Decision details

The Cabinet had before it a *report of the Scrutiny Working Group “Review of Customer Experience in Mid Devon District Council” which had been considered  by the Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 20^th July 2020 and it had made the following recommendations:

1.    That a business case for a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to replace the existing technology is developed and considered by the Cabinet. That any new system be designed with customer need at the centre of the process.

2.    That systems work to full capacity and meet the needs of the customer first and foremost. Back offices should carry out service reviews and review business processes to ensure they are customer focused.

3.    To ensure customers are at the heart of the Council, a customer focused culture should be promoted across the whole organisation - for all staff from the top down. This could include training (for Leadership Team, Officers and Members), Members/staff workshops or the use of advocates/case studies to promote a new system.

4.    That a customer survey is carried out with members of the public regarding their experience and satisfaction as customers of the Council. Results are reported back to the Working Group when available.

5.    That the Planning Department consider re-establishing a dedicated phone answering system, to ensure officers have capacity to focus on applications.

6.    That the phone waiting times are reduced. A review of why the Service Level Agreement is not being met is carried out.

The Cabinet Member for the Working Environment and Support Services thanked the members of the working group and the officers who had put forward the excellent report. The work had been a valuable exercise looking broadly across the work of the whole authority.  The report had highlighted some system processes that could be improved and had considered system used by other councils.  She looked forward to receiving feedback from officers with regard to the work that was taking place and requested that timescales be put in place for some of the action points.

Consideration was given to: the work of the working group, the clean processes that were already in place in some departments and the need for the CRM system to be updated.

It was requested that special thanks to the Policy/Research Officer be recorded for  her work on the project..

RESOLVED that the recommendations of the Scrutiny Committee be approved.

(Proposed by Cllr Mrs N Woollatt and seconded by Cllr L D Taylor)

Reason for decision

In light of the recent Covid challenges for the public and the authority, as an organisation we need to ensure that we continue to meet customer needs and a review of our customer approach is overdue.  Acting on the recommendations from the report would serve as a useful exercise to also review lessons learned from the last few months in how we as an organisation are able to do things differently. 

Note: *Report previously circulated, copy attached to minutes.