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Northampton Bulk Centre

Customer Service Plan 2008 - 2009

Welcome to the 2008 - 2009 Customer Service Plan

The purpose of the Bulk Centre is to provide an excellent service designed around the diverse needs of our customers. We utilise modern, streamlined systems to facilitate the removal of repetitive staff-intensive work from local courts to a central, computer supported office in Northampton. We will continue our committment to customer service and will maintain, and where possible, increase our level of customer service and deliver effective and efficient results. To this end, the Bulk Centre is working to gain accreditation to the Government's Customer Service Excellence Standard, awarded for excellence in service. It is our aim to consistently strive to adhere to its values.

The Bulk Centre consists of five main areas, namely:

Claim Production Centre (CPC), County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC), Centralised Attachment of Earnings Payment System (CAPS), Money Claim On Line (MCOL) & the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC).

The Bulk Centre will improve service to our customers by:

1. Promoting further uptake and use of the Bulk Centre services to existing HMCS customers and to encourage uptake of new users;
2. Providing assistance and relevant information to Bulk Centre users;
3. Promoting customer service role and issues among staff;
4. Improving staff training procedures;
5. Providing a focal point and taking action from suggestions and complaints;
6. Implementing customer service initiatives in a uniform way;
7. Promoting further use of Money Claim On Line (MCOL) and Possession Clain On Line (PCOL) as an alternative to issuing these types of claims at local county courts.

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• A wide variety of payment methods of court fees or suitors cash - via cash, cheque, postal order, standing order, BACS, imprest accounts and debit/credit cards.
• CPC customers can issue claim data to us via electronic transfer. This facilitates the option of individual claim withdrawl up to 10:00am on the day of issue.
• As well as individual e-mail accounts assigned to each member of staff, there are also five separate global customer e-mail accounts pertaining to the five distinct areas of the Bulk Centre work. This allows customers the facility to e-mail correspondence if they so wish. This is particularly well-used by TEC customers who send specific charge documentation to via this quick and effective method.
• TEC offers two different ways to send data, by disk and electronic transfer. Dedicated Helpdesk/direct dial lines, fax machines and contacts for the five main different areas of the work at the Bulk Centre.
• The public counter's opening hours are from 8:30am - 4:00pm. The counter is fully DDA compliant.
• Dedicated helpdesk with lines open from 8:15am - 5:00pm with a number of bilingual staff available to assist.
• Minicom VII available.
• Unique customer facility to issue claims, judgments and warrants via the Internet (Money Claim On Line).
• A technical support helpdesk for Possession Claim On Line (PCOL) customers. 
  

 

• Extend the information published on our web site. We are currently revising and improving the frequently asked question sections so that customers can use these to answer common queries as an alternative to contacting the Helpdesks. Also we are currently considering adding more frequently requested Bulk Centre specific forms to the web site to allow fast and efficient access to the forms and referenced with highlighted addresses to click to.

• Direct links from our web site to the global customer service e-mail accounts allowing bulk users and defendants to contact us easily and consistent with the HMCS strategy to ensure the vast majority of civil business is initiated and conducted online. Encourage the use of electronic communication such as e-Channels to improve speed and save costs.

• We have received an IT upgrade to further support our staff and users and this will enable us to review processes in a bid to further streamline our systems and look at ways to provide a better service to our users.

• We will continue to utilise technology to improve value for money and save on our running costs.

• Review the service level provided to our customers at our public counter.

• We will continue to work towards the new "Customer Service Excellence Standard" during this financial year.

• To increase our Helpdesk call answer rate from 75% to 80%.

• Ensure that calls are answered quickly and that clerks are professional in their conduct on the telephone. Where any service shortfalls are discovered, discuss these with the relevant Helpdesks managers to seek ways to improve. Number of Helpdesks clerks trained on each discipline to be increased allowing improved call handling flows and volumes for customers.

• Continue to improve the quality of written communication leaving the Bulk Centre using where applicable more tailored correspondence and less standard template replies. Letters to users are customarily standard monitored for consistency, correctness and accuracy. This allows us to identify any additional staff training as necessary.

• Expand the training team to ensure staff, receive the quality training they need in a timely way. This will improve the quality of the service we provide to users.

• Ensure that staff, are trained to complete duties in multiple work disciplines to improve the flexibility of skills and efficiency of staff resource utilisation throughout the office.

• Review the way we recruit staff to achieve higher uptake and reduced advertising costs. Improve the information available on our web site regarding recruitment and opportunities in the public sector.

• Ensure smooth transition of the Traffic Management Act changes into Traffic Enforcement Centre working practices to maintain excellent customer services. 

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