Scrutiny final callbacks report

Internal Affairs for

Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel

Callbacks: Final Report

27 November 2015

Shehnaz Akhtar Page 2

Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel

Contents Page

Project background ................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

1 Statistics ................................................................................................................................................... 3

2 Callback Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 5

3 CRM Database ......................................................................................................................................... 8

4 Calls completed at first point of contact ............................................................................................... 10

5 Monitoring ............................................................................................................................................. 11

6 Case study .............................................................................................................................................. 12

7 Complaints ............................................................................................................................................. 12

What we liked ........................................................................................................................................ 14

What concerned us? .............................................................................................................................. 14

Recommendations ................................................................................................................................. 15

Appendix:

Staff Interviews ...................................................................................................................................... 16

Spot check – outcome categories .......................................................................................................... 17

Spot check – completions by individuals and teams ............................................................................. 17

Spot check - complaints ......................................................................................................................... 19

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 21



Scrutiny Review: Callbacks

Final Report

The Project

Callbacks: this was a complaint theme.

Background

The topic came about as a result of complaints from tenants who had not been called back by

planners after requesting a callback via voicemail or the contact centre.

What we wanted to know

• How effective is the system for handling callbacks

• What measures are in place to achieve the service standard target?

• Is there an escalation process for unreturned callbacks?

• Are arrangements in place for monitoring of callbacks?

What we looked at

• Contact Centre statistics; number of incoming calls/callback requests/outstanding callbacks

• The effectiveness of the callback procedure

• The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database

• Effectiveness of calls resolved at first point of contact

• How callbacks are monitored and what action is taken for outstanding callbacks

• Complaints database for callback related complaints

What we found

1. Statistics

a. Incoming calls

• Adactus Connect Contact Centre is a central point from which customer contacts are

managed and calls are routed to appropriate people.

• Most customer contacts received through the contact centre are logged on CRM. Contacts

not recorded are those from callers who are not QL clients (they cannot be recorded on

CRM), arrears calls (they are logged in rents monitoring part of QL), calls that can lead to a

repair order being raised, or calls transferred to other departments.

• The contact centre receives between five hundred and eight hundred calls per day. Call

levels tend to be highest on a Monday, and then decrease throughout the course of the

week.



• The aim is to resolve seventy percent of customer issues at first point of contact.

• Calls resolved at first point of contact increased from seventy-three percent in 2014/15, to

seventy-four percent in 2015/16 (to date).

• It was difficult to establish how many callback requests had been received by email via the

Adactus info-box; once an email has been dealt with (logged on CRM and forwarded to the

appropriate staff member) it is deleted from the inbox.

• During the course of the scrutiny, evidence was seen of emailed callback requests logged on

CRM.

b. Service Standards

• Failure to complete a callback within the expected time scale can lead to more inbound

calls from seriously unhappy customers. A callback success rate is therefore a critical

measure of the callbacks process.

• Adactus Housing Group’s service standard is to achieve 90% of telephone callbacks by the

next working day (or at an agreed time) and 100% within two working days (or at an agreed

time).

• For other methods of enquiry (letter, email, web) the target is 80% by one day and 100%

within two days.

• A review revealed that the Group has failed to achieve its target for callbacks. In

September the percentage completed within the two days was as follows:

o Telephone – 67%

o Email - 63%

o Letter – 38%

• The teams that received a low number of callback requests for example, between one and

five, had achieved 100% completion within two days.

• Generally, email callbacks achieved a higher completion rate and were more likely to be

actioned within the timescales than callback requests by telephone or letter.

c. Service standard awareness

• Generally there was a lack of awareness amongst staff about the callback service standards

(except contact centre staff) despite the following actions to raise awareness:

o Service standards have been publicised on Pulse (the Group’s internet), in 2012.

o An article on how to complete contact actions (including by email) and staff

responsibilities has been publicised on Pulse in 2014.

o CRM action requirements of staff have been publicised on Pulse in 2014.

o HR training and training materials highlight what is required of staff.

o Individual staff have been contacted directly by the Director of Corporate Services

about poor performance with contact action completions.

o Managers have been shown how to monitor their staff’s performance and reminded

of their responsibility.



• With regards to customers, the service standards are available on the website and have

previously been published in the tenants’ newsletter.

