Cotswold District Council has decided to permanently reduce its call center opening hours, following the success of a recent trial period.
In September of last year, the UK Council decided to cut its customer service call center hours from 9am – 5pm, down to 9am – 2pm.
Since operating under these reduced hours, the organization has seen significant CSAT improvements.
Throughout the trial, the Council has consistently ranked among the top ten for customer satisfaction in telephone service, even achieving a top three position in March 2024, its busiest month.
In discussing the success of the trial, Councilor Joe Harris, Leader of the Council, said:
We’ve also seen a reduction in average wait times during the busy lunchtime period and an overall increase in customer satisfaction.
“Additionally, outside the new telephone operation hours, our customer service staff have been able to allocate more time to high-demand areas affected by the cost-of-living crisis, such as Revenues and Benefits, and the Housing Service.”
But why did Cotswold District Council decide to take this radical approach, and how have they been supporting customers outside of the limited call center hours?
The Logic and the Execution
It will come as no surprise to hear that Cotswold District Council has been struggling financially. Like many Government-funded organizations in recent times, it has had its finances cut due to a combination of austerity, inflation, and the pandemic.
Speaking at the time the trial was first announced, Councilor Tony Dale, Cabinet Member for the Economy and Council Transformation, explained that one of the key reasons for the change was to save money and prevent the organization from going bankrupt:
We are having to make difficult decisions as the Government has cut the council’s funding by over 50% over the past 13 years and the impact of inflation continues to bite.
The other factor outlined by Dale was a clear shift in how customers were making contact, with the council having seen a 20 percent reduction in calls the previous year and an uptick in those using digital services.
With this in mind, the organization analyzed customer call volume to determine the busiest periods, discovering that customers were primarily getting in touch during the mornings and on their lunch breaks.
By reducing contact hours, the Council has been able to prioritize these busier periods by staffing them with more agents – enabling them to provide improved levels of customer service.
To offset this reduced call center schedule, the Council has spent the past few years introducing new digital services and enhancing its existing online offerings, such as reporting missed bins, managing council tax and benefits, and requesting bulky waste collections.
As a testament to the success of the shift to digital, the Council confirmed that when the garden waste service was launched online, 90% of resident interactions were conducted through the website.
In addition, the organization has continued to offer a 9am – 5pm in person service at its Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh offices for those wanting to speak to an agent face to face, as well as a 24/7 emergency line for critical services.
Harris was keen to emphasize that while there has been a greater focus on digital channels, Cotswold District Council is still striving to offer alternatives for all its customers:
“We’ll always make sure that our residents are able to contact us by phone, particularly those who aren’t as confident using digital services, but this trial has shown a clear shift towards many residents using online services.
This change means we’re now providing a more efficient service, and also a better service for residents with more digital options and better response rates.
As well as the customer satisfaction and service improvements that the changes have brought about, they have also helped to save the Council an estimated £125,000 per annum.
Lessons from the Cotswolds
While the area may not be swapping its crown as the quintessential British village destination for the customer satisfaction capital just yet, the results of the Council’s trial offers insights and lessons for customer service teams around the globe.
Although a lack of funding was the primary reason for Cotswold District Council deciding to make the changes, even those contact centers with healthy coffers could well be struggling with staff shortages.
Indeed, a recent McKinsey report on customer care claimed that the majority of executives view “persistent talent shortages” as one of the key challenges in the sector.
These staff shortages are forcing contact centers to spread themselves too thin across the traditional 9-5.
The lesson here may be to look at forecasted data and prioritize those busy moments – as Cotswold District Council did – and, across sectors that have this luxury, close the contact center at quiet times.
It is clear from the result of the Council’s trial that this strategy not only enabled it to maintain existing customer satisfaction levels, but actually exceed them, and it could do the same for others.
However, understanding an organization’s customers and WFM capabilities beforehand through thorough research is vital, as HMRC found out to its cost when it decided to close a key customer helpline for six months of the year, before making an abrupt U-turn following customer and Government backlash.
The initial announcement proposed closing the self-assessment tax form helpline from April to September, reducing the VAT helpline to five days a month, and eliminating the PAYE helpline for refund discussions.
This move aimed to encourage the use of digital services like chatbots and online forms.
However, HMRC was widely criticized for the decision, with the Federation of Small Businesses warning that it would “turn simple tax queries into huge headaches” and would “leave many firms in the lurch.”
Conservative MP and Chair of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, Harriett Baldwin, was also outspoken about the customer service changes, commenting:
It is a great shame that HMRC have decided now is the time to essentially close down any avenues for people to contact them over the phone for huge parts of the year … These are well-meaning people just trying to get their taxes right.
As companies increasingly phase out call handlers and dedicated support lines in favor of cost-effective automated AI solutions, they risk alienating customers unless they are able to continue to provide adequate alternatives for less tech-savvy people.
