Customer Services Annual Report 2024/25

The Customer Services Team plays a vital role in delivering accessible and responsive support to East Dunbartonshire residents and customers.

Operating across multiple channels, the team provides assistance via telephone, in person at our community hubs, online digital platforms, and email. This multi-faceted approach, in line with our longstanding “click, call, come-in” service delivery strategy, ensures that residents can reach the Council in a manner that best suits their needs.

The locality model for service delivery implemented in 2019 adopts an integrated approach, with multi-skilled customer service agents able to deliver the service across all channels, ensuring the customer receives the same quality of service regardless of how they choose to engage with the Council.  This integrated approach to customer service delivery provides greater flexibility across the team to reactively deploy agents to any channel experiencing peaks in demand.

Customer services are currently delivered across our network of four Community Hubs in Kirkintilloch, Lennoxtown and Bishopbriggs, the service is available from Milngavie Enterprise Centre on a temporary basis until essential repairs to Bearsden hub are completed in late 2025.

An appointment-based system operates for face-to-face engagement through the Hubs with appointments available daily between 1pm – 4pm. The Community Hubs provide meeting rooms to enable customer service agents to deal with sensitive and confidential matters and take personal data in accordance with privacy and GDPR requirements.

Appointment volumes across the Community Hubs continue to be reviewed. Discussions are underway with other Council services and with third party organisations such as East Dunbartonshire Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) to identify opportunities to allocate space at specified times for them to be able to schedule appointments/outreach work through the Community Hub network.

Customer Services Agents are also Assistant Registrars and once trained in Registration can register births, deaths, process marriage paperwork and perform civil marriage ceremonies. A rota is in place to cover Registration duties, ongoing training and support is provided by the Council’s Registrar and Technical Lead, based in Democratic Services.

In addition to traditional customer services delivery, the service also delivers reception services to the tenants who lease space in Council Enterprise Centres in Lennoxtown, Milngavie and Kirkintilloch as well as McGregor House.

The team also deliver services from the Council’s Emergency Response Centre (ERC) which operates 24 hours a day 365 days a year handling Community Alarms activations for both East and West Dunbartonshire residents, they also monitor town centre CCTV and handle calls for any urgent or emergency situations the Council is required to attend out with normal business hours. 

The primary systems utilised by the team including the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and the Community Alarm call handling system underwent significant change in 2024 with both systems being replaced, these new digital systems provide greater functionality and scope to improve service delivery with streamlined workflows and ultimately an improved customer journey. The change to these systems required both the Customer Services and Emergency Response Centre teams to undertake essential training which did impact service delivery with slower response times.  

Turnover of Customer Service agents is an ongoing challenge. Agents are trained in exceptional Customer Service skills and have a broad knowledge of a wide range of Council services and are therefore well placed to apply for career progression opportunities as they arise across the organisation, a cap has been placed on the number of secondments that can be undertaken by team members as it is challenging to recruit cover on a temporary basis. The number of customer service agents for 2024/25 was reduced by 2 FTE as part of the Council Budget efficiencies agreed by the Council in March 2024, therefore it is essential all opportunities provided by the new systems are developed to enable efficient service delivery.

Ongoing training and coaching for agents, alongside quality assurance support is a continuous process. 

The channel analysis which follows provides details of the approach taken and team performance in each of these areas. 

Customer Service Agents use Smart working technology and whilst normally office based, can transition to homeworking using their laptops and headsets providing Business Continuity and resilience in the service.

2.1.1 Handled Calls

Calls handled are the number of calls made to the Council’s main telephone number and social work services numbers that are responded to by a Customer Services Agent.

A total of 120,206 calls were handled through our main telephone number. An additional 19,571 calls were received through our dedicated social work line, bringing the combined total of calls answered across both lines to 139,777. This represents an increase of 162 calls to the main Council number on the previous year 2023/24 and a decrease of 2,555 calls to the Social Work line. An overall decrease of 2,392 (1.5%) calls answered.

Table 1 below summarises the number of calls answered by month for the reporting period 2024/25. 

Previous years’ summary data is included in Table 2 below and shows slight fluctuation in calls answered in both the 0300 123 4510 number and social work lines. Overall decrease on the total combined number of calls handled over the 3-year reporting period. 