• Eighty-seven Adactus500 members took part in a recent consultation on callbacks, almost

half of them stated they wanted to be called back within two hours (this rose to two-thirds

of those aged thirty-five and under).

d. Callback requests

• Twenty-three thousand four-hundred (23,400) callbacks requests had been received in the

last financial year (between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015).

• During September 2015, two-thousand two-hundred and eighty-one (2,281) callbacks had

been actioned. Of those, one-thousand five-hundred and ninety-one (1,591) had been

completed and one-hundred and one (101) were outstanding. For the other five-hundred

and eighty-nine (589) the ‘outcome’ had been completed as:

o cancelled - twenty-four (24)

o job raised - eighty-seven (87)

o message left - one-hundred and twenty-three (123)

o no reply - twenty-six (26)

o pending - thirty-four (34)

o superseded (reallocated to someone else) - two-hundred and eighty-five (285)

o tenant ok – ten (10)

2. Call back Procedure

a. Logging a call

• Adactus uses a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) computer system which allows

all customer contacts to be logged.

• When the contact centre receives an incoming call, staff are required to record detailed

information on CRM relating to the call including the callers name, reason for call, and any

further action required as a result of the call. The contact centre staff will try to resolve the

issue however, if they are unable to do this then the call is passed through to someone who

may be able to provide assistance. If they are unavailable then a call back action is

requested.

b. Allocating a callback

• If a call back is required, staff selects the ‘call back’ action on CRM and allocates it to a

member of staff or a team. Once the action has been added the system automatically

generates an email and sends it to that person/team instructing them to call back the

customer.

• If a customer is flagged as vulnerable or having some form of issue, the way the callback is

handled depends on the person making the call. Flags are mainly placed to make staff

aware they may need to adapt their approach to the call. The staff member will decide

when or if to adapt their approach depending on how well the call is going.



• The flags on QL are quite comprehensive for example; hard of hearing, allow extra time to

get to the phone, and language preference. The flags contain sufficient information for staff

returning a call to make an informed decision on what approach to take.

• The system does not generate a SMS (text message) acknowledgement to the customer to

confirm that the callback request has been received by the individual or team.

• The responsibility of making the callback and completing the action on CRM rests with the

member of staff to whom a callback request is allocated.

• Steps have been taken to allow contact centre staff to take ownership of the callbacks they

request. The callback monitoring report identifies staff that have actioned callbacks.

Contact centre staff chase up the appropriate member of staff if a callback request has not

been completed on CRM.

• If a member of staff is on leave, contact centre staff often only become aware of this after

the callback action has been allocated and the system email has been sent which triggers

the automatic ‘out of office’ reply (if activated). If this happens then the action has to be

reallocated to a colleague or their line manager. However, if the out of office has not been

activated then the action will remain outstanding until the staff member returns back to

work; therefore it will surpass the target time.

• There is a slightly different call back system in place for the Tenancy Enforcement and

Support Team (who deal with reports of anti-social behaviour), and the Income Team (who

deal with rent payment).

o Income team - Each day a member of staff from each team acts as duty officer.

When a call back is actioned the system will send an email to the duty officer and in

addition to this, contact centre staff enter the call back request into the relevant

team’s duty diary. The duty officer is responsible for returning any callback requests,

initially as an acknowledgment with a follow-on action.

o Tenancy Enforcement and Support Team also operate a duty diary for callbacks.

Callback requests are entered in the duty officer’s diary who will be responsible for

returning the call. If a customer asks for a particular member of staff who is not

available then they are offered the option to speak with the duty officer first then a

callback.

c. Completing a callback

• Once contact has been made with the customer, staff are required to complete the

‘outcome’ section on CRM with one of the following actions:

o Completed - no further action required (action has been completed)

o Cancel - action cancelled (when action is no longer required/applicable)

o Job raised - for repair order (when an appointment has been raised)

o Message left - when contact with customer could not be made (voicemail left)

o No reply - unable to leave message (when three unsuccessful attempts made)

o Pending - waiting for information (when action is still waiting completion)

o Superseded - contact reassigned or passed back



o Tenant OK - when customer is happy with the explanation provided (this is used

to close old outstanding contacts)

• Training is provided to staff to ensure they are aware of which outcome codes to use.

