Agenda item

The Assistant Director for IT and Digital provided a summary of customer experience, including what it concerned, the range of customers, the Council’s customer touch points, headlines from the Viewpoint Survey, corporate complaints, and the Customer Experience Programme.

The Council’s website which enabled the public to access information and services and report issues, was being redeveloped, with feedback being sought to inform the new site. Engagement with customers was the ultimate route to judging the effectiveness of services, and the Viewpoint Citizens Panel was one route, with members asked to access services and track their journey.

Engagement and co-design of facilities was so important and took place with resident focus groups as well as a range of organisations and service user groups. Residents were also invited to submit compliments or complaints, which resulted in an Action Plan. Looking ahead, the Customer Experience Programme, which evolved from the 2019 Re-imagined Front Doors project, aimed to bring about improvements, the first phase of which would be focussed on adult social care.

The Chairman invited discussion and the following main points were made:

·       The Cabinet member with Responsibility (CMR) for Corporate Services and Communication highlighted the opportunities of using customer experiences to gain insight through getting closer to the customer and considering all aspects of their feedback. The data was there and the website presented a major opportunity to use IT in a more effective way.

·       Panel members were pleased to gain more insight into customer interaction and capturing feedback.

·       The CMR suggested that the latest Viewpoint survey would be useful to the Panel in identifying trends, although greater representation from young people was needed.

·       Panel members asked what customers preferred from the communication channels available and the CMR acknowledged the importance of understanding people’s needs and reflecting feedback from those who use them, not just officers and councillors; the transfer of the Consumer Relations Team to the IT and Digital Department would help to provide more feedback.

·       As a follow up question, a Panel member enquired which communication methods worked best to be advised by the CMR that simple and efficient online reporting was key. The Assistant Director for IT and Digital explained how feedback was captured, including inviting customers to rate interactions. The Officers also advised that a new survey would be presented at the end of a call or chatbox – and the Panel Chairman also added that a ‘was this page useful’ webpage question worked well.

·       The Vice-Chairman welcomed work to capture data on quality of experience and asked when this would be available to scrutinise. The CMR explained that increasingly, performance reporting would be real time information, and consideration could be given to a dashboard on the website, although in progressing the Directorate’s work there was a need to prioritise use of resources. The Officers advised that once the aforementioned feedback capture had been implemented, this data could be shared with the Panel. The Panel was also informed that corporately, a data observatory was being looked into.

·       The CMR for Communities cautioned that whilst data was helpful, its availability did need thought and too much could cause animosity..

·       The Panel asked how online service requests or forms for the public were checked to ensure they were simple to use for non-professionals, following a Panel member’s experience of difficulty in reporting a concern through the Family Front Door (FFD) portal. The Officers acknowledged the need to learn from experiences and advised that through the Customer Experience Programme online forms including for the FFD and adult social care would be tested on real people.

Summing up, the Chairman thanked everyone present for the initial overview, and based on the discussion, suggested possible areas of focus for future agendas were:

-        how to ensure usability

-        customer satisfaction feedback processes

-        the voice of the customer and preferences.