MyEDC
When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.

Technical Notes 2026, Issue 87 - Call Handling Response Time

  • Report by:

    Angela Fegan – Executive Officer Customer Services and Organisational Development

  • TN Number:

    087-26

  • Subject:

    Call Handling Response Time

  • Responsible Officer:

    Hayley Manson, Customer Services Manager

  • Publication:

    This Technical Note will be published on the Council’s website following circulation to Members. Its contents may be disclosed or shared out with the Council.

  • The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide information on call handling and response time
  • The Customer Services team are multi skilled Customer Service Agents (CSA) who can respond to enquiries received via all customer contact channels including telephone, face to face, email as well as enquiries submitted online via the Council website
  • Although this is not a key performance indicator, call queues are monitored throughout the day, a live dashboard shows call volumes, wait times and CSA activity to ensure all available resources are deployed to meet peak customer demand
  • Queue buster technology is applied to our phone system so that when there are calls in the queue, customers are invited to request an agent call them back, if this option is selected, the customer keeps their position in the queue, and the callback is automatically made. Therefore, maintaining the connection with the customer. If a customer does not wish to have a call back or terminates the call while waiting in a queue, this is called as an abandoned call
  • The tables below show call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26.

 

Quarter 1

call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26

Call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26
2025/2026 Total Calls Calls Answered % Calls Abandoned % Average Time to Answer

April 25

17643

59.6

40.4

00:14:09

May 25

13953

71.8

28.2

00:09:06

June 25

11668

81.3

18.7

00:04:59

Total

43264

69.4

30.6

00:09:34

Quarter 2

call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26

Call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26
2025/2026 Total Calls Calls Answered % Calls Abandoned % Average Time to Answer

July 25

12609

75.1

24.9

00:07:50

Aug 25

12506

71.9

28.1

00:10:05

Sept 25

10937

82.5

17.5

00:05:29

Total

36052

76.2

23.8

00:07:48

Quarter 3

call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26

Call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26
2025/2026 Total Calls Calls Answered % Calls Abandoned % Average Time to Answer

Oct 25

11610

79.6

20.4

00:06:10

Nov 25

11412

76

24

00:07:31

Dec 25

8625

82.3

17.7

00:05:54

Total

31647

79.1

20.9

00:06:34

Quarter 4

call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26

Call statistics for each month and summary per quarter for 2025/26
2025/2026 Total Calls Calls Answered % Calls Abandoned % Average Time to Answer

Jan 26

12651

75

25

00:06:42

Feb 26

10797

79.2

20.8

00:05:34

Mar 26

14246

70.8

29.2

00:08:39

Total

37694

74.6

25.4

00:07:03
  • The highest number of calls answered and the highest average time to answer was in Quarter 1. This was following changes to the collection schedule for general bins to a three weekly cycle and the peak season for residents to purchase garden bin permits. The lowest call volume with the lowest average time to answer was in Quarter 3 which is in keeping with previous years
  • More in depth analysis and overview of the Services performance are detailed in the Customer Services annual report being presented to a future Council meeting.