When selecting a code on CRM, the drop down menu provides a brief self explanatory

description against each code. There is currently no monitoring of whether the codes are

used consistently.

• In January 2014, a new method of completing CRM contact actions was introduced. This

enables staff that does not use CRM regularly to complete their outstanding actions by

sending an email to the Task Centre (a database) using the customer’s unique contact

reference number and providing a short detail of the outcome. Task Centre then

automatically completes the callback and records the comment in the appropriate field.

• A review of completed callbacks revealed that the outcome feature on CRM was not being

utilised correctly:

o In cases where contact with the customer could not be made and there was no

facility to leave a message, staff had not logged the date and time of calls. Therefore

it could not be verified if staff had made three attempts to contact the customer.

o Staff had omitted to complete the outcome details with the action taken for two-

hundred and forty-four completed callbacks (the detail section had been left blank).

o Staff had provided minimal details of the outcome in two-hundred and ninety-five

callbacks by stating; called back, completed, or rang tenant. It was difficult to

determine what information had been provided to the customer and whether it was

sufficient.

o In a small number of cases staff had updated CRM with their answer when the

customer could not be contacted. This would enable contact centre staff to provide

an update on the status of an individual case if a customer were to follow up their

enquiry.

• In many cases the callback had been made but staff had not closed down the action on

CRM.

• Anecdotal evidence from a recent Adactus500 survey indicate that twenty customers had

not received a callback and had to ring back, in some cases they rang back a number of

times before the callback was returned. The majority were associated with asset

management; waiting for parts, follow on repairs, and repair requests.

d. Completion by individuals and teams

• A review was carried out to establish if callbacks actioned to teams produced a higher

percentage of completions within target times. In order to do this two-thousand one-

hundred and thirty (2,130) callback requests actioned in October 2015 were analysed;

ninety-six percent (96%) were telephone requests and four percent (4%) by email.

• One-thousand five-hundred and forty-six (1,546) (seventy-three percent) of callbacks were

assigned to individuals and five-hundred and eighty-four (584) (twenty-seven percent) to

teams.



Individuals

• One-hundred and five staff completed three-hundred and ninety-nine callbacks within

target; sixty-two requests were received via email/website, others were by telephone.

o It is worth mentioning that one housing officer in Miles Platting received the most

callback requests (twenty-eight) which he had completed within one working day.

• The analysis showed that no action had been taken for forty callbacks (the percentage

completed in two days was zero). The callbacks had been allocated to twenty-eight staff

(eleven were managers).

Teams

• Most teams achieved one-hundred percent email callback completions. Teams that failed

to meet the target were grounds maintenance and service charge leasehold; they achieved

sixty and eighty percent respectively.

• Completion rates for telephone callbacks ranged between forty-four and one-hundred

percent. The cyclical decoration team completed the lowest number of callbacks at forty-

four percent.

3. CRM Database

a. CRM

• The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is computer system used to record and

manage customer interactions. It has a facility that allows details of any contact made

between the customer and the company to be logged.

• Not all staff uses the CRM system, it is mainly used by staff in departments that have

contact with customers such as; connect, finance (income team), asset management, and

TEAS (who also use their own database, ReAct, to record sensitive information).

• Departments that do not use CRM routinely are;

o Development – they use their own database and do not routinely communicate

directly with customers.

o Internal Affairs – have their own database for logging complaints and contacts with

customers.

o IT – are not customer facing and do not directly deal with customers.

o Finance (except income team) use QL but do not routinely communicate directly

with customers.

o Asset Management – staff who are not office-based for example, DLO, gardeners,

window cleaners, and gas engineers.

• Training sessions are provided for all staff including new recruits who are required to use

CRM as part of their role. Refresher training is also available and is provided regularly by

HR. Seventy-three staff had received CRM training (including refresher training) between 1

November 2014 and 31 October 2015.



• If staff use CRM incorrectly (despite training), the manager will advise them of the correct

procedure and encourage them to take refresher training. Disciplinary action is considered

only as a last resort if staff continues to disregard training and advice.

• The effectiveness of CRM training is not currently evaluated.

• Although CRM is a useful tool that enables staff to capture as much detail as possible

regarding a contact, it is not user friendly.

• A review found it was somewhat difficult to follow the workflow of allocated call back

actions.

