PERFORMANCE REPORTING: CUSTOMER SERVICES
1. Purpose of Report
This report provides a nine month progress report for Annandale and Eskdale Area Committee to update on delivery of the Business Plan for Customer Services.
2. Recommendations
Members are asked to:-
2.1 review the overall performance of the Service as detailed in Appendix 1 – ‘At a Glance Summary Report’;
2.2 review the exception report on Customer Services performance as detailed in Appendix 2 and consider whether the actions proposed are adequate to improve performance and future monitoring of these areas and
2.3 consider any aspects of performance to be referred to the Policy and Resources Committee.
3. Considerations
Context
3.1 In February 2011, Full Council approved the adoption of the new corporate Business Planning Guidance to support the delivery of improved service business planning for 2011/12.
3.2 The Business Planning Guidance makes it clear that the key performance indicators for each service will form the basis of Committee and public reporting on performance during 2011/12 and key performance indicators will also be reported, as part of the Area Framework, where they can be segmented on an Area basis.
3.3 The Customer Service business plan was approved by Policy and Resources Committee in April 2011.
3.4 The Scrutiny and Performance Committee in May 2011 approved the future performance management reporting arrangements within the Council. This will ensure Members receive a six monthly update on progress on delivering this plan and focus on providing Members with service performance highlighting progress against targets for key performance indicators and project milestones.
3.5 This report has been brought forward due to the Local Government elections in May 2012. Consequently it covers the nine months from April to December 2011
Nine Month Progress Update (Stewartry Area Committee)
3.6 The Service’s business plan has four indicators which can be reported at Area level. The ‘At a Glance Summary Report’ – attached as Appendix 1, details the current position.
Number of Customer Enquiries dealt with through corporate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
3.7 At present six services are reported through CRM . An updated software package will be introduced by the end of May 2012. This will enable the reporting of potholes and street lighting to be identified on an area basis. Current figures for Annandale and Eskdale are outlined below:-
April / May / June / July / August / Sept / Oct / Nov / Dec / TotalWhite Goods / 2 / 8 / 5 / 13 / 4 / 7 / 5 / 5 / 6 / 55
Dog Fouling / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 10
Bulky Uplifts / 52 / 50 / 59 / 50 / 55 / 59 / 57 / 54 / 42 / 478
Fly Tipping / 5 / 5 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 1 / 27
Total / 59 / 63 / 67 / 67 / 65 / 68 / 64 / 67 / 50 / 570
As part of the development of Community and Customer Services Business Plan for 2012/15 more appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are being considered. This will include KPIs for Registration and Customer Service Centres. Policy and Resources Committee will be involved in a development session that will contribute to these.
Telly Talk
3.8 The use of Telly Talk to apply for Entitlement Cards continues to be well used. Applications for Blue Badges went live on the system at the end of January with Building and Planning applications due to begin by the end of March. A first unit for Annandale and Eskdale will be installed in Lockerbie library by the end of April.
Total number of visits to Libraries
3.9 The table below gives a breakdown of physical visits across the four Area Committee boundaries as well as Dumfries and Galloway wide mobile and virtual visits.
VISITS TO LIBRARIESYear to date 2010 / Year to date 2011
PHYSICAL VISITS
Nithsdale / 206412 / 206036 / 100%
Annandale and Eskdale / 127296 / 116308 / 91%
Stewartry / 141797 / 137238 / 97%
Wigtownshire / 177420 / 159472 / 90%
MOBILES / 15775 / 14940 / 95%
Total / 668700 / 633994 / 95%
VIRTUAL VISITS / 258902 / 306427 / 118%
Total / 927602 / 940421 / 101%
Overall the numbers of physical visits to libraries in Annandale and Eskdale follows a similar pattern although with a year on yeas decrease. The unit breakdown for Ananndale and Eskdale is highlighted below
Library / Year to date 2010 / Year to date 2011Annan / 50443 / 44611 / -12%
Eastriggs / 3006 / 2781 / -7%
Gretna / 10598 / 9163 / -14%
Langholm / 8887 / 7212 / -19%
Lochmaben / 2781 / 3515 / +26%
Lockerbie / 38973 / 37087 / -5%
Moffat / 12608 / 11939 / -5%
Total / 127296 / 116308 / -9%
3.10 The success at Lochmaben is linked to the introduction of a more retail approach to the delivery of the service. A small team of staff will be pulled together to further explore the trends across Annandlae and Eskdale and develop an action plan aimed at improving performance. This will include developing the retail approach across all libraries.
