Customer Questionnaire Summary

Report by Assessor Subject : Report on Issue of Customer Questionnaires Year 2009 - SUMMARY

1.    General

The decision to issue customer satisfaction questionnaires was taken as a result of Ayrshire Valuation Joint Board’s commitment to Best Value and creating a customer focus. This is the third report; the first was published in 2003.

This report is a partial extract and summary of the analysis carried out on the returned customer questionnaires. The full report is available at Ayrshire Valuation Joint Board’s public counter, or by contacting Alec Syme on 01292 612511 or Lynda Taylor on 01292 612514 or alternatively from the link at the bottom of this page.

In line with the recommendation made in the previous report, the same question format with minor amendments was retained, as it appeared to be acceptable to customers and would allow comparison to be made with future reports.

A further recommendation to extend the customer base to include other customers of the organization resulted in the inclusion of customers who had settled their appeals against their Council Tax Band or Rateable Value, in addition to appeals against entries in the Electoral Register.

In addition another source of customer feedback was looked at. Electoral Reform Service – this is an online registration service used only at canvass time (August – November) each year. The following results were obtained:

Year	Number of Properties Canvassed	Returned by Internet	Feedback Comments
2007	174,662	12,473	142
2008	176,038	13,534	124

In both years the majority of comments were in favour of the system. In all instances, all comments were acknowledged and where required a detailed response given.

2.    Questionnaires were issued to the following:

1. Customers who have telephoned the office.
2. Customers who have visited the office.
3. Customers who have received a visit from a member of staff.
4. Customers who have made contact with the office by letter, E-mail or Fax.
5. Customers who have settled an appeal / proposal.

It was accepted that customers may have had contact by one or more of the above and this is reflected in the results.

The questionnaire was issued on a regular basis over a period between January 2007 and August 2008.

Number of questionnaires issued to the general public	=	264
Number of questionnaires issued to appellants	=	306
Total number of questionnaires issued	=	570
Total number of questionnaires returned	=	125

This gives an overall return of 22% detailed as follows:

Telephone		Counter		Survey		Letter		Appellants
Issued	Returned	Issued	Returned	Issued	Returned	Issued	Returned	Issued	Returned
70	20	32	7	113	19	49	15	306	64
28%  Return		22%  Return		17%  Return		31%  Return		21%  Return

The number of customers who stated which service their contact with the office related to is as follows:

Electoral Registration	Council Tax	Valuation for Non-Domestic Rates	Other
15	77	33	0

After detailed analysis of the returns, the following conclusions and recommendations were made. A copy of the customer questionnaire is attached at Appendix 1.

3.    Conclusions

The level of response to this issue of the customer questionnaires is significantly lower than that noted in previous reports with a return rate of 22% compared to 31% in 2005 and 33% in 2003.

The reason for this low return is unclear, however discussion has taken place regarding what times of year would be best to issue these forms to improve the level of return.

It was encouraging to note that the majority of customers were at least satisfied with the level of service received. However, there has been a slight increase in the number of customers who were dissatisfied with the level of service.

42 out of 125 respondents took the opportunity to make comments*. The majority of these were positive however some highlight areas where we could perform better. It should be noted that some of the comments given were related to other council offices.

It is recognised that it is taking longer to deal with enquiries – particularly Council Tax Proposals – due in part to the media campaign in 2007 by Martin Lewis where he encouraged everyone to query their Council Tax Band.

Question 6H was deemed unnecessary as the preceding questions provided sufficient opportunity for customers to make their views known.

It was encouraging to note that the majority of recommendations made in the last report resulted in improved results.

The online registration system is proving popular, and customers will continue to be encouraged to use it.

* A comprehensive list of all comments forms part of the full report.

4.    Recommendations

Staff should be made aware of the existence of this report and given the opportunity to read it. In addition it should be made available to the public and all stakeholders.

All written contact with the office should be acknowledged within 3 working days of receipt. Staff should utilise the acknowledgement card more.

All enquiries should be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Staff, particularly clerical staff, should familiarise themselves with the procedures for the mail logging system.

Staff should be reminded that it is important that appellants are given a clear and understandable explanation during appeal discussions. Staff should, in all instances, specify when further contact will be made.

Ensure any further contact is made when specified – even if this is just to advise more time will be required.

Staff should be reminded that a contact name ought to be obtained and added to all survey cards where possible, to allow customer questionnaires to be issued.

In order to help address the poor level of returns of questionnaires issued as the result of a survey, staff are asked to explain to customers that the purpose of the questionnaire is to improve our levels of service; therefore their feedback is important to us.

Where a member of staff has made an appointment with a customer and is running late, contact should be made with the customer to advise when they hope to arrive or give the customer the opportunity to re-schedule the appointment.

In order to expand the customer base further annual questionnaires should be issued to the three Local Authorities.

It is recommended that the same question format be retained, as it appears to be acceptable to customers and will allow comparability with future years. In addition questions to cover our Equalities Monitoring Procedures will be included. Questionnaires will start being issued in April 2010.

The same format for the online registration system should continue to allow direct comparison with previous years.

Ayrshire Valuation Joint Board is committed to providing very good customer service and staff will be reminded to endeavour to achieve this.

    View / Download the full report.

 

This page last updated : August 2010