Comments on Council's performance largely positive

The comments were recorded in a customer satisfaction rating system called GovMetric and appear in a report set to be presented to Cambridge City Council’s Civic Affairs Committee on 14 September.
 
The council’s annual complaints and feedback report, which was published this week, also highlights 147 compliments sent to the council and 559 complaints.
 
Last year the council received over 255,000 telephone and email contacts from customers, while 42,000 face to face visits were recorded at the customer service centre on Regent Street.
 
Although the figures have fluctuated over the years, the number of complaints recorded in the past year is similar to that recorded some five years ago - in 2010-2011 the council received 576 complaints.
 
Some 36% of complaints relate to two frontline services: refuse collection and estates and facilities. Both services underwent operational changes last year which may have led to additional customer complaints.
 
The refuse collection service (104 complaints) was moved to a shared service with neighbouring South Cambridgeshire District Council and the new bin collection routes took some time to become established.
 
The estates and facilities service (252 complaints) saw a major reorganisation of staff that led to some repair works being delayed.
 
In spite of these changes and increasing financial pressures on the council, most complaints were resolved by the council within the scope of its complaints process.
 
Only 16 complaints ended up being referred to the Local Government Ombudsman who upheld just two complaints against the council.
 
The report also identifies topics and trends among complaints and shows how the council has responded to them and tried to put things right in order to improve services to customers.
 
Cllr Richard Robertson, Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources, said: “It is disappointing when we get a complaint about our services but we always take it very seriously, look into the detail and try to address it as quickly as we can.
 
“Given that the number of customer interactions runs into the hundreds of thousands each year, it’s reasonable to expect that we will receive a number of complaints, particularly given the major changes to some of our services and the growing pressure on resources that we face.
 
“What’s important is that we handle complaints efficiently, learn from any mistakes and take steps to change our services for customers.
 
“It’s also important to air our successes and failures publicly in this report so that our customers can see that we take their complaints seriously and remain committed to addressing their concerns and doing what we can to improve.”