New Customer Service Centre opening times to boost preventative work and online transactions

Shropshire Council is set to change its Customer Service Centre (CSC) opening times, and redirect resources to make outbound calls to residents most likely to need help and support.

As the council’s online offer grows, the council is also seeking to encourage more and more people to request services online 24/7.

The proposed changes would see the council’s contact centre remain open every weekday 9am-3pm, with extended opening up until 6pm on a Monday for a trial period.

However, some parts of the CSC handle complex issues for Shropshire’s residents, things like adult social care requests and queries, concerns for children, risk of homelessness or financial crisis affecting families. These types of contact from people will always need a skilled adviser and will not change.

The council’s CSC handles phone calls and other forms of contact from residents for around 50 different council services. Many of the calls it handles are for general non-urgent requests that can be made other ways, particularly online.

Requesting services online is almost 20 times cheaper compared with a call to an adviser.

The proposed changes in opening times for non-urgent calls would allow the council to free up capacity to make more outbound calls that can help prevent greater future demand for other existing council services.

Earlier this year, the council carried out a public consultation on people’s views on proposed changes to opening times which have shaped the planned opening times. The later Monday opening takes account of the consultation’s comments, and would run as a trial and be reviewed after three months.

Robert Macey, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture and digital, said:-

“The changes proposed are a reasonable compromise, which would allow us to redirect CSC resources towards more outbound calls.

“We have seen that these calls targeted to those most likely to need help can make a huge difference to a person’s health and wellbeing, and can avoid much more complicated interventions further down the line for the council and partners.

“More and more people are now requesting these non-urgent services online and we need to encourage even more people to do so, because it’s simpler, quicker and more efficient way to request a service.

“It’s also a reasonable compromise, as the CSC would remain open at its busiest times each weekday for those who want to speak to an adviser, while allowing us to redirect some advisers’ time to target those who need support and where it can make a huge difference.”

A report on the changes to the CSC’s opening will go the council’s Cabinet on Wednesday 19 July 2023 starting at 10.30am.