Improving Customer Service in Harrow Jonathan Milbourn – Head of Customer Services.

Improving Customer Service in Harrow

Jonathan Milbourn – Head of Customer Services

Good to be back!

About Harrow….

● Harrow is the 12th largest London Borough in terms of size, but 20th in terms of population.

● One fifth of the borough is composed of parkland and open spaces

● Harrow has roughly 239,100 residents (an increase of 32,300 since 2001)

● Harrow is the most religiously diverse borough in the country and 4th highest non-white British population

● Harrow is generally an affluent borough, ranking 27th out of 32 in the index of multiple depravation in London, but has some serious pockets of depravation.

● Harrow has the third largest population of millionaires in London

Time is short!

A is for Artificial Intelligence

B is for Benchmarking

Transactions by channel

-500

1,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,000

06 / 0707 / 0808 / 0909 / 1010 / 1111 / 1212 / 1313 / 14(Q1)

Tran

sacti

ons (

000)

-

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

£ /

enqu

iry

OSS Tel EMail Webforms/MHA Web £

C is for Control the website

● Take control of the website!

● Understanding your customers– Use of customer segmentation– Broadband access and usage– What on-line services do customers want/use– Keep checking you’ve got it right

● Web site design– Decide on the purpose of your web site and stick to it– Make it easy for people to find what they need– Minimise the number of ‘clicks’ needed to get there– Make sure the information is easy to understand and up to date

D is for Dynamic design

Avoidable Contact

The assessment of whether a contact is avoidable relates only to what caused the customer to make contact ie was it unnecessary.

– the Council didn’t do something– the Council did something wrong– the customer is seeking unnecessary clarification– there is repeat contact with a customer who has to provide the same

information a number of times– the customer is progress chasing

E is for Eliminate avoidable contact

Typical Monthly

Volume % Avoidable Comments

Benefits Document Received 792 22On occasions Atlas or DWP reports already confirm information we have asked for. Also customers bring in documents that are not needed. For

example a tenancy agreement with no changes.

Chasing Progress of Assessment/Query 734 71 Customers always appear to chase progress whether it be within the SLA or outside the SLA, even if the SLA has been highlighted to them.

Changes in Circumstances 730 6

New Claim 721 3This can happen because a customer is not entitled. For example has no

rent liability or does not live in our borough. Also on occasions the process is just a dispute and not a new claim.

Response to Assessor Letter 597 31

Customers often contact us to get us to repeat what is on the letter or contact us because they cannot make our deadlines. However they do

have more time than what we have stated. There is also occasions where a delay in scanning on documents means there

Entitlement Query 483 37

This is because customers are still not understanding our decision notifications or gandlake cover letters and are asking for clarification. I

would say that this is more down to language barrier where weekly award etc does not make sense to everyone.

Payment Query 448 37

Customers often contact to find out when the next payment is which is available on MHA. The other aspects of this which customer usually ask is

why they have been paid a certain amount, usually after a CIC which is similar to the entitlement query.

Assessor Letter - further info 231 9 Again this is usually down to a cross over in information being asked for and a delay in the documents received being scanned on.

E is for Eliminate avoidable contact

F is for Face-to-Face, over the telephone

● Location data – the concept of place

● GIS = Geographic Information System– The management and use of location based data– Eg lamp posts, customers, crime, fraud, flood zones, roads

● Around 80% of local government / business data has a ‘location’ element

● Location data underpins many decisions and service delivery

● Everything is run from one central server so everybody views the same data

G is for GIS

Harrow Spatial

Database

LLPG

P U B L I C I N T E R N A L

DepartmentEditors

DepartmentEditors

GIS Team

Council SystemsCouncil SystemsWebsiteWebsite

1000+ datasets

G is for GIS

Harrow Spatial

Database

LLPGDepartment

EditorsDepartment

Editors

Council SystemsCouncil Systems

1000+ datasets

G is for GIS

H is for Help from the public

I is for Integration

1 2 3 4 5 6Improved Process

6 separate logins6 separate logins

3 separate system searches

3 separate system searches

Double keying & system updates

Double keying & system updates

Manual hand off to service area

Manual hand off to service area

Status update only available from service area

Status update only available from service area

Single sign on to access systems

Single sign on to access systems

3 automated searches

3 automated searches

Automatic system updates

Automatic system updates

Automatic hand off (Civica)

