Quarter 2
Results
2015/16
Customer Contact
Centre
October 2015
Summary
• In Quarter 2 2015/16 overall contacts increased by 11.9% on the previous quarter, and 3.5% on the same period the previous year.
• The proportion of General Enquiries resolved within 3 working days fell just short of the 95% target (94.1%) after meeting or exceeding its target in the previous two quarters.
• Complaints acknowledged within 3 working days increased to 93%; its highest ever level. The proportion resolved within 40 days fell slightly from 63.9% to 63.6%.
• 84% of FOIs were resolved in 20 working days in Q1 2015/16.
• Tier 1 performance improved after being affected by the launch of CRM in Q1. The
percentage of calls answered within 45 seconds increased from 73% to 85%. However this was still short of the 90% KPI target. The proportion of abandoned calls fell from 5.7% to 2.3% which is again within target.
Summary of contacts received
• There were a total of 39,740 contacts to the NHS England Customer Contact Centre (CCC). This was up 11.9% on the previous quarter and 3.5% on the same period the previous year.
• An additional category of ‘Concerns’ is now being reported separately from General Enquiries and Complaints. These are cases that are not formal Complaints, but identify some dissatisfaction with the service
received.
• As a result of the new categorisation, the breakdown of General Enquiries, Complaints and Concerns cannot be compared with previous years. However compared with Q1, the proportion of contacts in Q2 that were General Enquiries fell from 83% to 81%, while the proportion that were Complaints increased from 7% to 8%.
Contact Types
• The vast majority of contacts in Q2 were by members of the public (94.5%), followed by NHS Personnel (4.5%).
• The charts below show that the proportion of calls classified as being from members of the public increased compared with the same period the previous year, with a corresponding decrease in the proportion of ‘other’ contact types.
Complaint Categories (Employee Group)
• The charts below shows Complaints by Employee Group in Q2 2015/16 and the same period the previous year.
• 70% related to Medical employees, up from 62% in Q1 the previous year. The second largest category was Dental employees, which accounted for 17% of Complaints; largely unchanged from the previous year.
• Complaints about GP Administration fell sharply from 12.6% to 4.4%. This may be due to improved classification of case types.
Enquiry Handling
• The vast majority of General Enquiries are handled at a national level by Tier 1 in Redditch. Nearly 89% were handled in this way in Quarter 2, down from 94% in Q1.
Concern Handling
• Since the launch of the CRM there is a further case-type category of ‘concerns’, which are not formal complaints but raise some concerns about the service that customers have received. A KPI target of 80% of concerns to be resolved within 10 working days has been adopted.
• The chart shows monthly data over the last two quarters to show how the trend in Concerns
resolutions has developed over the last two quarters.
• In September 2015, 83% of Concerns were resolved within 10 working days.
• The measure remained above 80% over the whole period, peaking at almost 90% in May and June.
Complaint Handling
• The majority of complaints are dealt with at a sub-national level, with nearly 99% handled in this way in Q2.
• The charts below show that the proportions dealt with by each region changed little
between Quarter 2 2015/16 and the previous quarter. In Q2, the proportion of Complaints handled in each region ranged from 16.7% in London to 34.7% in the Midlands & East.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): General Enquiries
• The percentage of Enquiries
resolved within 3 working days fell slightly below the 95% target after exceeding it in the two previous quarters. This slight decrease is due to the increase in overall contacts received in the quarter.
• The Q2 figure of 94.1% was down from 97.7% in Q1, but up from 92.7% in the same period last year.
• The average response time for General Enquiries increased in Q2 compared with the previous
quarter, but remained well below one working day.
• The percentage of Complaints acknowledged within 3 working days stood at 93.2% in Q2 2015/16, up from 91.7% the
previous quarter. The figure for the same period the previous year was 76.2%.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Complaints
• The percentage of Complaints resolved within 40 working days was down slightly in Q1 2015/16 at 63.6% compared with 63.9% the previous quarter.
• Performance data for Freedom of Information requests were affected following the launch of CRM*. This was mainly due to the difficulty of accurately measuring cases where clarification was required.
• The Q1 figure of 83.6% was lower than recent levels, which have been around the target of 95%. The most recent monthly data (August 2015) was 94.2%, which suggests that the data in Q2 is returning to normal levels.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): FOIs
* The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system was launched on 23rd March 2015, and involved changes in the way that staff recorded information. This impacted on the
performance management statistics in the period immediately following the launch. FOI figures were particularly affected due to the complexity of cases where the standard 20 working day resolution period did not apply. However the data is still to be verified for Q2.
• Calls answered within 45 seconds stood at 85.3%, up from 73.1% the previous quarter.
• Abandoned calls fell from 5.7% to 2.3% between Q1 and Q2 2015/16.
The CCC conducts a Customer Satisfaction Survey among its customers. The sample size was historically very small, but Q4 2014/15 onwards saw a significant increase in the
number of people who were asked for their views. As a result the level of confidence we can have in the results of the survey has improved from Q4 onwards, but any historical comparisons should be used with caution.
Satisfaction with the outcome of Enquiries/Complaints remained almost the same (46% to 45%) between Q1 and Q2 2015/16.
In general, the results in Quarter 2 were in line with those of Quarter 1. The only change was in satisfaction with
resolution times, which increased slightly from 53% to 57%.
The principal question used to gauge overall satisfaction is to ask about customers’ propensity to recommend the service. This stood at around 63% in Q2 2015/16, almost
unchanged from 62% the previous quarter.
Customer Satisfaction
Survey
Customers who expressed
dissatisfaction with the outcome of their complaint are asked for their reasons. In Quarter 2, three quarters said that dissatisfaction with the outcome was the reason for their dissatisfaction with the service as a whole. A further 9% said the process was too slow, and 12% didn’t want to say.
