Leisure and Customer Services Cabinet Member – Minutes – 26 May 2015

1          (1)  THE FUTURE OF THE SWITCHBOARD FUNCTION (CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTRE) –  The Director of Places submitted a report which sought to determine the future of the council’s switchboard function (telephone number 296296).

The report outlined that the main telephone number for the council’s customer contact centre (CCC) was 297000.  The council also had a switchboard which used the number 296296, which was old fashioned telephone technology and very limited.  The number was still in the public domain.

There was now a business case for discontinuing/merging the 296296 number with the 297000 number.

A project in the Unified Communications (UC) Team had recommended to put the council’s telephone numbering and call delivery function into the ‘IT cloud’.  It was explained that this would build in new provisions for business continuity and would enable the council to safely move to one (297000) number for all calls into the contact centre.

It was confirmed that work would continue with the Head of Communications and the UC teams to further promote the use of the 297000 number.

Resolved – (a)  That the use of the 297000 for all calls into the contact centre be approved, and (b) that the necessary steps be taken to achieve the merge of numbers and manage any associated staffing implications.

Note: Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.