• CRM does not have a facility for sending reminders to staff to complete their outstanding

callbacks.

• There is no automatic escalation process for unreturned callbacks.

• The system does not recognise employees non-working days when an action is allocated

therefore it affects the callback targets.

• QL does not determine working days therefore callbacks actioned on a Friday would be

outside of the timescales and deemed to be out target on a Monday.

• The email action code on CRM does not correspond with the service standard timescale;

the target on QL is three days whereas the service standard is two days. Evidence was seen

of emails completed within three days but had been reported as out of target in the

callback monitoring report.

• CRM does not have a facility that allows it to match up an outbound call to an outstanding

contact.

b. Callback automated email

• CRMs automated email’s subject line is ineffective and likely to be unread unless staff are

aware that it relates to a callback; it states ‘QL Housing Contact Management’ - followed by

the customer’s address.

• The format of the automated email is not quick and easy to scan. It captures too much

detail and does not highlight the main purpose of the email. It includes the caller’s name

and address (over several lines), contact reference, telephone number, action reference,

rent warning, tenancy and rent account numbers, class levels, a brief description of the call,

date and time, the name of the person who took the call, and right at the end it states what

action is required (callback) and the deadline for returning it.

• The email is in a predefined format and cannot be edited by Adactus (it can only be done by

the provider) however, it is possible for staff to overtype the subject line.

• The scrutiny Panel reviewed the format of the email at the interim meeting and specifically

suggested that Adactus:

o Make the subject more obvious that a callback is required.

o Remove unnecessary duplication.

o Prioritise information at the top of the email.

o Contain customer preferences for best time to call/method of contact.



4. Calls completed at first point of contact

a. Training

• Contact Centre staff are trained to deal with a range of enquiries (up to a certain level) so

that they are equipped to resolve queries at first point of contact. Anything above that

level is referred to dedicated teams throughout the organisation.

• The contact centre induction programme ensures new recruits are given all the help and

guidance they need for them to do their job to the required standard as soon as possible.

As part of the initial training the recruits work shadow other colleagues which is considered

the best way for them to learn. On the job training is also provided in which the recruits

deal with some calls up to a certain point. The whole process takes approximately thirty

days depending how quickly staff learn.

• Guidance notes are provided to assist contact centre staff in handling calls. They are

advised to carry out security checks, identify the callers’ needs using questioning skills, take

responsibility for dealing with the call, and carry it through. If they cannot answer an

enquiry quickly, they are advised to give the caller the option of a call back.

• The guidance notes also remind staff to ensure they record the contact on CRM so that

there is a full record of contacts with the customer.

• Evidence was not seen of situations where staff had solved issues superficially thus

resulting in more incoming calls.

• Contact centre’s performance is continually monitored and reported to Board for example,

calls answered within a defined time, and calls resolved at first point of contact.

Performance is also monitored on calls for; repairs, Turner House, Miles Platting, and

housing management. If any issues are identified then corrective action is taken to resolve

them for example, staff training.

b. Knowledge base

• Customer services staff have access to a ‘knowledge base’. This is a database that contains

information on all service channels which allows it to be shared with customers. Its aim is to

reduce the customer handling time, improve first contact resolution, and eliminate time

wasted searching for information, and improve customer satisfaction.

• The knowledge base contains guidance on sixteen service areas including aids and

adaptations, allocations and lettings, anti-social behaviour, complaints, development,

energy advice, grounds maintenance, home ownership – leasehold/shared, money matters,

rents and payments, repairs and maintenance, resident involvement, sheltered and

supported, tenancy enforcement and tenancy issues. It also provides information on a

wide-range of other topics.

• On each subject matter the knowledge base prompts staff to ask the caller additional

questions in order to obtain further information. It guides them through the questions and

possible answers and explains what they should communicate to the customer.

• At the end of the guidance notes is a section that asks if the query has been answered and

requests the user to leave feedback.



• Staff also have the opportunity to give suggestions on new topics and things they have

learned so that the knowledge base can be updated in those areas.

• The review revealed that the knowledge base is a useful tool that provides detailed

information and guidance to staff. If the customer’s enquiry cannot be dealt with by the

contact centre staff, it instructs them to refer the call to a dedicated team/person. If that

team/person is unavailable they are then advised to request a callback for the customer

and reminded to log the contact on CRM.

