Somerset residents report 20-minute waits for council calls

Somerset Council has been making changes to its customer service team as part of the ongoing transition from the previous county and district councils, in tandem with its transformation programme.

Councillor Dawn Denton, who serves as shadow deputy leader within the Conservative opposition group, said that people in her area were regularly waiting long periods on the phone and officers were slow to acknowledge vital queries.

The council said that the average call wait time was under six minutes, but admitted there had been a recent spike in demand which may have left some waiting a lot longer.

Ms Denton (who represents the Frome North division) raised the issue when the full council met in Bridgwater on Wednesday afternoon (September 16).

Councillor Dawn Denton (Conservative, Frome North) at the full council on May 20 (Image: Somerset Council)

Speaking via Microsoft Teams, she said: "Residents, parish councils, councillors and MPs are repeatedly reporting difficulties obtaining responses from this council across multiple departments.

"Residents report telephone waits of up to 20 minutes and, although the customer service staff are friendly and helpful, they are reportedly told that they are not to transfer callers to officers and that residents can only email them.

"Some officers have subsequently expressed surprise that residents were not put through.

"Staff are also still using former district terminology such as 'Mendip', rather than east, north, south and west.

"Of greater concern is the lack of acknowledgement or response to enquiries. I personally waited seven months for a response concerning a vulnerable adult.

"I have many examples in areas across the council. A simple acknowledgement and realistic time-scale would provide reassurance (for me and most importantly for our residents) and reduce repeated calls and emails, which create additional work for everyone.

"Members are regularly told that customer care statistics are positive, yet residents report being unable to provide feedback when the system fails or their issue remains unresolved."

Other Conservative members have repeatedly expressed concerns about the slow and unresponsive nature of different council departments.

Councillor Mark Healey (whose Huntspill division includes the county's new 'gigafactory') stated in late-May that house-builders across Somerset were "facing bankruptcy" because decisions on different planning applications or legal agreements were taking too long.

Ms Denton continued: "What is being done to improve customer service (via telephone and email)?

Councillor Mark Healey(Conservative, Huntspill) at the full council on May 20 (Image: Somerset Council)

"What is being done to ensure that response times of enquiries are acknowledged and tracked?

"Can we confirm that the telephonic feedback system is fully functional?

"How can the council ensure the performance statistics reported to members genuinely reflect the experience of all residents, including those whose enquiries remain unanswered or unresolved?"

Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, portfolio holder for communities, environment and climate change, asked Ms Denton to provide her with examples of inconvenienced callers to provide a more specific response.

Ms Smith-Roberts (who represents the Taunton East division) added: "There are many different channels through which one can reach this council.

Councillor Dawn Denton (Conservative, Frome North) (Image: Dawn Denton)

"Our MPs, as an example, have a direct channel in and get support that way - that's looked after partly by the leader's office.

"When it comes to actually how customer service works, our front office teams, when you pick up the phone and call us, deal with the majority of those calls there and then.

"There are times when inquiries need to be referred back into a given service, just like we do as councillors, and that sits outside what our customer service team is looking at.

"For instance, if you contacted the planning team, subsequently to contacting customer service, it would fall to Councillor Mike Rigby's team to look at how long they are taking to respond.

"Looking into the figures for August and going into September, we did have a dip and longer call wait times - we're looking at an average wait time of five minutes 56 seconds.

Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts (Liberal Democrat, Taunton East) at the full council meeting in Bridgwater (Image: Somerset Council)

"There will be cases where people are waiting longer, and we did see an increase in people abandoning calls compared to what had happened in the previous months.

"We did have over 43,000 contacts with us in August alone - we are seeing a high call volume - and we do have a customer satisfaction score of 88 per cent.

"August was a little bit difficult for us, because we went live with the relaunched council tax, revenues and benefits service - we saw a big increase in queries coming through and that was managed alongside staff holidays.

"If councillors are getting these queries, do send them to me or the relevant portfolio holder and we can follow up, especially when you have gone directly into those departments.

"Our telephone system is fully functioning - we're not aware of any feedback where it hasn't been - and we are constantly looking at ways we can improve our systems and technology, both in services and as part of our 'digital front door'."