Summary

Bolsover District Council introduced a new system formanaging its customer compliments, comments andcomplaints during 2005/06. This significant changeresulted in the development of a new policy andoperational procedures.

The decision required the Council to embrace newtechnology in an innovative way, to accept the culturalchallenge of change, to develop a programme oftraining and awareness for its staff and mostimportantly to deliver an improved service to theirusers.

Improvement through e

fficiency

SHOWCASING GOODPRACTICE

CORPORATE &TRANSACTIONAL

emce.gov.uk

Improved Management of CustomerCompliments, Comments and Complaints

Quote

“Effective handling of complaints iscentral to good customer service.Whilst the information that the systemproduces is still evolving we now havevery good customer information oncomplaint trends and performancewhich helps us to improve ourservices.”

Jane FoleyHead of Customer Service and PerformanceBolsover District Council

Project background

Bolsover District Council was aware that its proceduresfor handling customer feedback was fragmented andwas being applied inconsistently by differentdepartments. This resulted in service users notreceiving a consistent and/or customer focused service.

It was also apparent that Bolsover were missing out onthe opportunity to learn from an enormous pool ofcustomer feedback that could have been collated andused to deliver service improvements and prioritisechange.

Therefore, the objective of the project was to radicallychange the way that Bolsover managed its customerfeedback, so as to turn negative feedback into positivechange factors. It was intended to provide service userswith an accessible and consistent system, to worksmarter and more efficiently, and to maximise thelearning from customer comments by treating thecomments as key business intelligence.

Project Delivery

This project was identified as a key piece of work in theCouncilʼs Customer Service and Access Strategy2005/06, due to the assigned importance of this projecta dedicated Customer Service and Access Officer(CS&AO) was charged with delivering the project, andproviding regular updates to the Customer Service andAccess Board (chaired by CEO).

The first task for the CS&AO was to hold interviewswith all of the Heads of Service to discuss currentdepartmental arrangements. The CS&AO alsoresearched existing examples of best practice from theCabinet Office, Commission for Local Administrationand also sought out examples of similar improvementprojects within other local authorities. The researchhelped form a new policy for ʻCompliments, Commentsand Complaintsʼ.

A period of consultation followed with Heads of Service,Contact Centre Teams and the Local GovernmentOmbudsman invited to put forward any comments orobservations which were either incorporated or taken tothe Customer Service and Access Board asʻexceptionsʼ for discussion. The final report was taken tothe Executive who approved the policy andimplementation plan in December 2005.

A communication strategy was also developed, togetherwith an evaluation of the suitability of using a documentmanagement system to manage the operation of thenew processes. The document management system

was considered a good way to operate the newprocesses as it removed the necessity to have paperfiles and provided all the benefits associated withelectronic files and working.

A significant amount of time was taken to translate thepolicy of a centralised system for compliments,comments and complaints into an operational reality.This included the development of new operatingprocedures and standard documents such as forms andletters.

Regards the communication strategy, front line staffwere required to undertake a one-day trainingprogramme which was delivered by a private sectortraining company which specialises in customer service.Key elements of the training included identifying acustomerʼs complaint, recognising where you can takeaction, explaining and helping the customer, and,presenting a positive image.

Key decision makers including Team Leaders and LineManagers also undertook training which was suppliedby the Local Government Ombudsman. The ʻEffectiveComplaint Handlingʼ course is an interactive one daycourse which covers an overview of the complaintshandling process from defining the complaint, planningthe investigation, collecting, evaluating and analysinginformation to complaint resolution and remedies.

Additional internal briefing sessions were delivered to across selection of staff (approximately 80) to raiseawareness of the new system and to advocate goodcomplaints handling in practice by the Head ofCustomer Service and Performance and the CustomerService and Access Officer.

The new system went live in April 2006, unbeknown tothe service users was the fact that the new system hadbeen trialled internally 3 months prior to a publicawareness campaign. This ensured that Bolsover wereable to iron out any procedural and/or IT issues andavoid any negative publicity from the local media andtheir citizens.

Finally, the improvement in Bolsoverʼs policy for dealingwith Compliments, Comments and Complaints waspublicised to service users through a variety of media,including; the Council website, posters and leafletswhich were distributed via the Contact and LeisureCentres, and a feature in the Councilʼs newspaperʻInTouchʼ which is delivered to every household withinthe district.

