Issue - meetings

This report summarises the volumes and reasons for stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 complaints received from customers between 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

The Committee received a report summarising the volumes and reasons for stage 1, 2 and 3 complaints received by the Council between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018.

The Committee was informed that a complaint was considered to be any expression of dissatisfaction received by the Council about the level of service provided to a customer, a service the Council had said it would provide but didn’t, or a service the Council had said that it wouldn’t provide but did. The Council had received 1,103 complaints during 2017/18, and 97% of these had been resolved at stage 1. A changed complaints process had been introduced in January 2018, reducing the total number of stages from three to two.

The following matters were considered:

a)            Automated response to internet-submitted complaints. Following a query from members of the Committee, it was noted that an automated response was sent to all internet submitted complaints sent to the Council. Two members of the Committee reported that they had not received automated responses to recent communications, and it was noted that officers would look into the matter.

b)            Recent service issues for the Contact Centre. The Chief Operating Officer informed the Committee that staff sickness and turnover had both been factors in the service issues recently affecting the Council’s Contact Centre. The issues were being addressed.

Following consideration, the Committee:

(1)          Considered and noted the findings of the annual report of customer complaints, which detailed complaints received between 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.