How may I help you?

On Tuesday, I spoke at a conference aimed at call centre managers. I was asked to speak to them about - you guessed it - performance management. Now I do know about performance management in general, but really I have very little experience of performance management within a call centre. Well, except that after university I worked in a couple of call centre jobs and in one I was sorta performance managed right out the door, but that's another story.

I had a couple of interesting examples. One was about good call handling stats but poor resolution at one London council - illustrating the importance of getting the "back office" right. And another example that I picked up from a conference in the Autumn:

David Cook [Chief Executive at Kettering] had the best "back to the floor" type tip. He regularly listens in on randomly selected customer calls to the council on tape on his drive home. This helps him get a finger on the pulse of what the main customer issues are, and also on how customer service is being handled in the council.

Well, as it turns out, I didn't get to use either of my examples. (I only had about 10 minutes to speak and the rest of the slot was "panel discussion" - which was actually an interesting format.) Instead what I concentrated on was the importance of call centres (and other transactional services) in collecting and using the large volume of customer data that's available. This will be of increasing importance as customer and community engagement is emphasised through the policy and performance debate. And managers need to be collecting information about not just their own services (call volumes, response times, resolution rates, etc) but providing information about the performance of other council services (e.g. street cleansing).

As a sector, we have to get smarter about how we use customer data. The LGA have already done some work in this area. Putting the customer first is a study into the use of customer information to manage performance. This looks at prioritising the use of customer data and customer segmentation. Together with case studies, it has lessons which are equally applicable to work with partners. We also need to use this data to triangulate evidence around citizen complaints - for example is a community call for action valid? Call centre data could help validate a councillor's decision to refer a matter to scrutiny (or not).

Another policy matter, which I didn't fully have time to explore, was the Varney Review and shared services - and in particular the impact on customer service and efficiency. Councils who are in the process of reviewing or revamping customer service functions will be wise to take heed of efficiency implications of running a call centre on their own without clubbing in with neighbouring councils or partners.


See also:

• A listing of citizen and user engagement resources.
• The IDeA's customer service peer review can help you assess whether transactional and call centre data is being used effectively in your partnership.
• Julia Bennett has summarised a range of Customer service issues in the Policy and Performance Community of Practice (free registration required).

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Who do you run to...

...when there's no place to hide?

Lord Bruce Lockhart, Chair of the Local Government Association, is headlining a new ambitious approach to improving performance, outcomes and ways of working.

"The LGA is determined to seek radical solutions, and determined to put in place a robust and challenging action plan to ensure implementation. Many councils are leading through outstanding innovation. But there will be no hiding place for the poor performers"

Council leaders from across the political spectrum will today launch a
campaign to raise the game of authorities across the country.The key themes
include:

• Building visionary and ambitious leadership: making best use of both the political and managerial role
• Leading trusted and effective partnerships across the whole public sector
• Creating radically enhanced scrutiny: holding to account the council, the wider public sector, and service suppliers
• Devolving to residents and local organisations: engaging and communicating effectively, and enhancing frontline councillors' roles
• Ensuring outstanding improvement and transformation in service performance:innovation, value, efficiency and public access and satisfaction
  

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I think there's a growing awareness that we're all going to have raise our game in terms of performance management. I recently spoke to a group of officers from both North and South Tyneside about the challenges of the new policy environment as well as the lessons of the best in terms of what local government has already done on performance management. They were certainly ready to embrace those challenges and are making links across the water to support each other in that work.

Just like in North and South Tyneside, with this recognition that we're going to have raise our game, I think we're going to have to lean on each other a little bit more, too. And by that I mean sharing ideas and innovations (proactively) and asking for help with ideas and implementation from local authority and partner colleagues.

The IDeA wants to support the development of this approach and is creating spaces for online communties of practice at www.communities.idea.gov.uk. And we're not just creating spaces, we're also helping to facilitate online and face-to-face groups in collaborative working across the public sector, too. I and the team I work with facilitiate the Policy and Performance Community of Practice and a more specific group focused on performance management. And in the latter group, it just so happens you can find the slides (you'll need to be registered to view them) from my day long workshop with North and South Tyneside officers.

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Who gives you extra?

...East Riding apparently, who scored top marks on Value for Money as assessed by the Audit Commission.

Three-quarters of single tier and county councils exceeded the Commission's minimum requirements for their use of resources overall, and all met the minimum requirements. Fifteen councils achieved the highest possible overall score and one council, East Riding of Yorkshire, achieved top scores in all five themes. There has been a general improvement across the five themes which make up the assessment, including internal control and financial management.

Congratulations to them and to all the other top scorers. East Riding submitted a case study to the Performance, Management, Measurement and Information project. Although it doesn't cover VFM in any detail, it does highlight some of their innovative and effective approaches to performance management.

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