Southwark Council can be painful to deal with. It’s such a large organisation doing so many different things that people often tell me it’s hard to find the right person or get the response they expected.

All queries are dealt with by a now in-house contact centre based in Peckham. It handles huge volumes of phone calls and emails. Typically 25,000 calls a month but only gets to answer between 45% and 73%. The average time taken to answer those calls is much improved from a high in October 2012 of 5 mins 56 seconds down to 1 mins 21 seconds in December 2013. But most organisations aim for just a few rings before answering in less than 10 seconds. So still huge work to be done.

When you do get through, 77% of residents found they received the help they needed, 15% didn’t and 8% aren’t sure. Importantly many of these calls are to tell the council something they want to know to fulfil its duty to us as residents.

During 2014 efforts to get more services online to avoid having to make a phone call are planned. Silly things like bulk waste collection will go online. So far 55,000 residents have registered to use online services and is increasing by 300 pw. If you haven’t registered please do register here: https://my.southwark.gov.uk/Default.aspx

What have your experiences been like?

Which council officers has gone the extra mile for you?