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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 3
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 4
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
• 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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 5
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
• 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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 6
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
• 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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 7
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 8
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 9
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
• 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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 10
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 11
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
• 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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 12
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 13
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 14
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 15
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 16
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 17
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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
What we wanted to check
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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 18
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 19
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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
What we wanted to check
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 20
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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.
Shehnaz Akhtar Page 21
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
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