Automatic hand off (Civica)

Status available online(Civica)

Status available online(Civica)

I is for Integration

J is for Journey mapping

K is for Know when to stop adding and redesign

L is for Lean Reviews

Planning ● Writing out to customers isn’t the best way to communicate● Customers are happy if you grant planning permission before the 56th day● Having different codes for the same thing is confusing for staff● Reject 50% then 35%

Concessionary Travel

● Sorting the inbound post is not a specialist role

● Work can be distributed to all trained staff

● Post, post, post - there are other methods of communicating with customers

● Wednesday is not the only day that you are allowed to post out on

● LLPG = Local Land and Property Gazetteer– Spatial database of all land and property within Harrow

– Maintained centrally by LLPG Custodian

● THE corporate address database for Harrow– “Logical Glue” between systems

– Enhances integration and service delivery

● Integrated into over 15+ systems

M is for Maintain the LLPG

N is for Networking

Mrs E is an older person whose husband is her carer. Her Husband passes away and she contacts the Council through a Golden Number to register the death

The Access Harrow contact centre book the appointment with the Registrar and enquire about

her wider support needs.

The Advisor changes her council tax details for single person allowance and recognises that her change in circumstances will trigger a benefits change so sets

up a F2F appointment for the same day.

The Advisor pre-screens for the Reablement service and warm transfers her to a social worker.

Mrs E is advised of her appointment date and starts collecting the financial evidence needed. Mrs E only needs to produce some updated documents as Access Harrow already holds information.

Mrs E visits Access Harrow and the advisor has a file

with information about her current position.

The advisor recognises that she has a disability so

arranges for an assisted bin collection which takes place

immediately.

Mrs E receives a letter advising that her benefits have been reassessed and she

will be getting an enhanced benefit.

She also notices that her assisted rubbish collection has commenced.

Mrs E continues to receive support from the Reablement team and begins

to regain her independence

Mrs E continues to live independently, supported by a personal carer, enhanced benefits and a tele-care package.

Access Harrow calls her to ensure the support is meeting her needs

Access Harrow initiate a review of Mrs E’s benefits and council tax payments and advise her of the outcome They also arrange for assisted rubbish collections and a mobility assessment

Following her Assessment, Mrs E receives a package of support in her Home to enable her to remain independent

O is for One stop service

Council Tax

Business Rates

Housing Benefits

Council Tax Benefits

Housing Resident Services

Housing Repairs

Waste & Recycling

Environmental Health

School Admissions

Parking

Building Control

Planning (including vetting & validation)

Adult Social Care

Community Alarms

Concessionary Travel

Electoral Services

Registration Services

Nationality Checking/Citizenship

Accounts Payable/Receivable

Switchboard

O is for One stop service

P is for Pro-active messaging

Q is for Queue calls effectively

● Why the focus?– vs speed of answer

● What do we mean by this?– An enquiry resolved needing only one call from the customer. It could either

be resolved by the agent at the point of contact or by a subsequent action (e.g. collect bin)

How do we achieve it?– Access to all necessary systems and information– Comprehensive training– Empowering staff– Continuous challenge of ‘hand-off’ points

– Absorbing additional responsibilities such as processing

● What do we resolve at FPC?– 91% of enquiries

R is for Resolution at first point of contact

R is for Resolution at first point of contact

● We had reached a point where to expand the on line services we offer, we needed to know who we are communicating with

● Upon registering, a secure PIN is sent to the customer’s registered address, similar to online banking

● We can now authenticate who we are communicating with electronically, and can now offer an expanded range of personalised services

● Different services require higher levels of authentication

S is for Single online account

– Revenues and Benefits– Landlord account– Planning– Libraries– Alerts– Electoral Registration– Members and Neighbourhood Champions– Streets– Local Information– Waste and recycling


50% annual decrease in ‘simple’ Housing Benefit payment queries

19% of Annual Canvass forms completed via the MyHarrow account

35% decrease in ‘simple’ Council Tax queries

20% annual decrease in ‘simple’ rent enquiries

99% of landlord enquiries are now via the MyHarrow account

The current monthly log-ins save us the equivalent of 11.5 FTE

That’s a £305,000 annual saving!

1,630 text alerts are sent out every month

17,247 changes to the electoral register via the MHA

65 accounts are opened every day

15 people log into their account every hour!

