Blythe Valley Borough Council is no stranger to sharing services with other authorities. The council is offering the services of ALMO, Blyth Valley Arts and Leisure and the County Council through its new one stop shops. In fact, the council is now looking to use the information provided by the Q-Matic solution to cost the service to the partner organisations.
Three new one stop shops branded yourlink have recently opened in Blyth Valley, where the council is delivering services on behalf of some other authorities.
"Blyth Valley Arts and Leisure is at an early stage of its partnership with yourlink," said Kevin Dale, Head of Customer Services at Blyth Valley. "The trust delivers quality sports facilities and classes in the two leisure centres and the sporting club in the borough. Currently only basic information is provided but the ability to book and pay for all the facilities offered will soon be available through the shops," he said.
County services
Regarding the county council, it made sense to work with them in delivering some of their services through the borough's one stop shops. "The county's main offices are ten miles away and not best served by public transport," Kevin Dale said.
"Rather than having to direct customers to these offices we are now able to handle some basic services for the county," he said. "Access to their CRM system will soon allow us to request services direct which will be a stepped improvement for the customer and both authorities," he added.
In addition, the council has an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) which manages all the housing stock of the council. Previously all face to face interaction with the customer was done through the four housing offices.
"It seemed unnecessary to keep these offices once the one stop shops opened, therefore all the housing offices were closed and all services were moved into yourlink," Kevin Dale said. "As a recognised quality two star ALMO the need for a quality service was critical to their objective of obtaining a three star accreditation."
Accurate costing
Offering these extra services through the council has lead to a need for accurate costing.
"Measuring volumes of business is standard for all services but when you engage with partners you need to demonstrate how effective and efficient you are. Value for money is a critical success factor as far as our partners are concerned and Q-Matic offers a number of ways in which we can provide accurate and tangible statistics," Kevin said.
"Making the most of the services means looking to bring in more partners who are willing to pay for their services to be provided through our shops, therefore we need to be able to capture all interactions on the various services provided on behalf of the partner," he said. "From the days when we used the system for pure queue management we are now looking to use the information provided by Q-Matic to cost our service to the partner. It is still early days but it certainly seems the way to go," he added.
Morale boost
For the customers, accessing a wide range of services through one point is obviously good news. Similarly, for the staff the new approach has meant a real morale boost.
"With the wide depth of knowledge required by the customer service officers they are able to offer a far more comprehensive service to the customer than they would if they were just dealing with council services," Kevin Dale said. "They are able to advise customers on related issues which may not have been apparent to the customer. The motivation of the staff is increased as their knowledge base is expanded. There is nothing quite like the feeling experienced when you have successfully delivered a quality service to a customer," he said.
In fact, the quality of the staff is one of the key elements of the council's success, according to Kevin Dale. "Recruited from within the authority and trained in all aspects of the services provided we now have a team of 40 full time and part time staff delivering a professional service across the borough," he said.
£3.5 million project
With a clear vision to provide modern and convenient access to responsive services Blyth Valley Borough Council embarked on a £3.5 million project to dramatically change the service offered to the customers. A decision was made to create a new Customer Services Unit that would deliver all council services through bespoke one stop shops in each of the three main areas of the borough. With the objective of putting them directly in the heart of the community the council leased premises in the centre of Blyth town, developed an existing office in Seaton Delaval and built a brand new three story office accommodation in the middle of the main shopping complex in Cramlington. Named yourlink the council now has three high quality premises in locations best suited to the customers' needs.