Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
The Department’s Customer Charter (the Charter) covers four customer service areas: ‘ease of access’; ‘getting...
Conclusion
The Department’s Customer Charter (the Charter) covers four customer service areas: ‘ease of access’; ‘getting it right’; ‘keeping you informed’; and ‘right treatment’. The NAO found that it is difficult to assess the Department objectively against these areas because the Department has not identified a suite of performance measures, management information and benchmarks that it needs to assess whether it is providing a reasonable level of service.22 The Department told us that in its view, “there is actually quite a lot of evidence that suggests the service is getting better”, such as improved payment compliance and accuracy.23 However, there has been no noticeable improvement in how its customers perceive the Department’s performance in the four areas, and some aspects of customer service have declined. For example, the C&AG’s report shows that Charter scores based on customer survey responses relating to ‘ease of access’, ‘keeping you informed’ and ‘right treatment’ appear no better for the quarter ending December 2019 than they did for the quarter ending June 2017. In addition, the average amount of time taken to answer telephone calls increased substantially, from 26 seconds in the quarter ending June 2018, to 21 minutes in the quarter ending September 2021.24
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5a. PAC recommendation: The Department should use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators that enable it to fully understand why customer satisfaction is so low, and target improvement where data suggests there may be an underlying service issue, for example: where high numbers of complaints are upheld. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The department remains committed to continually improving the service it provides to its customers. The CMS sought independent evaluation of its customer service practices and is now in its third year of achieving the Cabinet Office Customer Service Excellence accreditation. 5.3 The department commenced a Transformation Programme in Autumn 2020 to improve outcomes for children, by enabling parents to put in place and manage sustainable child maintenance arrangements in a more efficient manner. So far, it has stream-lined and automated processes, introduced a live chat functionality, and launched a new on-line service: Get Help Arranging Child Maintenance. By 2024, when the programme completes, it will introduce further improvements that make it easier for customers to interact with the department, including increased automation to enable support that is tailored to customers’ needs. 5.4 The department is building on the development of its Customer Service strategy which will objectively analyse upheld complaints and review current measures. It will develop user research focussed on customer perception and introduce a programme allowing real time gathering of customer feedback through the introduction of “Voice of the Customer”. This programme will translate feedback into insight and help the department understand what customers are experiencing. This shares learning from customer contact and is part of an individual’s training and consolidation.