• Not all guidance notes state that a callback should be made within twenty-four or the forty-

eight hour timescale.

• The guidance notes do not advise staff to ask the customer for a preferred time of callback,

or a preferred method of contact.

5. Monitoring

• Since July 2015, callback performance is monitored by the Customer Services Manager

(Quality) on a monthly basis. Prior to this, callbacks were not consistently monitored.

• A report is run off the system that shows outstanding callbacks in the period, this could be

by department, team, or an individual. Staff are then contacted by telephone or email to

remind them to take action of their outstanding callbacks.

• The monitoring report showed the teams that received the greatest number of callback

requests had completed the highest percentage of callbacks within the target times. They

are; arrears recovery, allocations & lettings, connect, and planned maintenance. These

teams received on average between two-hundred and five-hundred callbacks each month.

o Teams that received between one-hundred and two-hundred callback requests

completed less than fifty percent callbacks within target.

o Those who received up to ten callback requests completed less than thirty-five

percent within target (with the exception of HR who completed one hundred

percent).

• Since the introduction of monitoring of outstanding callbacks in July 2015, there has been

an improvement in the percentage of callbacks completed within target (from 64% to 73%).

• A review of outstanding callbacks revealed that some actions showed as outstanding from

2012, 2013, and 2014; they had not been closed on the system.

• The performance matrix is not linked to staff performance on callbacks.

• The annual staff personal performance review (PPR) is part of career development and does

not cover performance monitoring on callbacks. However, it does include a section that

provides an opportunity for the manager (and staff member) to talk about any issues that

may have an impact on their performance at work.

• Adactus does not collect satisfaction data on how callbacks are handled (data is captured

on repair satisfaction).

• Collecting satisfaction data on how callbacks are handled is possible by looking at callbacks

that are closed or raised within a specific date range. However, if a customer made more



than one contact within the specified time then it would be difficult to determine which

contact the survey relates to.

6. Case Study

• A sample of ten callback requests were tested to see how calls were handled:

o In all cases staff had been courteous.

o In most cases the callbacks had been actioned after an attempt had been made to

transfer the call to a member of staff.

o In one case the advisor explained that the ASB team would call back over the next

few days.

o In one case it was evident the advisor would not be able to deal with the customers

query and a callback was required. The duration of the call was twenty minutes after

which a callback was actioned.

o Customers were not advised of the timescales for making the callback (service

standards).

o Customers were not asked for a preferred method of contact for example, email.

o Customers were not asked for a preferred time of call.

• The results of the recent Adactus500 survey on callbacks revealed that:

o Almost half the members were not asked for a time to be called back – nearly

everyone thought it was important to be asked a preferred time to receive a call.

o Over forty percent remembered being asked their preferred method of contact –

nine in ten thought it was important to be asked how they would like to be

contacted.

7. Complaints

• Six complaints relating to unreturned callbacks were received between 1 September 2014

and 31 October 2015. A review revealed that where a service failure had been identified

measures had been taken to redress the issue for example, a review of procedures, and staff

training.

• A case study was carried of two complaints:

• Case 1 – On 23 May 2014 an email was received via the Adactus inbox regarding a tenancy

matter. It was logged on CRM and acknowledged by the receptionist who then allocated a

callback to a neighbourhood development officer (NDO). The query was in relation to a

tenancy matter therefore the NDO superseded the callback to the lettings manager on 2

June 2014; he failed to respond in accordance with the service standards.

Resolution: the lettings manager apologised and was required to investigate the issue and

respond directly to the customer.

• Case 2 – On 26 September 2014, an email enquiry was received regarding services charges.

The query was passed to the service charge leasehold team for them to provide relevant



information to the customer. On 29 October they superseded the query to the sheltered

team (as it related to sheltered accommodation). The customer chased up the callback on 2,

15, and 29th October but failed to get a satisfactory response within this time therefore

raised an official complaint.

The operations manager had replied by email on 8 October 2014 (after twelve days)

however, this action had not been completed on CRM. The customer was not satisfied with

the response and had requested further information on 9 October. On 17 October, this

request was passed to the service charge accountant who responded to the query on her

return from leave on 27 October.

