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Council helpline extra busy

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date01 July 2022
Publication titleHuddersfield Daily Examiner
Calderdale councillors heard there were reasons for the duration of successful calls lengthening and in turn this had an impact on people waiting for their calls to be answered

The council's assistant director of customer services, Sarah Richardson, said average call lengths to the authority's Customer First lines had increased due to customers experiencing far more complex issues than before.

These include financial hardship, social isolation and mental health problems.

Another factor was advisers having left the council, or on maternity leave, which left the team with gaps in experience and skills and, also an issue with other councils, recruiting and training had proved "challenging." In 2021-22, 215,196 calls were made to the council with 67.60 per cent answered and 32.4 per cent abandoned, with an average wait time of six minutes and 58 seconds and an average call length of four minutes and 50 seconds.

The year impacted in a major way by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21, saw 225,580 calls made to the council, with 68.90 per cent answered and 31.1 per cent abandoned, with an average wait time of five minutes and 53 seconds and an average call length of three minutes and 53 seconds.

In April and May this year figures showed 38,566 people called the council with 67.4 per cent of calls answered and 32.6 per cent abandoned, with an average waiting time of five minutes and 58 seconds and an average call length of four minutes and 47 seconds.

Ms Richardson told the council's Strategy and Performance...

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