Reflecting how people access customer service

Our Cabinet will next week receive a report setting out how traditional Customer Access Points (CAPs) are being used less, as residents increasingly look for assistance via other means including online and by phone.

In recognition of this, we are proposing to change arrangements at our four least used CAPs to allow more staff to be deployed to services where demand is increasing. The four are Barnard Castle, Stanley, Consett and Chester-le-Street.

Some reductions in opening days are being proposed due to a 64 per cent reduction in demand for face-to-face services and our having to make savings. The need to do so is due to a combination of unavoidable inflationary pressures and our inability to raise sufficient income locally from council tax and business rates to meet these cost pressures. It is also due to insufficient government funding being provided to meet the shortfall. The latest budget challenges follow year-on-year reductions in government funding from 2010 to 2019.

The days the four CAPs would be open reflects demand for the service provision, with consideration having been given to the needs of older residents and those with disabilities, in recognition of their greater use of the face-to-face facilities.

Striving to meet customer need

Cllr Susan McDonnell, Cabinet member for customer services, said: "In common with councils up and down the country, we have seen changes to how people access our customer services in recent years. This started way before the coronavirus pandemic but has been accelerated by it.

"The pandemic meant in-person services could not operate and everyone had to access whatever services they needed by other means, and as with other organisations we have seen more and more people seeking to access our services via digital and other means in the years since.

"What is being proposed will allow us to align staff to the support services most people are using which is crucial in striving to ensure we are meeting our customers' demands.

"There will be some modest reductions in the number of days the sites are open, reflecting demand and allowing us to redirect resources into telephony. These reductions are necessary to ensure we are as efficient as possible and in light of the continued budget pressures we face. We are though pleased, through prudent planning, to be in a position to keep all eight of our Customer Access Points open, despite the challenging financial times all councils are in.

"The days the sites are open will reflect needs and demand in those areas, with consideration having been given to those most popular with older users and customers with disabilities who we appreciate rely on these facilities more."

Reduced demand for face-to-face support  

The report to the Cabinet meeting, next Wednesday 12 July, sets out how customer services staff now use multiple channels to meet service demand, including telephony, email, webchat, social media, and face-to-face services. More recently, an Artificial intelligence based 'Chatbot' has been introduced to complement these channels.

Councillors will be told that changes in working practices and customer behaviour have led to a reduction in demand for face-to-face customer service and an increase in demand across alternative methods of provision.

As it stands, over 90 per cent of residents contact us by phone - the most popular channel, or by email or online. Between 2019/20 and 2022/23 there was a 64 per cent drop in demand for face-to-face customer service.

Cabinet will hear that a review of footfall data was carried out and identified Barnard Castle, Stanley, Consett and Chester-le-Street as the least used of the eight CAPs, during the last financial year.

Councillors will be reminded that public consultation on use of those four CAPs was carried out from January to March this year.

Proposals based on responses to consultation

Based on the results of the consultation, proposals were drawn up to reduce the number of days the sites open. Appointments will continue to be available.

The days the sites are proposed to be open seeks to reflect previous demand including the days older and disabled respondents said they used them most. This is in recognition of these groups' greater use of the CAPs, with 53.2 per cent of respondents over the age of 65 and 37.5 per cent considering themselves disabled.

The proposals will allow for staff to be realigned to telephony, email, social media, and webchat support, all of which have seen a substantial increase in demand since the pandemic, thus benefitting all customers accessing support via these channels.

The meeting will hear that the changes, if approved, would take effect from 1 October.