As reported through the Council’s HGIOS monthly and year-end Performance Reports and summarised in Table 3 below showing the number of calls to the main Council number 0300 123 4510 answered across each of the four quarters, with the fewest number of calls answered in Quarter 3 as well as a marked increase in the average time to answer which continued throughout the year. This was following changes to Waste services and the introduction of garden bin permits which were available to purchase from July 2024, the customer service team received enquiries as early as February 2024 as residents prepared for this change, enquiries peaked in July and August with the service experiencing very high call queues. The team also received a number of enquiries in relation to the improvement works undertaken at Canniesburn Toll. 

Q1

• 2024/25 Answered - 34,892
• 2024/25 Average Response Time - 02:21
• 2023/24 Answered - 31,408
• 2023/24 Average Response Time - 02:28
• 2022/23 Answered - 31,466
• 2022/23 Average Response Time - 02:50

Q2

• 2024/25 Answered - 31,735
• 2024/25 Average Response Time - 09:02
• 2023/24 Answered - 30,543
• 2023/24 Average Response Time - 03:29
• 2022/23 Answered - 31,268
• 2022/23 Average Response Time - 02:58

Q3

• 2024/25 Answered - 23,333
• 2024/25 Average Response Time - 06:32
• 2023/24 Answered - 26,249
• 2023/24 Average Response Time - 03:45
• 2022/23 Answered - 29,477
• 2022/23 Average Response Time - 02:15

Q4

• 2024/25 Answered - 30,246
• 2024/25 Average Response Time - 12:56
• 2023/24 Answered - 31,844
• 2023/24 Average Response Time - 01:52
• 2022/23 Answered - 33,008
• 2022/23 Average Response Time - 02:05

Annual

• 2024/25 Answered - 120,206
• 2024/25 Average Response Time - 07:35
• 2023/24 Answered - 120,044
• 2023/24 Average Response Time - 02:51
• 2022/23 Answered - 125,219
• 2022/23 Average Response Time - 02:32

2.1.2 Abandoned Calls

In addition to call response times, recording the number of calls abandoned is a standard industry performance indicator. Table 4 below shows the call abandonment rates each month for calls to the Council’s 0300 123 4510 phone number each month and the total percentage abandonment rate for the year. 

The industry benchmark for call abandonment is 12% (Talkdesk, July 2022), but with more and more people using mobile phones to call an organisation’s customer services, and doing so while on the move, call abandonment as high as 20% is quite common. 

The Customer Service annual percentage of 27.5% is above the industry benchmark.Call abandonment can be as a result of a number of factors, including:

• Customer decides the queue is too long and prefers to call back later
• Customer has heard message advising Council website may have information
• Once there are eight in the call queue our ‘Queuebuster’ call back is offered

The Queuebuster data to follow demonstrates that the request for this service significantly increased during peak call volumes in 2024/25 and was therefore a significant contributory factor to the call abandonment rate.

2.1.3 Queuebuster Call Backs

Queuebuster technology is applied to our phone system so that once there are eight in the call queue, customers are invited to leave the queue and request that an agent call back when they have reached their turn in the queue.

This service may suit some customers who do not want to hang on in the queue. There is a cost to the Council for each queue buster call made as this requires an outbound call to the customer.

The number of customers opting for a callback rose significantly in 2024/25 from previous years, an increase of around 375%. This was almost certainly due to the exceptionally high queue size experiences in response to the introduction of garden bin permits.

The data below shows that call backs were made fairly quickly, within an average of just over 20 mins.

Customer services face to face delivery operated across all four community Hubs on an appointment basis during 2024/25, with general customer services appointments available in addition to licensing and registration in all four locations, with outreach appointments available in Milngavie during the ongoing closure of Bearsden Community Hub.

Revised operating hours of 1pm to 4pm for customer service delivery in the Community Hubs were introduced in December 2021 enabling resources to be targeted to phones and digital channels in the mornings and for the final hour of the working day, when demand for these channels was at a peak, this remained the case throughout 2024/25. 

This followed analysis of demand for face to face customer services on the reopening of the Hubs following the Covid pandemic closures. A similar approach has been taken across many other councils following the pandemic, with some also offering appointments only on specific days in different localities, and some no longer offering face to face services at all.

