Happy Birthday to Info by Phone

Herefordshire Council's customer services staff are celebrating as the Info by Phone service reaches its first official birthday.

Following a modernisation of the council's switchboard technology last year, a new service called Info by Phone was set up to help residents get their queries resolved more quickly and efficiently.

More than half a million telephone calls come through the council's main switchboard every year, of which around 192,000 require specific information from Info by Phone.

Customer care staff have been trained to deal with a wide range of subject matter, so that residents can have their queries dealt with immediately and by one person.

The system also has a tracking device so that queries can be checked up and duplication avoided. This saves residents having to wait to receive return calls and reduces the amount of time spent on the telephone waiting to be put through to someone. By customer services staff being able to deal with some of the council's administrative functions, less time is spent by officers dealing with such queries, allowing them more time to deal with their core business.

Currently, Info by Phone staff are able to provide information on waste management, animal health and welfare, commercial enquiries regarding environmental health, pollution, licensing and trading standards, planning (including planning applications and enforcement, conservation and building control), blue badges, concessionary parking, library book renewals and any other general information which may be requested. More recently staff have been trained to deal with council tax issues and the new national bus pass. The next services anticipated to come on board are registrars, highways, electoral registration and school transport.

"We've had all sorts of queries during our first year," said Gina Lane, Info by Phone manager. "The majority of calls tend to concern council tax, pest control, stray dogs, missed bin collections and queries about litter and recycling. Our busiest times are when there is something topical in the media like virus scares, flooding and local campaigns.

"We get asked for an incredibly diverse range of information from details of highways works to bird flu and belly dancing. We even had one elderly gentleman wanting to know where he could learn to do Tai Chi - we managed to find out where his nearest club was and put him in touch."

Councillor June French, cabinet member for corporate, customer services and human resources, said: "Info by Phone has been a great success and continues to grow as more and more services come on board.

"It makes sense to equip customer services staff with the skills to deal with routine enquiries from residents. The number of calls being diverted from the switchboard to Info by Phone continues to grow, freeing up officer time to deal with more technical issues, and providing customers with a more cost effective, efficient service."

Herefordshire Council provides a face to face service for residents calling into its Info Shops in Hereford and the market towns, an efficient telephone service with Info by Phone and a service to respond to email enquiries on the council's web site, as well as a community information portal called myherefordshire.com.