Shropshire Council consulting on cutting call centre times

Shropshire Council’s customer service centre answers enquiries on about 50 or so council services, including by phone. The telephone lines are currently open for 54 hours, six days a week from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.

The council is consulting on options to reduce the call centre hours to five days a week and presenting three options:

1. 30 hours a week. Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm, closed Saturdays (the councils preferred option).
2. 30 hours a week. Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm, closed Saturdays.
3. Monday and Tuesday 9am to 3.30pm, Wednesday and Thursday 9am to 3pm, Friday 10am to 3pm.

The option of no change is not available. Neither is the option of cutting the little used hours, before 9am, after 5pm and Saturday mornings, while retaining a full service at peak times.

I have nothing against a shift from telephones to the internet, which is the council’s ambition. This should not be at the expense of customers needing help.

Take part in the consultation. Closing date 23 April.

The rational for the proposed change is to reallocate staff resources to making calls to residents. It will also save £93,000 a year but the council denies that the changes are to save money. It will though contribute a savings towards its 2023/24 target of making permanent savings of £1 million a week. In the budget, the council is committed to a review of customer contact teams. It expects “channel shifting to promote more streamlined and cost-efficient responses”, saving £1,112,000 in 2023/24. Channel shifting means moving from phones to the internet. An online transaction costs around £0.15, while answering a phone call costs around £2.83.

The number of calls to the customer service centre is falling but we don’t know how efficient the service is in answering calls.

Option 1

• Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm, closed Saturdays.
• 30 hours a week.
• 55.5% of current opening times.
• Frees up around 108 staff hours for other customer service duties.

The council says the advantages of Option 1 are uniform opening times more easily recognised by residents. Few calls are made before 10am. It acknowledges there are still relatively high numbers of calls currently received between 3pm and 5pm, which will not be answered.

Option 2

• Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm, closed Saturdays.
• 30 hours a week.
• 55.5% of current opening times.
• Frees up around 54 staff hours for other customer service duties.

This again has uniform opening times but there are fewer hours for outbound calls.  

Option 3

• Monday and Tuesday 9am to 3.30pm, Wednesday and Thursday 9am to 3pm, Friday 10am to 3pm.
• 30 hours a week.
• 55.5% of current opening times.
• Frees up around 97 staff hours for other customer service duties.

This article has been delayed while I waited for the council to provide data on call response times. Ten working days after my request, the information has yet to be supplied, despite my chasing it with the head of customer services.

It is very rare that the council’s call line is answered immediately. I asked the portfolio holder Rob Gittins about how long people were kept waiting. I had expected some data but his reply was off the cuff:

“I know the majority of calls are answered in under 5 minutes, and we have very few caller hang ups due to call wait times.”

Many people might think waiting five minutes is unacceptable. And what does “the majority” mean: is it 51% of calls or 99% of calls? What is the average, time for answering calls? I have asked officers this information.

Without data, we don’t know whether the current arrangements are delivering satisfaction and successful outcomes for the customer.