Resolution: The operations manager apologised for the delay in responding to the customer

and provided a full explanation to the query via telephone on 5 November 2014.



What we liked:

• Service standards are published on the website.

• Staff training to enable them to deal with a range of enquiries.

• Seventy staff received CRM training within twelve months.

• Provision of guidance notes to assist staff in handling calls.

• Knowledge base provides detailed information and guidance on all service channels.

• Aim to resolve calls at first point of contact.

• CRM generates an automatic email for a callback action.

• 100% callbacks completed within target in some departments.

• Duty diary system in operation by the Tenancy Enforcement & Support, and Income team.

• Initial acknowledgment call made by the Income team duty officer.

• Staff left an answer on CRM in cases where they could not make contact with the customer.

• Email method of completing actions for staff who do not use CRM regularly.

• Monitoring of outstanding callbacks – staff are prompted to return the callback.

What concerned us?

• The inconsistency in service standard callback targets between telephone and other

methods of enquiry.

• Lack of awareness of the callback service standards amongst staff (outside of the contact

centre) despite actions taken to raise awareness.

• Format of the automated email.

• The number of outcome actions available to select from.

• The outcome feature is not utilised appropriately to record information following returned

calls.

• No automatic escalation of unreturned callbacks.

• Targets don’t take into account staff non-working days.

• CRM does not determine working days.

• Inconsistency between email target on CRM and service standards.

• Staff not closing down the action following a completed callback.

• CRM is not user friendly.

• Customers are not asked for a preferred time of call.

• Satisfaction data is not collected on how callbacks are handled.



Recommendations:

• Revise service standards so they are consistent.

• Change the email action codes on QL to correspond with service standards.

• Amend the subject heading line of callback emails to make them more effective.

• Consider sending callback emails as high priority (red flag).

• Acknowledge the callback with the customer.

• Modify QL to recognise non working days (weekends).

• Send automated reminders for outstanding callbacks on day two of target times.

• Automatic escalation of unreturned callbacks for example, to a manager.

• Collect satisfaction data on handling of callbacks.

• Look into the feasibility of a new system to make contact handling more user friendly.



Appendix

Staff Interviews

The following interviews were carried out with staff:

Name Role Date interviewed Topics covered

Ceri Walker Customer Services

Manager (Quality)

2 October 2015

20 October 2015

Callbacks

Service standards

Training

Performance

Statistics

Monitoring

Mike Watts Database Officer 7 October 2015

20 October 2015

Reporting system - CRM

monitoring reports (where

information is derived).

Automated emails

Task Centre

Mike Murphy Head of

Income/Leasehold

Management

12 October 2015 Callback procedure – duty

officer system

Task Centre

Monitoring

Kate Sullivan TEAS Manager 13 October 2015 Callback procedure – duty

officer system

Targets

Tracey Adu Assistant Director

of Corporate

Services (contact

centre)

17 November 2015 Callbacks

CRM usage by departments

Monitoring

Satisfaction data

William Potts Business Analyst

17 November 2015 Telephone system

Statistics – direct dial, emails.

Automated email

SMS alerts

Callback satisfaction data



Spot Check - ‘outcome’ categories

What we wanted to check

We wanted to know if staff were correctly utilising the outcome section on CRM when they

completed a callback.

What we looked at

A report was produced from Reporting Services that showed callbacks actioned and completed

between 1 and 30 September 2015. We filtered the outcome column to identify actions taken and

we categorised them into the available outcome options. We checked the descriptions to ensure

the categories were used correctly.

What we found

There are too many options to choose from when completing a callback, it could not be established

if staff had used the correct option where contact could not be made. Staff had completed the

comments section with insufficient details or had omitted to complete them at all. Some staff had

provided an update of the status of the callback where the customer could not be contacted.

Spot Check - Completions by individuals and teams


We wanted to know whether callbacks were actioned more quickly when allocated to teams rather

than individuals.

What we looked at

We ran a report from Reporting Services that showed callbacks actioned and completed between 1

and 31 October 2015. We filtered the report to identify callbacks actioned by teams and those by

individuals. We analysed data to show individuals who had achieved one-hundred percent

completions and those with zero completions, these were categorised into managers and other

staff.

