Issue - meetings

The Head of Information, Parking and Customer Services submitted a report that summarised the comments, compliments and complaints that had been received between April 2012 and March 2013.  The report also highlighted the key issues, remedial action and learning that had arisen during this period.

Members were advised that the Authority fielded approximately half a million phone calls annually and there were, on average, about 85 separate complaints received each year. 

The Head of Information, Customer and Parking Services stated that the volume of complaints had increased slightly from the 2012/13 civic year.  There was however, evidence that the Authority was performing well as the number of complaints upheld beyond stage 1 was very low.

Members were advised that the large number of compliments recorded reflected the use of the 3Cs system by Building Control to record their post visit survey results, where 57 compliments had been logged.  The Housing Team had also logged a number of compliments from clients.  The Head of Information, Customer and Parking Services stated that all teams should be encouraged to actively log any compliments that were received.

The Head of Information, Customer and Parking Services stated that the volume of complaints received by e-mail had increased significantly and this was a sign of the times as e-mail was increasingly accepted as submitting a query or complaint in writing.

Members were referred to Essential Reference Paper ‘C’ for the corrective actions taken by the Authority in response to complaints.  The data was presented in terms of the percentage of complaints that were addressed by each method of corrective action.

Councillor J Ranger complimented Officers for their diligence in dealing with complaints in a timely manner and apologising where necessary to customers.  He also highlighted the importance of ongoing Officer training.

The Director of Finance and Support Services stated that, due to the recent welfare reforms in this financial year, there had been an increase in correspondence within Internal Services and the next quarterly report may show a corresponding increase in comments, compliments and complaints.  The Head of Information, Customer and Parking Services emphasised that an increase in correspondence was likely in the Autumn due to the planned changes to recycling in the District.

The Committee received the report.

RESOLVED – that the actions detailed in the report be supported.