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Customer Insight Report 2021/22
Getting things right first time, every time
Customer Satisfaction: Results Summary
Customer Feedback: Data Summary
Councillor Enquiries Case Management Pilot Data
Planned council wide improvements
Performance Management Framework
Our Customer Experience Vision
Version 1.0
8th June 2022
The purpose of this Customer Insight report is to bring together the information collected about the customer experience of using Brighton & Hove City Council services in 2021/22. This performance has been in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic.
By customer we mean any user of council services, whether voluntary or involuntary. This includes residents and visitors to the city, businesses, students, service users and their representatives.
This report presents what we currently know about our customer services. Our aim is to ensure we better understand the needs of all our customers, and to learn and grow consistently from the feedback we receive, in order to improve the customer experience. The report also includes information about the size of the customer base and transactional volumes for various services. Data presented in the report should be considered in that context.
The
standards and principles within the promise do not only apply to
staff who work directly with customers, but all staff who work for
the council, including those in support services such as Human
resources, IT & Digital, Finance, Legal. This ensures a
consistency of approach and provides staff who do deal directly
with customers the appropriate infrastructure, tools, and support
to deliver the best customer experience.
Our Customer Experience Vision describes how we intend to deliver
on the Customer Promise and has been similarly refreshed following
customer feedback. These two documents are at the heart of
our
Customer Experience Strategy
that was approved at the Policy & Resources Committee in
December 2019.
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Results have been taken from the corporate Customer Experience Survey (from 3,192 respondents) carried out in March and April 2022 and combined, where available, with surveys carried out by services or associated partners. Results are only included where more than ten responses were returned. Due to the varying methodologies used in collecting and compiling data, results shown can only be considered indicative of customer experience.
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Contact by
channel: Data
Summary
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Equalities Data Summary
These results are taken from responses to the satisfaction survey provided through the corporate consultation portal and do not include results from independent surveys carried out within services. As such, the results presented as average of all respondents will differ to the data presented in overall satisfaction data.
68% (2,177) of respondents to the satisfaction survey agreed to provide equalities data out of a total 3,191 responses.
The respondents who provided equalities data (2,177) were on average more satisfied (35%), than the average of all respondents; 30% (3,191).
Only 13% of respondents who did not choose to provide equalities data (1,014) were satisfied with the level of customer service, significantly lower than the average of all respondents and those who provided equalities data.
† From the 2,177 respondents who provided equalities data; 2,110 (66% of all respondents) provided their ethnicity (30 preferred not to say and 37 did not answer the question).
† Of the 2,110 respondents, 314 (14 %) are from a Black & Minority Ethnic background[1] (city demographic 19.5%).
† Respondents who identified as BME were on average 6% more satisfied (41%) with the level of customer service than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
† From the 2,177 respondents who provided equalities data; 1,982 (62% of all respondents) provided their sexual orientation (141 preferred not to say and 54 did not answer the question).
† Of the 1,982 respondents, 277 respondents (14%) identified as LGBQ (city demographic 11-15%[2])
† Respondents who identified as heterosexual were on average 1% more satisfied with the level of customer service (36%) than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
† Respondents who identified as LGB were on average 4% less satisfied with the level of customer service (31%) than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
† 34% of respondents who identified as ‘Gay man’ were satisfied with the level of customer service, 1% lower than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
† 23% of people who identified as ‘Bisexual’ were satisfied with the level of customer service; 12% lower than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
Day to day activity limited due to health or a disability
† From the 2,177 respondents who provided equalities data; 2,094 (66% of all respondents) provided data on whether their day-to-day activities were limited due to health or disability (65 preferred not to say and 18 did not answer the question)
† Of the 2,094 respondents, 634 (30%) are limited in day-to-day activities due to a long-term health problem or disability (city demographic 16.3%) with 309 respondents (15%) indicating they are limited a lot in day-to-day activities due to a long-term health problem or disability (city demographic 7.5%)
† Respondents who identified as having their day-to-day activity limited due to health or a disability were on average 7% more satisfied with the level of customer service (42%) than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
Satisfaction by age
† From the 2,177 respondents who provided equalities data; 2,126 (67% of all respondents) provided data on their age (51 did not answer the question)
† Of the 2,126 respondents, 1,529 (72%) are age 16 to 64 (city demographic 71%[3]), 570 (22%) are age 65 to 84 (city demographic 71%) and 27 (1%) are aged 85 years or older (city demographic 2%)
† Respondents who are age 16 to 49 were on average 8% less satisfied (27%) than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
† Respondents who are aged 50 years or older were on average 4% more satisfied (39%) than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
Satisfaction by gender
† From the 2,177 respondents who provided equalities data; 2,138 (67% of all respondents) provided data on their gender (24 preferred not to say and 15 did not answer the question)
† Of the 2,138 respondents, 1,198 (56%) identified as female (city demographic 50%), 923 (43%) identified as male (city demographic 50%) and 17 (1%) identified as other
† Respondents who identified as male were on average 2% more satisfied (37%) than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
† 33% of respondents who identified as female were satisfied with the level of customer service, 2% lower than the average of all respondents who provided equalities data (35%)
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Top 15 reasons for contact: Volume and performance
By customer we mean, any user of council services, voluntary or involuntary. This includes residents, visitors to the city, businesses, students, service users and their representatives.
