Agenda item

(Director of Resources) To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director ICT and Facilities Management, Mr Newton introduced the report on call handling. Following on from the September 2014 meeting of this Panel it was agreed that examples of monitoring reports be brought to a future meeting for discussion on possible ways of monitoring telephone call handling.

Our new telephone system was now live and could produce various monitoring information. Following the introduction of a number of auto attendants (menu assisted calls), a large number of calls now bypass the switchboard and go straight to directorate contact centres and workgroups. Reporting on the switchboard was still a requirement, but was it also necessary to report on the calls that have been relayed by the auto attendants.

Other authorities that have telephone systems like us tend to favour reporting on:

a.    The percentage of abandoned calls; and

b.    The number of calls sent directly to the voicemail system.

ICT tended to favour these indicators that specifically relate to the service callers were receiving.  During January, 35,388 calls were received – 9.8% of these were classified as abandoned with 4.22% of calls going directly to voicemail. This may be something that the Panel would want to monitor, but not necessarily as a KPI.

Councillor Mohindra noted that before there was some concern about teams not adopting this system. Was this changing? Mr Newton said that it was changing. He noted that if a contact centre received an abandoned call they would call back.  Other areas would need looking at. Councillor Mohindra asked if this Panel could have a list of the top three teams. Mr Newton replied that this sort of thing normally went to Management Board; he could ask if they could pass it on to this Panel.

Councillor Watson asked if a set number of rings could be logged before a number was classed as abandoned. This was to rule out the accidental call etc. she suggested a minimum of 4 rings. Mr Newton said he would find out if the system could do this.

Councillor Whitehouse noted that the length of waiting would drive abandoned calls. Did people know where they were in the queue? Mr Newton said that our system could not do that at present, but they were working with the suppliers on this. It could tell how many were in the queue and the average number of people calling etc. the contact centre could see what was happening in real time on their screens.

Councillor Knapman said that in doing this there was need to compare like with like. For example some parts of planning shuts down after midday as planners went off on site visits etc. this could not be compared to other sections. Councillor Lion noted that we could now divert calls to someone who was not in the office. Councillor Knapman understood that some officers had to use voicemail, but would like to see these callers have their calls returned.

RESOLVED:

1.             That the Panel agreed to the new reporting definitions on call handling, that of:

i)              The percentage of abandoned calls; and

ii)             The number of calls sent directly to the voicemail system.

But this would be subject to a minimum of 4 rings for abandoned calls.

2.            The Panel would like to see these figures on a quarterly basis.