Whilst appointments are preferable, the team does not turn away those that attend the Hubs during customer services operating hours as ‘drop-ins’ and these can include customers who wish to pay for a Council service in person via chip and pin. When customers telephone to make an appointment with customer services, they can select any of the four Hubs depending on either preferred location or soonest availability of an appointment.

In our community hubs over 2024/25, the total number of scheduled appointments served was 1,520, a decrease from 1,812 in the previous year. Conversely, the number of drop-in visits rose significantly, increasing from 9,728 in 2023/24 to 11,810 this year. This shift may reflect a growing preference for flexible, unplanned access to services, and will be considered when planning future resourcing and scheduling strategies. 

Face to face service continues to be offered from Milngavie Enterprise Centre two afternoons per week until essential repairs have been completed in Bearsden Hub, this reduction in opening hours for the Milngavie and Bearsden locality has reduced the total number of appointments and drop-ins served, however all appointment requests were able to be met. 

Table 6 below provides a summary of all the appointments and drop-ins at each of the four Community Hub localities in 2024/25. These appointments are for all services except Registration services, which are collated through the Registrar based in Democratic Services.

The Customer Service Team supports the delivery of Registration Services in East Dunbartonshire with the Customer Service Agents/Assistant Registrars working closely with the Council’s Registrar/Technical Registration Lead, based in Democratic Services.
Registration data is collated by National Records Scotland (NRS) on a calendar year, so the data in this report is for 2024 with 2023 for comparison

A total of 3,289 events were registered in East Dunbartonshire in 2024, including births, still-births, deaths and marriages and civil partnerships.

The Customer Services locality model provides 4FTE Assistant Registrars to cover registration events, Monday to Friday. They cover registration events and also conduct marriage and civil partnership ceremonies. Currently 5.2FTE in the team are trained to deliver Registration services.

2.3.1 Births and Deaths

The registration of births and deaths is now predominantly carried out remotely, and as the Customer Service Agents/Assistant Registrars are predominantly based in Kirkintilloch Community Hub, these registration events are recorded there. Going forward, in future reports these will simply be summarised in total rather than allocated to the localities.

Following initial contact with the team, telephone appointments are arranged with customers to conclude a registration once the required paperwork such as a medical certificate on cause of death (MCCD) has been received by email by the Registration service. Following registration, Certificates are posted to the customer or collection from one of the Community Hubs can be arranged.

Table 9 above summarises the births, still-births and deaths registers in East Dunbartonshire in 2024. these registration events are recorded there. Going forward, these will simply be summarised rather than allocated to the localities.

In Table 10 below a comparison is made for total births, still births and deaths across previous years. There were 150 fewer births registered in East Dunbartonshire in 2024 compared to 2023, which is a 15.4% decrease. Birth registrations remained more constant comparing 2023 with 2022. There were 134 fewer deaths registered in 2024 compared to the previous year which represents a 5.9% decrease. By comparison, there were more deaths registered in 2023 compared to 2022. 

These numbers are not necessarily reflective of a decrease or increase in births and deaths in East Dunbartonshire as registration can be carried out in any Registration District in Scotland. Fluctuating numbers therefore may reflect capacity within our registration services rather than local demographics.

2.3.2 Marriage and Civil Partnership

Similar to birth and death registrations, the data available from NRS for marriages and civil partnerships is also collated by calendar year and the data below summarises the total number of marriage registrations (figures are available for both religious and civil marriage registrations in addition to the combined total) and for civil partnerships for 2024.

Religious marriages made up 72% of the total number of marriages registered and over 80% of the total marriages registered were registered in Kirkintilloch. Civil Partnership numbers remain small with only seven registered in 2024.  

The information below summarises the marriage and civil partnership registration data for calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024. It shows that these registrations remain relatively comparable with 2024 showing an increase of 30 registrations compared to 2023 but similar overall totals to 2022. Civil partnership registrations remain a low and approximately only 2% of registrations in this section across all three comparison years. 

Customer Service Agents/Assistant Registrars also conduct marriage ceremonies, Monday to Friday and in 2024 the team carried out 59 civil marriage ceremonies.

2.3.3. Total Numbers of Registrations

including births, still-births, deaths and marriage paperwork (marriages and civil partnerships) and 3,159 or 96.1% of these were conducted by Customer Service Agents/Assistant Registrars.