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Brighton & Hove’s population is estimated at 286,000 |
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The population registered to vote is 204,291 |
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130,000 Council Taxpayers |
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31,800 children attending school |
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16,400 receiving housing benefit |
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11,550 total council owned dwellings |
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11,300 Business rate payers |
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624km of carriageway |
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1,020km of footpaths |
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12km of coastline |
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98 parks and open spaces |
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680,000 visits to libraries |
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City Environment5.5 million refuse collections2 million recycling collections700 miles of pavement cleaned
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Parking and Transport360,000 visitor permits issued 57,000 resident permits issued 6,300 Concessionary Bus passes issued 4,500 Blue Badge issued 1,200 Business permits issued 14,387 permits for roadworks granted |
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Development Management (Planning)3,700 applications received 2,650 applications approved |
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Housing Management11,592 Council tenancies 2,290 leasehold flats in council blocks
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Housing Needs2,800 Applications for social housing 1,800 Units of temporary Accommodation 1,700 open cases for prevention, intervention, advice 1,150 Emergency placements and transfers
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Health & Adult Social Care4,700 care assessments or reviews conducted 4,350 people receiving long term adult social care service 1,300 people receive short term intensive support 30,200 terms of daily living equipment issued
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Families, Children & Learning5,450 children with special education need receive support in schools 2,150 children attend our children’s centres and nurseries 1,950 children supported by social work to be safe (including 400 children in care) 500 receive family support
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Registrars3,400 births registered per year 2,500 deaths registered per year 1,300 marriages registered and officiated 580 new British naturalisation certificates issued
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Libraries14 libraries across the city 978,000 items issued 19,100 unique users of public computers in libraries |
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Bereavement2,000 cremations 350 burials 1,250 deaths reported to the Coroner’s Office
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Benefits19,100 receiving help with council tax 3,250 new claims assessed 2,500 applications assessed for emergency help |
Planned council
wide improvements
Welcoming and accessible Customer Service Centres
Work to review the accessibility and usability of our customer service centres has already resulted in some improvements, such as enhanced support to access council services digitally in both Brighton and Hove Customer Service Centres, with Customer Service advisors available to assist customers who need support to self-serve or who are experiencing any issues or barriers in accessing council services. Review of forms and process to increase immediate resolution and prevention and ensure, if required, enquiries are passed to the most appropriate team in a timely way.
Planned future improvements
† Modernising the self-help facilities in customer service centres - currently we provide desktop computers and flatbed scanners for customers to use, however as increasing numbers of people are more familiar with using their smartphones or tablets to go online, we are reviewing the equipment to make it as easy to use as possible.
† Reviewing internal and external signage for Customer Service Centres to make it easier to find and understand what help is available.
Exploring community access points
As most customers now access or contact services digitally, we are exploring having a greater geographic spread of council contact points across the city for people to use self-help facilities or get support to contact council services.
This measure will also contribute to our ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030, reducing the need for travel to access services. It will also help the council make best use of its existing property portfolio.
Continuous improvement of the council’s digital offer
The council is committed to providing comprehensive digital access to services, as this can be more convenient for customers - services can be accessed at any time, rather than having to wait in a telephone queue, or travel to a council building.
Reviewing and improving these services is a continuous process, based on customer and staff feedback and analysis of user journeys.
Recent improvements
† Access to MyAccount from the home page of the council website and increased numbers of services available through MyAccount
† Improved website design and navigation, including easier to find contact details for services and a navigation menu on the left-hand side of every page, so you can see at a glance the information available in each section of the website.
Planned improvements
† Upgrading the MyAccount application to improve customer journeys and improve product resilience
† All online forms available from MyAccount – this means that anyone logged into MyAccount won’t need to fill in their personal details each time they want to report or apply for something.
† Widening the use of the Customer Index, to make best use of council information systems and data for the benefit of customers.
