Plymouth City Council IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE Barbara Culverhouse Head of Revenues and Benefits, Project Sponsor Hannah Metson Project Manager

Overview Customer Service Improvement Priority Access to Services Inspection “Imagine” exercise Share feedback Briefing paper for you Your feedback is essential

Improving Customer Service Improve customer satisfaction with our services and with the overall performance of the Council Better services designed around customer needs Links to:  Improving community involvement and engagement  Change management and staff development  Value for money  Corporate priorities for improving the city

Why is this priority important ? It is the reason why we are all here! Also…….  Overall customer satisfaction is low  Complaints handling is poor  Councils that communicate well with their public have higher satisfaction ratings  Higher performing councils have a better understanding of their customer base  Audit Commission inspection of Access to Services in September 2008

Key Improvement Areas Understanding our current performance, customer requirements and customer base Having a clear vision and set of standards Communication and customer service culture Streamlined processes making access to our services easy for all customer

Current Priorities Access to Services Inspection – baseline performance Review our approach to Customer Complaints Improving the service to our revenues and benefits customers Customer insight – customer profiling, consultation, contact and needs analysis Training for frontline service staff

Customer Complaints Benchmark with well performing councils Review policy and process, in particular Ombudsman complaint handling Mainstream performance reporting Evidence learning from complaints Marketing and promotion council wide Customer consultation

Systems Thinking Pilot Enable customer queries to be resolved at earliest opportunity Identify changes in consultation with staff and customer experience Reduce complaints and wasted work Training across Customer Services and Revenues and Benefits Staff learning to resolve issues and make improvements through eyes of the customer

Access to Services Inspection As wide an impact as CPA inspection Cross-cutting themes – involves everyone!

Key Questions What has the Council aimed to achieve in access to services? Is access to services meeting the needs of the community and/or users? Is access to services delivering value for money? What is the service track record in delivering improvement? How does the service manage performance? Does the service have the capacity to improve?

Project Approach Project plan signed off by CMT Cross cutting team now in place Attendance at all DMTs Briefings for staff and partners Gathering and evaluation of evidence Self Assessment by end of July Action Plan sign off by CMT

Audit Inspection 29 th September - 3rd October

HELP! COUNCIL

IMAGINE……

Team Plymouth ‘Imagine’ exercise……. Excellent customer service - customer experience Excellent customer service - staff experience Share your good news! Make a pledge…..

From this point forward…. Our commitment to you; We will use your input and keep in contact Your commitment to the customer; Deliver what you have pledged to do Review your web and complaints information to improve your services Raise awareness of the inspection across your team