Table 13 below summarises the total number of registration events in recent years with the number and percentage remaining broadly consistent. There were 252 fewer registration events in 2024 compared to 2023 (a 7% reduction) and slight percentage increase (1%) in the number of these carried out by the customer services team. 

The Council website and social media platforms are key communication and customer service channels for the Council and customers. Customer service agents are able to respond to enquiries submitted online and via social media by processing the customer request or by directing to the appropriate service area. The customer service team work closely with the Communication and Engagement team to ensure enquiries are actioned.

An in-depth analysis of the website and social media is available in the Communication and Engagement annual report.

Following the implementation of the new CRM and website, development of the management reporting options provided by these systems is underway to ensure accurate and reliable data is presented. 

2.4.1 Online Website Transactions 

In line with our channel shift aspirations, we aim to facilitate as many transactions as possible on the Council website to enable customers to perform transactions at a time and place most suitable to them and not restricted to the opening hours of a Council facility or the operating hours of a service team.  

Whilst some forms are submitted directly to the service for processing and next stages, a significant number, are processed or partly processed by the customer services team.

Waste services and roads continue to receive high volume of online submissions, between the period 1 October 2024 and 31 March 2025  (the reporting period for the new CRM) there were 19,353 submissions made online for garden bin permits, customer service agents processed 2,478 permits via phone during the same period.    

Table 14 above, whilst limited due to the transition from old to new CRM, highlights the volumes of submissions made online and in 2025/26 a full data set will be available with an reporting capability on how many customers complete themselves and how many customer service agents complete on behalf of customers.

2.4.2 Social Media

Customer Services work with the Communication and Engagement Team in responding to private messages submitted by residents. This is an alternative way for customers to contact the Council and plays a key part in our Click, Call, Come In strategy. The customer service team respond to messages submitted via Facebook and X.

Table 15 shows the social media private messages received and responded to by customer services in 2024/25. Facebook is the channel most used in terms of customer enquiries through social media, with over three times as many enquiries compared to X. 

Going forward, year on year comparisons will be able to be made and reporting will also be available on how many direct messages customer service agents respond to, and also how many responses are provided publicly as a result of queries to Council posts. 

The Emergency Response Centre (ERC) provides a 24/7 service throughout the year. Working across three shifts, the team responds to community alarms, monitors both public space and Council’s own security CCTV cameras and responds to urgent and emergency out of hours phone calls from customers and from partners and first responders.

The community alarm service is a lifeline service that supports vulnerable people to remain in their own homes. The ERC monitors alarm activations 24 hours a day, responding to customers by providing reassurance or arranging for appropriate assistance. The ERC delivers an alarm monitoring service to customers across East Dunbartonshire and also provides a service to West Dunbartonshire Council to monitor community alarms in the West Dunbartonshire area. In addition to the two councils, the alarm service is also provided to Cordale and Hanover sheltered housing schemes.

The key focus of the team throughout 2024/25 has been the analogue to digital change; telephony infrastructure suppliers BT and Virgin are transitioning to digital technology, with ongoing programmes due to complete by early 2027. This means changes to domestic landlines and community alarms. For community alarms to continue to work when activated, they need to be able to transmit and be received digitally.

The community alarm units in customer homes and the call handling system in the ERC were both fully analogue so significant change has been undertaken to update both equipment and the system. East Dunbartonshire joined with 17 councils and Housing Associations across Scotland as early adopters for the procurement of a shared digital alarm receiving system. The new Chubb Sky Response system went live in October 2024 following several months of preparation and training by the team. The ERC plays a key role in supporting Telecare teams in both East and West Dunbartonshire and this will continue beyond the 2027 UK-wide switchover from analogue to digital.

The new digital technology and call handling platform provide the opportunity to develop Telecare services enabling expansion and innovation in how Telecare and Telehealth services are delivered.

The Emergency Response Centre team also monitor town centre CCTV with the replacement program to renew the monitoring equipment in the ERC as well as the public space cameras in our key population centres well underway. The monitoring , equipment within the ERC has already been installed with some public space cameras also now renewed. The upgrade programme will continue through 2025/26.