Planned Service Improvements
† Wholesale review of methods of access to improve response times to residents.
† Review of forms and process to increase immediate resolution and prevention and ensure, if required, enquiries are passed to the most appropriate team in a timely way.
† Continue to focus on learning from complaints and customer feedback in HASC monthly performance meetings to identify actions needed and monitoring of progress around these.
† Digital improvements to online claim forms (staff to analyse and request changes from IT&D)
† Continue to prioritise correspondence received every day with digital correspondence from customer prioritised over other work. Team is looking at possible new work streams, including backlog busting and increased automation of electronic data received from DWP to free staff up to focus on correspondence received from customer.
† Actions to improve or develop the 'human' side of our interactions with customers; share and emphasise the compliments we get from customers, what is important to them, what makes a difference to them.
† Provide more control, efficiency, and consistency in how we respond to customer contact including encouraging the use of the Contact Management System to improve the customer journey.
† Engage and consult with customers using customer feedback to adopt a more customer centric approach including a focus on targeting service users who have been ‘under-reached and under-served’ in the past.
† Reviewing the quality, availability, and accessibility of all FCL content published online, to ensure that service information in the public domain is consistent and accurate, promoting the best way to contact the service.
† Improve refuse and recycling services through the CityClean Improvement Programme by investigating and addressing the root cause of repeated missed collections.
† Continue to work with colleagues on the development and implementation of digital solutions to improve service delivery and communication with the residents including new back-office solutions to maximise efficiency in tandem with a front facing app to improve customers’ requests, complaints and resolution
† Over the next 12 months, redesign rounds to improve the refuse and recycling services and reduce missed collections.
† Specific team collaborating with MyAccount team to improve the usability of website service.
† Increased flexibility in resourcing phone opening times to match periods of low and high demand.
† Increased resources (including backlog team) to respond to customer contacts and reduce delays to response.
† Housing Needs to introduce times for live phone calls to respond more quickly and in real time to customers who choose to contact us by telephone. It is anticipated that this will reduce failure demand via the phone service, resulting in fewer voicemails and emails.
† Improve response rate and time to respond to emails (through implementation of customer contact channels and reduction in emails)
† Ensure corporate customer complaint and customer service response times are adhered to by all services within Housing Needs.
† We will increase the opening hours of our Housing Customer Service telephone line for residents to use between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, in June 2022.
† We will review, and provide staff training, on how we communicate with customers and other services, focussing particularly on how we meet the Customer Promise while adapting to the council’s future ways of working.
† We will prepare for the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures, which are due to be introduced in 2023/4. These are designed to be a core set of statutory measures that all social landlords will have to meet and report against.
† Increase the available resource to the repairs teams to reduce the wait time for previously reported tasks
† Provide coaching and training for new and existing colleagues to improve the customers experience and provide a process for keeping tenants updated on progress.
† Ensuring that tenants are made aware of changes to appointments to reduce the number of missed visits.
† Continue to engage with the corporate strategy to improve the website including navigation and language used
† Continue with the Parking Customer Journey with the introduction of virtual permits
† To improve the online MyAccount customer offer. Support the use of the Customer Service Centres to help customers who require face to face help to access online services.
† Reduce call waiting time by ensuring enough resource is available to manage calls and answer online contact within 5 days to reduce repeated contact. Investigate and support improvements to the corporate telephone system demonstrating a need for an intelligent system
† Website root and branch review, simplification, target to user groups etc
† Enforcement modernisation
† Improve comms around positive outcomes from planning and more comprehensive and inclusive consultation
† Ensuring consistency of customer service offer from officers via training, communicating priorities and development
† Develop a single point of contact to provide more control, efficiency, accountability, and consistency in customer contact. This will remove confusion over the best way to contact the service by having a single point of contact that is more manageable for both staff and managers. To include a front facing app of the Love Clean Streets type and link to Fix My Street, My Account to cover all routes.
† Improve the quality, accountability, and accessibility of information about Transport services on the Brighton & Hove City Council website.
† Continue to ensure we engage and consult with L our residents/businesses/stakeholders on transport strategies, policies, and projects.
† Continue will the best-in-class approach to Mini-Holland and Liveable Neighbourhoods with the Councils approach of extensive engagement and co-production.
