Contact Centre staff take to social media to answer customer questions, following feedback on phone waiting times.
Whilst it has been great to see the opening up of our services and life return back to some sort of normality, with it comes a steep increase in demand for some council services, in particular in our contact centre.
The Customer Care team has been listening hard to criticism regarding call-wait times and delayed email-response and are tackling the issue head on to give our valuable customers a better experience. So, how did this come about?
It recently became clear that an increasing number of frustrated residents were turning to social media to voice their service needs. With around 40 queries a week coming in via the council’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, these two platforms had organically morphed into an alternative route for people to ask for help, make a complaint or seek advice, either through ‘direct messages’, or ‘tagging’ us into posts, with their questions.
Recognising that many customers were now using social media as their first port of call with the council, the team is now responding to queries on these platforms every day. Our dedicated colleagues in the council’s contact centre have been upskilled and are now embracing the new way of working to further improve the customer journey.
Deputy Leader and Councillor Jane Corbett, said: “This change is another clear example of the council listening and acting on the needs of our community. I’m pleased we are moving with the times to cater for those who want to make contact with us via social media. We recognise this method is the norm for many but we also recognise it’s not the norm for majority, that’s why I pleased this is the first step, with further improvements to the ‘customer first’ strategy planned for the not so distant future.
“I’d like to thank the team for welcoming the change and for their support as we continue on our improvement journey.”
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