

There were some concerns raised over the call abandonment rate though, where the customer hangs up before they speak to an agent.

Coun Marie Hannah, Labour member for Eastwood St Mary's and vice-chairman of the review, said: “I want to say thank you to the officers, it was a very open and honest conversation about some of the challenges you face in the department.

“There was a view in the group that we were there to help.”

Three other councillors and three council officers also contributed to the review.