Inform Communications

Introduction

• As a small council, Tandridge DC was struggling to provide the high service levels they strived for due to a squeeze on resources. This was especially challenging during periods of high call volume such as annual billing and peak recovery.
• TDC was committed to providing access to the council 24 hours a day for residents and also wished to release skilled staff from lengthy, repetitive phone calls - enabling better use of time.
• Tandridge was one of the first councils to implement Self Service in the potentially difficult service area of Revenues and Benefits enquiries over five years ago.

Objectives and Priorities

• The main objective was to introduce a cost effective and efficient system of automation to help TDC improve and enhance the service they were already providing. It was important the service was available 24/7 and would release staff from answering calls which could be successfully dealt with through automation.

Operational and Financial Benefits

• After the success of the implementation of Self Service within Revenues and Benefits, Tandridge has gradually adopted a corporate approach and Self Service now provides 24/7 support for Environmental, Housing and Planning enquiries.
• This corporate approach has obvious operational benefits as residents are familiar with the system and can be confident they will receive fast, accurate information on a wide range of topics they may wish to contact the council about. Staff can be confident callers are receiving consistent information and can use their time more productively to help vulnerable callers or those with complex enquiries.
• Financially, the service has provided Tandridge with a solution to their customer contact challenges at less than the cost of two FTE's.
• After some initial concern from members before the service was implemented, Tandridge are extremely pleased with the feedback they have received from staff, councillors and members of the public who have all successfully used the service.

Julie Holden (Head of Revenues and Benefits): 'During the last five years, the Self Service system has become an integral part of Tandridge District Council's Revenues and Benefits service. It is very nice to see that we have been able to deal with a diverse range of enquiries and also the increased use of the service - the numbers have been going up and up'