There was a total of 4,825, alarm customers in the area covered by East Dunbartonshire ERC, a slight decrease of 111 (2.2% decrease) on the previous year, which had 4,936 customers. In the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 a total of 228,528 alarm calls were handled in the ERC, this includes calls for both East and West Dunbartonshire service users.

The volume of calls has decreased over a three year period, with 19,487 fewer calls (7.8 % decrease) in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24.

The new call handling platform, introduced during Q3 2924/25 should enable a more in-depth analysis of the call handling performance and service delivery achieved by the team to be undertaken. This will be included in future reports when a full year’s data is available.

Table16 below summarises the total community alarm calls handled for 2024/25 with 2023/24 and 2022/23 for comparison. There is a small 6% reduction in volume of calls handled from 2022/23 to 2023/24, and a further 7% reduction in volume of calls from 2023/24 to 2024/25. Call volumes do remain broadly consistent each year and will be impacted by the number of telecare alarm customers, which also fluctuates from year to year.

The ERC monitors and records images from public space CCTV cameras. Crimes and public unrest are immediately reported to Police Scotland locally and all CCTV images are recorded and can be downloaded for use in police investigations and criminal proceedings.

Despite challenges with ageing infrastructure, the public space CCTV service has continued to operate effectively. The team responded to 58 reported incidents and provided Police Scotland with 31 video downloads. This contributing to safer communities, the response will grow with the implementation of the new CCTV equipment. 

The Police regularly request permission to attend the control room to review incidents and on occasion agents may be required as expert witnesses in court.

When the Council is closed for normal business, the ERC handles all incoming phone calls. Customers are informed that the Council is closed but that if they have an emergency their call will be answered.

Table 18 below shows that during 2024/25 the ERC answered 5,967 out-of-hours urgent and emergency calls, with an average time to answer of 31 seconds. Call volumes each month remain relatively consistent with a peak volume recorded in January which coincides with the Storm Eowyn extreme weather event.

The call response time of 31 seconds reflects the very low volume of calls made out of hours in comparison to calls made to the 0300 123 4510 number during office hours. 

The out of hours call total for 2024/25 was 349 fewer calls compared to the number answered in 2023/24, when 6,316 calls were answered with an average call response time of 30 seconds.

Table 19 below summarises the out of hours calls for year 2024/25, with data from 2023/24 and 2022/23 for comparison. 

The Customer Services team has continued to serve the residents of East Dunbartonshire with commitment and adaptability, while acknowledging the pressures and areas for development identified. The data reflects both achievements and challenges and will guide our service improvements and enhancements moving forward. The team is essential in delivering uninterrupted care and support throughout the day and night.

Recruitment and the continuous training of Customer Service Agents remains a priority to ensure that high standards are maintained across the team. It is that approach to training and coaching to ensure quality skills within the team that makes Agents such desirable applicants to career progression opportunities in other service areas throughout the Council.

A range of highlights on day-to-day Customer Services delivery this year included:

• Replacement of primary systems used across the Customer Services team, Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) and digital call handling platform for Community Alarms 
• Providing support to Telecare teams in both East and West Dunbartonshire as we progress through the analogue to digital programme
• Supporting 4,825 Community Alarm Customers through the handling of 228,528 calls
• Supporting major changes to Council service delivery such as the introduction of garden bin permits
• Meeting all appointment requests for face-to-face services

Further development of the new systems implemented in 2024/25, will substantially improve the standard of service agents can deliver, providing streamlined, more efficient workflows and processes. With the new website and CRM systems fully integrated, customers will be offered a growing number of online options, enabling self-service at a time convenient to them and consistent with our channel shift approach.

This ongoing system development will also support enhanced performance reporting through improved data recording and analysis, which will in turn inform future business development and performance targets.

The project to replace public space CCTV and monitoring equipment within the ERC will continue into 2025/26. The fully digital system will deliver improvements in image quality and how, once authorised, footage can be released to Police, contributing to safer communities.

The Emergency Response Centre team will continue to be at the forefront of the ongoing analogue to digital change programme, developing the Sky Response/Chubb call handling platform to meet the demands of a digital future for Telecare and Telehealth, supporting vulnerable individuals to remain in their own homes.

A key focus for the team will be continuing to improve the quality of service provided to customers, ensuring that information is accurate and adheres to General Data Protection Regulations at all times.