LONDON, UK – Customers are receiving a better level of service from Peterborough City Council’s Customer Service Centre following work with Catalyst IT Partners, one of the UK’s leading providers of contact centre and change management consultancy.

Catalyst has been working with and advising staff at the Customer Service Centre in Bayard Place, Broadway, Peterborough, to improve performance levels when answering calls in the call centre and when dealing with face-to-face enquiries.

According to December’s figures 88 per cent of calls were answered within 20 seconds and only three per cent of calls were abandoned. In August, before work started with Catalyst, 76 per cent of calls were answered in 20 seconds and nine per cent were abandoned.

Peter Tetlow, senior consultant at Catalyst IT Partners, said: “The quick turnaround by the Customer Service Centre staff to reduce the number of abandoned calls has been impressive to say the least.

“Catalyst has a great deal of experience across the contact centre industry and we have witnessed numerous successes but what Peterborough has achieved in such a short time is exemplary.”

Catalyst was brought in to conduct a performance review of the call centre and make recommendations to improve the service provided to the people of Peterborough as part of the city council’s commitment to being as efficient, effective and accessible as possible.

Councillor Matthew Dalton, Cabinet member for Customer Focus and Communications, added: “Catalyst IT Partners provided us with a detailed review of the call centre and all the contacts received. The resulting report provided recommendations tailored to our needs. By providing the interim management role, they enabled us to achieve ‘best in class’ performance in a very quick timescale.

“Working with the private sector was a cost efficient way of rapidly and independently getting both the right information and an accurate picture of performance and providing expertise to deliver their recommendations within agreed timescales. As a result of our work with Catalyst, the people of Peterborough now have their calls answered quicker than ever and receive the correct information to their query.”

As part of a continuous improvement process, calls are evaluated by team leaders to ensure customers receive the highest quality of service. Any areas for improvement are then highlighted in an individual development plan and objectives are set to develop the skills and knowledge of the individual customer services officer.

The Customer Service Centre achieved a 95 per cent satisfaction rate in a recent customer satisfaction survey.