New number helps people save time and money for South Cambridgeshire residents
A new contact service by South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) is helping to save residents both time and money.
The number of residents’ queries being resolved in just one call has rocketed since the new customer contact service was launched in December.
Already 84 per cent of calls received by the team of advisors are being resolved without needing to transfer customers to another department – an improvement of around 20 per cent.
The contact service was brought back in-house in December in a bid to save £250,000 a year while improving the efficiency of the service for residents.
A new and improved self-service SCDC website to help residents carry out more transactions online has also been launched so that bills can be paid, problems reported and services applied for at a click of a button day or night.
As well as allowing residents and businesses to get in touch by phone, SCDC is looking at web-chat and texting to make it easier for people to contact the authority in a way that suits them best.
Customer service chiefs are advising residents that nearly twice as many calls are normally received by SCDC’s contact service on Mondays than any other day, which may mean slightly longer waiting times.
If a query is not urgent and residents are happy to call another day, they may their call is answered more quickly.
The customer contact service is open from 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted on 03450 450 500 and scdc@scambs.gov.uk.
The new self-service website can also be found at www.scambs.gov.uk.
Cllr James Hockney, SCDC cabinet member for corporate and customer service, said: “The customer contact service coming back in-house was always going to help us save thousands of pounds each year, but we have been delighted how quickly the team has boosted the rate of calls being dealt with by the person who picked up the phone, rather than passing residents through to other services.
“It is great news for our residents and businesses as we are providing a better service and also means other officers have the time needed to deal with some of the more complex problems.
“As with any new service there are always things we can do better and we will now try to find ways to reduce waiting times during our busiest periods.”
For all the latest news see Thursday’s (February 28) Echo.
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Saturday 25 May 2013
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