Callbacks actioned in October 2015:

Department Telephone Email Website Letter Total

Allocations & Lettings 350 10 360

Arrears Recovery 412 16 428

ASB & TEST 175 1 176



Auditing/Health and Safety 5 2 7

Breathe 29 3 32

Caretaking/Grounds Main 39 7 1 47

Communications 3 3

Connect 314 21 335

Customer Services 5 5

Development 30 1 31

Executives 6 4 10

Finance 21 21

HR 1 1

Internal Affairs 17 6 23

Miles Platting 104 1 1 106

Planned 143 4 147

Resp./Void/Inst. DLO operative 30 1 31

Resp./Void/Inst. planner/manager 240 6 246

Service charge/leasehold team 74 6 80

Sheltered Housing 35 3 38

Total 2,036 92 1 1 2,130

Percentage completed 96% 4%

Analysis of Callbacks – Individuals and Teams:

Method Individuals Teams Total

Telephone 1,481 555 2,036

% Completed 73% 27%

Email 63 29 92

% Completed 68% 32%

Letter 1 1

Website 1 1

Total 1,546 584 2,130



Callbacks completed by teams:

Team Inbox Telephone % Completed Emails % Completed

Void DLO 28 61% 1 100%

Voids & Lettings 39 85% 2 100%

Income 2 50%

Money Advisors 44 82%

Health & Safety 1 100%

BREATHE 7 100%

Grounds Maintenance 23 61% 5 60%

Central Repairs 111 95% 6 100%

Housing Management 58 100% 4 100%

Development 11 73%

Complaints 6 100% 3 100%

Planned Maintenance 42 98% 2 100%

Gas Service 11 73%

Planners 106 86% 1 100%

Service Charge Leasehold 48 88% 5 80%

Cyclical Decoration 18 44%

Total 555 29

What we found

Individuals received and completed the highest number of callbacks compared with teams.

Spot Check - Complaints


We wanted to know how many customer complaints regarding unreturned callbacks were received

between 1 November 2014 and 31 October 2015. We wanted to establish if there had been a

failure to comply with service standards, and whether there was an underlying trend.

What we looked at

We accessed the complaints database and examined all complaints received between 1 November

2014 and 31 October 2015 in order to identify those relating to unreturned callbacks. We studied

each case to establish if there was an underlying trend.



Ref

no.

Method of

contact

Nature of Query Staff Response Reason for delay

in response

Complaint

Outcome

2828 Email (info

box)

Tenancy matter –

Initially

acknowledged by

LH who advised

the query was

being forwarded to

a NDO.

NDO Superseded

to DW.

DW - Overlooked

as extremely busy

Apology and DW

to investigate the

issue and respond

directly to

customer.

2873 Email (info

box)

Query re service

charge; request

was acknowledged

and passed on to

Sheltered team.

Emailed customer

on 8 October 2014

and provided

additional

information

concerning service

charge costing.

Not known Apology and a full

explanation to

query via

telephone on 5

November 2014 by

the Ops Manager

2882 Telephone Tenancy matter No response to

calls

Not known

Apology.

3050 Email Repairs -

confirmation of

request had not

been provided and

was given wrong

response time for

a repair.

Service failure -

repair had been

given incorrect

response time.

Training issue

contact centre.

Training issue

addressed.

Apology and gift

voucher.

3148 Letter

Tenancy matter re

home

improvements

Initial request

acknowledged.

Second query not

acknowledged

resulting in a chase

up in July 2015.

Not known Apology and

review of home

improvement

procedure

3179 Telephone

Repair issue – the

responsibility was

of a management

company.

Failed to keep

customer informed

resulting in chase

up calls.

Not known Apology and gift

voucher. Review

of management

company service

delivery.



What we found

Delays were evident where the initial callback request had been superseded. This action resulted in

a new target timescale for staff allocated the query however; the customer was not informed their

query had been passed to someone else to deal with. Corrective action had been taken to remedy

issues that had been identified (training and a review of procedures).

Acknowledgements:

Callbacks Scrutiny Panel Members

(Without their effort, the completion of this scrutiny project would not have been possible)

Kevin J Dempsey

Ronald Marshall

Michael McDonagh

Audrey Mcquade

Sandra Nixon

Dorothy Shepherd

Gillian Welsh

Documents

Scrutiny final callbacks report