Contact Us
We welcome any suggestions, questions or other feedback about this report, please contact:
Luke.Hamblin@brighton-hove.gov.uk Customer Experience Programme Manager
Victoria.Paling@brighton-hove.gov.uk Customer Experience Lead
Rima.Desai@brighton-hove.gov.uk Assistant Director – Customer, Modernisation & Performance Insight
Images used in this report were created by:
‘Bank workers providing service’, ‘cartero dando paquete al cliente oficina correos’, ‘people using online apps’: pch.vector
‘Character illustration people holding speech bubbles’, ‘Character illustration people with internet message icons’, ‘Illustration of avatar communication concept’: rawpixel.com
‘illustration landing page with news icon’, ‘thumbs up sticker’: freepik
‘call center service illustration’: studiogstock
Appendices
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Customer Insightis one element of our Performance Management Framework that sets out how the council manages performance, to achieve our purposeas set out in the Corporate Plan.
Website
We will:
• aim to have the council websiteavailable for 24 hours a day all yearround
• continually improveour online servicesto meet your needs
• ensure our online servicesare accessible and simple to use
• let you know about other ways of contacting us
Face to face
We will:
• make sure our customer service buildings are welcoming, safe, fully accessible and designed to make it easy to get the help you need
• aim to greet you within five minutes of arrival and see you on averagewithin 20 minutes.At busier times, we will aim to let you know how long you may have to wait
• let you know about other ways of contacting us
Written communication
We will:
• ensure all service email addresses have an ‘automatic reply’ whichclearly explains what will happen next
• aim to keep average response times within 10 workingdays. At busiertimes, we will aim to let you know how long you may have to wait
• let you know aboutother ways of contacting us
Social media
We will:
• be clear how we will respondto any queries received
• share relevantinformation and keep this up to date
• let you know aboutother ways of contacting us
Telephones
We will:
• aim to keep averagewaiting times under 10 minutes. At busier times, we will aim to let you know how long you may have to wait
• update voicemails and telephone messages regularly to hold accurate information
• aim to respond to voicemails withinone working day
• let you know about other ways of contacting
> Our customers include everyone who lives, works, visits or does business in Brighton & Hove; we all use council services such as street cleaning and lighting, parks and culture. This definition includes those who actively interact with the council (for example, residents who live in council housing) as well as those the council has to interact with, such as where we have a duty of care.
> The way we deliver customer service is core to providing public services efficiently and effectively. This is relevant to all staff, not just those whose role involves answering phone calls, or seeing customers face to face.
> It also applies to staff whose role provides a service to colleagues, such as Human Resources, Finance and other ‘support’ services.
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Basic offer |
Enhanced offer for complex transactions and/or higher support needs |
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Online / digital |
> We are working towards making sure services are available online where possible and are easy to find for customers to self-serve. > Services are communicating with customers online where possible and appropriate including resolving customer queries. |
> All relevant staff are able to provide support to access digital transactions and information about their services for those who need it, including for those who are digitally excluded. > All staff are expected to provide a basic level of digital help and signposting in a One Council way. > Corporate customer service advisors are available via central council phone line and at Customer Service Centres to support customers in accessing digital services. |
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Telephone |
> Central council phone line is open 9 to 5pm to help customers with basic queries and signposting. > Consistent live telephone offer is being provided by all key services for a minimum of 4 hours each day (9.30 to 1.30pm) aiming to have an average call waiting time of no more than 10 minutes. We are working towards improving consistency whereby phone lines have easy to access options and provide information about waiting times when demand is particularly high. > Where relevant, customers are provided with individual phone contacts for specific officers. |
> Services are strongly encouraged to extend their phone opening times adapting to customer needs. |
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Face to face |
Corporate Customer Service Centre (CSC) > At least one Customer Service Centre is open providing drop-in self-help area supported by customer service advisors including telephone and computer facilities. > Customers are provided pre-booked appointments based on their needs. The drop-in offer includes support to book face to face appointments, working with the relevant service (e.g. if the customer can’t use the telephone in the CSC themselves). > Customer service advisors and concierge are able to arrange urgent face to face appointments with the relevant service, where absolutely necessary. |
> Additional council contact points across the city are being explored as appropriate. > We will explore formalising partnership working with other public and third sector organisations who are able to advise customers about council services.
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Service Specific buildings/reception points This currently includes children’s centres, social work hubs, libraries etc. Service provision is based on customer need and is regularly reviewed and adapted as appropriate by relevant services. Visits and face to face appointments in the community Visits / inspections / appointments are carried out as required to meet service and customers needs by relevant staff e.g. social workers, Field Officers, regulatory services and are regularly reviewed and adapted as appropriate by relevant services. |
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[1]In line with the Census 2011 data Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) is defined as all ethnic groups other than White English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British
[2]Sexual orientation data was not provided in the census 2011. This figure is taken from a survey conducted by the University of Brighton.
[3] City demographic data on age and gender was taken from the Brighton & Hove JSNA summary2017, published in September 2018.
