Did they do well?

Many local authorities have been grappling with the problem of customer service. Many programmes of change have been tried and tested; some with success and others with notable failure. In the case of Ealing Council, ‘Response for making a difference’ was a substantial programme with promise of many efficiencies. Did they achieve their objectives? A substantial capital programme was authorised by policy makers to set up a customer response initiative which promised to change the way the entire council was supposed to function. Its a good time to visit the Council and to report on how the scheme has fared and to learn from its successes. However, there have been contradictory news which suggests that the scheme was actually abandoned. If that is the case what was put in its place?

Service providers continue to refer to the challenge of unlimited demand which has to be met with finite resources. Is this still the case? Yes and no. Local authorities are not start-ups. They have been in the ‘business’ for many years and so they would mostly know the specific patterns of demand they have to deal with. There are also many customer service management (CSR) and response management programmes on the market, offering various outcomes in terms of effective response, data aggregation, back office efficiencies and joined up service delivery. Customer response varies from centralised response at civic centres to several ‘one stop shops’ at various locations within borough boundaries.

It would also be useful to look at some of the CSR programmes. Which councils are using them and why? How much do they cost to install? In addition to set up costs, what further actions do councils have to take? At the end of all these comparisons, the main question to address remains: is the customer getting the right service at the right time and in the right format? We have not mentioned ‘the right price’. Is that not a key factor? No, not if councils are not charging for a service. However, there is a ‘price’; it is the cost that the customer has to incur in order to access the service. Customers do pay a high price for service failures.

More of these questions will be addressed in a future analysis. And yes, Ealing will be our first stop.