3.11The table below summarises the overall satisfaction levels in each of the four areas from the survey carried out in November 2011.
Area / % satisfaction ratings of ‘very good’Wigtownshire / 77.4%
Nithsdale / 86.9%
Stewartry / 81.7%
Annandale & Eskdale / 75.3%
Total / 82%*
*The total also includes central functions satisfaction figures
This represents an overall improvement in Annandale and Eskdale of 3.9% over the 2010 results.
3.12 The Scottish Library and Information council (SLIC) has acknowledged the achievements of Dumfries and Galloway libraries through their inspection of national library quality indicators. Assessment of the seven areas has taken place over the last two years with the final inspection looking at QI 6 – Organisation and the use of resources and space and QI 7 leadership taking place in October 2011.
3.13 Overall there are 24 measures across the seven categories. The breakdown for Dumfries and Galloway is as follows
Level 6 – excellent, outstanding sector leading - 9 grades
Level 5 – very good, major strengths – 11 grades
Level 4 – good, important strengthes with areas for improvement – 4 grades
3.14 Full details are highlighted in Appendix 3. This also provides benchmarking information against both the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) comparator authorities, highlighted in green as well as the majority of other local authorities.
Reader Development
3.15 A training course, ‘Setting out our Stall:the Essentials of Reading Promotion for Public Libraries’ was held in January 2012. Five members of staff from Annandale and Eskdale attended. This course considered the use of retail techniques to increase the use of stock and issues. As a result of the training staff are now looking to develop a ‘stock just in’ area as well as a ‘customer recommendation’ display.
Customer Service Excellence
3.16 Once again local libraries have successfully achieved the Cabinet Office Customer Service Excellence Standard. The Standard tests in great depth those areas that research has indicated are a priority for customers, with particular focus on delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude. There is also emphasis placed on developing customer insight, understanding the user’s experience and robust measurement of service satisfaction.
3.17 The service has maintained the same high level as last year and scored full compliance on 56.5 out of 57 elements. In addition they were awarded ‘Compliance Plus’ on 2 elements 1.3.5 - Improved Customer Journeys and on 4.2.3 – Benchmarking performance and improvement – which means that they not only met all aspects of these elements, but that they have demonstrated that they have exceeded the requirements of the Standard.
3.18 On awarding the Standard to Libraries, Information and Archives, the Assessor commented that,
“This is an organisation that is exceptionally customer focused and services are provided within a context of a continuing financially challenged local authority. High levels of customer satisfaction are apparent for all of the services provided and the service uses customer views to drive forward a continuous improvement cycle, continuously developing services that are highly regarded and used by local residents. There is evidence that Dumfries and Galloway is amongst the best providers of Library, Information and Archive services within Scotland and that despite the financial constraints the service continues to develop new partnerships that widen access to the residents of the region.”
Customer Service Centre/Library Integration
3.19 The building works at Gretna are currently behind schedule. The Principal Offcier Customer Services (East) is liaising with the contractor on a regular basis. It is hoped that the facility will be functioning by the end of April. It is anticipated that up to two thirds of the books in the new facility will be new stock. A publicity campaign related to the opening of the integrated premises is also being planned.
Customer Satisfaction Measurement Tool
3.20 Discussions have taken place with all Council departments. Intitial interest is very positive with departments considering how they can make best use of the process. A pilot survey will be undertaken by Community and Customer Services in March.
4. Governance Assurance
4.1 Community and Customer Services Management Team have been consulted and are in agreement with this report.
5. Impact Assessment
5.1 As this report does not propose a change in a policy or the formal adoption of a plan, policy or strategy no impact assessment is required.
Author(s)
NAME / DESIGNATION / CONTACT DETAILSIan Donaldson / Head of Strategic Planning and Customer Services /
Approved by
NAME / DESIGNATION / SIGNATUREJustin Tracy / Director of Community and Customer Services /
Appendices – 3
1