14/10/2011 - Permalink

Council’s ambition to be at forefront of customer service

Related topics: Community

Plans to develop a new IT system, which will help customers access council information and advice more quickly and conveniently, will be put forward for approval at a Special Cabinet Meeting on Thursday 27 October 2011.

Technology has a vital role to play to enable us to provide a first class service to our customers, and over the past 12 months the council has been working to identify the quickest, lowest-risk and most cost-effective means of introducing the latest IT systems to its operations.

The proposal of a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which will be shared with Herefordshire Council, will mean our residents can contact us how they want and when they want, and get a consistently efficient and effective service.

Councillor Tina Woodward, Cabinet member for customer services, said:

“Shropshire Council is committed in wanting to help people do their council business as quickly, conveniently and easily as possible.  Although the council’s customer service performance summary 2011, launched this week, showed a slight decrease in the number of calls answered, this is due to an increase in the number of services moved over to our customer service centre, and an increase in the length of calls due to their complexity. 

“In line with our drive for better customer services, the council will be putting forward a proposal at a Special Cabinet meeting on Thursday 27 October to introduce a new central system that can be used by all services and teams across the council and, over time, is intended to provide a single point of contact for all customer enquiries.  By providing an integrated product, Shropshire Council will be able to provide improved customer service over a number of channels, allowing residents to access services via the Internet as well as by telephone.”

Councillor Martin Taylor Smith, Cabinet Member for ICT, said:

“We have to offer local residents and businesses a better customer experience through transforming the CRM systems used by our customer service centre.  We now need to move forward to begin the process of replacing the council’s CRM system and transforming its ‘back office’ functions.  Our priority is to increase customer access and satisfaction, and a new CRM system will help us engage with our customers via new electronic channels and gives us a flexible system that is based around the needs of residents and businesses.”