The busiest time is the first Monday of the month

There are 15 alerts available


2013– Employee portal– Leasehold services– School Admissions– Business account– Electronic invoice delivery – Instant self-service access – Expansion of Revs and Bens

2014– Housing repairs– Track all service requests– Planning/Building Control portal– Adult Social Care – personalised budgets and suppliers portal– Consultation and communications – Mobile app


● Annual Canvass – Fully Electronic– Residents sent activation codes for MHA rather than the traditional

canvass form– To access their canvass details, residents log in and retrieve – ‘Changes’ made via MHA, – ‘No Changes’ encouraged to open MHA– No return envelopes included– No text or telephone services (for no changes)

● 18,000 forms completed


T is for Training

● Understand the job

● Ask the right questions

● How to solve the problem

● Sell online services

● Segments all UK households and postcodes

● Over 900 data variables

● 46% Census data, 54% other data

● Validated & updated annually

Socio-demographic classification

61 Lifestyle Types

11 Lifestyle Groups

243 Lifestyle Segments

U is for Understand your customers

● Late/middle aged, married couples

● Teenage children

● Expensive, detached houses

● Luxury cars

● Very high incomes, investments

● Top professions, senior managers

● Well educated

● Waste & Recycling

● Environmental services

● Pays council tax via direct debit

● Preferred Communication Channel - Web

Segment A - Extremely wealthy professionals - 10.3% of households


● Young singles & co-habitees

● Work in City

● Private rented flats

● High income

● Professional occupations

● High levels of smoking/drinking

● Council Tax summons

● Parking Permit

● Preferred Communication Channel - Web

Segment D - Young professionals on high salaries - 9.5% of households


Segment F - Suburban Asian families on moderate incomes - 23.9% of households

● Families with children

● Suburban, semis or terraces

● Asian background

● Middle income

● Multi-person households

● English not first language

● Jobseekers allowance

● Non-smokers, non-drinkers

● Planning

● Schools admissions service

● Preferred Communication Channel – Telephone


V is for Veto telephone numbers online

W is for Workforce management

W is for Workforce management

http://www.pipkins.com/default.asp

X is for eXtract savings

● Since 2006/7 - Costs ↑ by 76%, Transactions ↑ by 504%

● For services migrating to Access Harrow – immediate saving of 30%

● Savings of £375k (15 FTE’s) pa delivered via channel migration

● £1.3 million (30%) savings in MTFS for 2013-16

Year Unique visits per month

Transactions per month

Total Account Holders

Monthly Account Users

2008/9 68,250 1,350 N/A N/A

2009/10 72,513 2,826 N/A N/A

2010/11 73,774 4,950 3,875 1,619

2011/12 77,918 12,863 12,710 4,740

2012/13 115,764 22,724 32,921 10,412

2013/14(P6)

161,014 27,449 40,031 11,444*

* Equates to 11.5 FTE or £305k per annum

Y is for Yippee for good results!

● % Calls Answered - 96%

● % Calls Answered < 30 seconds - 90%

● Average Speed to Answer - 29 secs

● Average Wait Time (F2F) - 4’ 42”

● % Customers seen <10 minutes - 81%

● % Web Forms answered <24 hours - 99%

● % Emails answered <48 hours - 96%


● Avoidable Contact - 18%

● Resolution at First Contact - 91%

● Customer Satisfaction with OSS - 95%

● Reputation tracker - +30%

● % self serve enquiries - 67%

● Cost per enquiry - £0.68


How do we support residents to make the change?

2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

OSS monthly reduction 1,700 1,700 3,500 1,700

Expected monthly volume

9,400 7,700 2,200 500

OSS annual staff reduction

4 FTE 4 FTE 8 FTE 4 FTE

Remaining Staff 20 FTE 16 FTE 12 FTE 4 FTE

Z is for Zero face to face

Customer Services Strategy

Increase customer satisfaction….

● One stop service - where appropriate● Focus on resolution at the first point of contact● Understand our customers and respond to their needs● Eliminate avoidable contacts

…..whilst reducing costs

● Make each contact as efficient as possible● Build the website to handle all services and migrate● Make self-service the only option where appropriate● Reduce face-to-face contact to a minimum

Improving Customer Service in Harrow Jonathan Milbourn – Head of Customer Services.

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