Improvement through efficiency

Improvement through e

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Benefits to the Councils

Bolsover District Council now has a system in placethat is more accessible to the public. This is evident inthe number of service users who have submitted writtencompliments, comments and complaints.

The new system has ensured that standardisedmanagement information regarding customer commentshas been captured for the first time, and allows the datato be analysed by type and service area.

Information relating to the quality of customer servicereceived and the response time can now be managedand monitored for trends. More knowledgeable first linecustomer service advisors are more adept at dealingwith complaints, and this has resulted in a significantnumber of complaints being dealt with at source to thesatisfaction of the service user.

The changes in working practices have enabled thesmall customer services team at Bolsover to absorbgreater volumes of written customer comments withoutadditional resources, thereby maximising the use ofresources. The team of 2.5 Full Time Equivalentsmanage the system in addition to providing otherservices and development work.

In 2006/07 Bolsover saved around 200 staffing hoursover the year. The hours saved have enabled Bolsoverto absorb additional work volumes and develop thereporting/communication aspects of the system.

When comparing 2006/07 to 2005/06:

� Written compliments have increased by 154� Written comments have increased by 129� Written complaints (stage 2) have increased

by 78 or 62%

Performance Management

A target of 73% had been set for responding to writtencomplaints within 20 working days for 2006/07.Bolsover achieved 74% which represents animprovement of 10% when compared to 2005/06 anddemonstrates that the new system has been able toabsorb a significant increase in complaints and producea better standard of performance for its customers. Onaverage it took 17 working days to provide a writtenresponse to each complaint. (For additional data seetable on page 4).

Critical success factors and lessons learned

The new compliments, comments and complaintssystem was based on a centralised model managed bythe Customer Service and Performance Department onbehalf of the Chief Executive Officer. This representeda major shift from the previous departmental set up.Initially some departments were negative towards thischange and feared that they were losing control oversome of their customer comments, and especially thecomplaints. It was therefore vitally important that theneed for change had been driven by the ChiefExecutive with the active support of the SeniorManagement Team. It was also critically important thatthe Customer Service and Performance Departmentconsistently demonstrated that it added value to theprocess for both the service departments andcustomers alike.

Other key factors were having a project manager toensure the successful implementation of the system;training tailored to the needs of different staff groupsand a three month internal trial period.

Risks

You only really get one chance to make a good firstimpression! It was therefore important that front linestaff were able to proactively handle complaints andexplain to customers how they could take theircomplaint forward if not resolved.

From an internal perspective it was crucial that the newway of working using document management and emailworked as intended or it would have lost credibility andmade it more difficult to win over those departmentswho had some concerns.

Transferability

As part of the research phase Bolsover District Councillearned about general best practice procedures and ofthe operational models used by other local authorities.Bolsover are keen to share the experience of thissuccessful project with other authorities and contactdetails can be found at the end of this case study.

Written Compliments, Comments & Complaints

Role of RCE

The East Midlands Centre of Excellence was notinvolved in the development or funding of this project.The EMCE is simply showcasing this leading edgeproject as an example of good practice from the EastMidlands region to a wider regional and nationalaudience.

Quote

“Bolsover District Council has madesignificant improvements to itscomplaints procedure, the importanceattached to dealing with complaints hasincreased and there is a coherentsystem across the Council. The staffextend a positive attitude towardscomplaints handling following thetraining that they took part in.”

The Local Government OmbudsmanʼsAnnual Letter (2005/06)

By Type Quarter 1

Quarter 2

Quarter 3

Quarter 4

2006/07 Total

2005/06 Total

Compliments 25 48 52 32 157 3

Comments 34 42 34 30 140 11

Stage 2 Complaints

51 64 36 52 203 125

Stage 3 Complaints

6 5 1 10 22 N/A

Total 116 159 123 124 522 139

% Stage 2 responded to within standard

76 67 58 96 74 64

Contacts

JJaannee FFoolleeyyHead of Customer ServicesBolsover District Counciltel: 01246 242 343email: jane.foley@bolsover.gov.uk

KKaatthh DDrruurryyCustomer Service and Access OfficerBolsover District Counciltel: 01246 242 280email: kath.drury@bolsover.gov.uk

HHeeaatthheerr PPaarrkkeerrProgramme ManagerEast Midlands Centre of Excellencetel: 0115 977 3492email: heather.parker@nottscc.gov.uk

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Summary of Volumes for 2006/07