Reigate and Banstead comes top in mystery shopping test
The Council has come top in a mystery shopping exercise which tested the service customers receive when contacting us.
The independent mystery shoppers used different scenarios to assess service quality when customers visit our Help Shops or the Town Hall in person and our responses to letters. Across the two contact channels Reigate & Banstead scored 89 per cent, 18 per cent higher than the test group average of 71 per cent.
Top marks
For dealing with visitors to our Help Shops and Customer Services desks at the Town Hall we ranked first out of the 18 authorities tested, scoring 91 per cent - six per cent above the group average.
We scored full marks in many of the categories judged, such as how the customer was greeted, how clearly their questions were answered and the helpfulness of the adviser. We also scored well on accessibility and facilities.
All but one of the visits were judged to be good or excellent and the remaining one was judged to be ok.
The quality of letter replies also came top, scoring 87 per cent - 30 per cent higher than the group average across the 15 authorities tested. Responses were found to be easy to understand, well presented and with full answers given.
True picture
Cllr Roger Newstead, Executive Member for Personnel and Business Transformation, said: “We use mystery shopping from time to time so that we can get a true picture of the service our customers are receiving and so we know what is working well and what needs improving. It is also a good way of seeing how we are doing compared to other councils.
“We are extremely pleased to have come top in the tests and it shows how committed staff are to providing a good service to our customers.
“However we will not be complacent as there is always room for improvement, for instance the inspectors suggested we personalise standard letters, where appropriate. We will use the results to feedback in our training programmes to improve our performance in the future.”
Genuine enquiries
The ‘shopping’ was carried out by members of the public posing as residents with genuine enquiries. Afterwards they complete a scorecard that looks at various elements of their experiences.
The company the Council uses are specialists in this area with a wealth of experience in providing mystery shopping for local authorities, and by using an outside company there is no insider bias.
Departments that came under the spotlight included Customers Services, Revenues and Benefits, Neighbourhood Services, Democratic Services, Housing and Building and Development Services. The Council aims to deal with 80 per cent of its enquiries at ‘first point of contact’.
Feedback welcome
Another mystery shopping exercise is set to take place in the coming weeks to test how customers are dealt with when they contact the Council by phone or email and the usability of our website.
Cllr Newstead added: “We always welcome customer feedback - it helps us to continually improve our service to residents and reinforce current good practice.”
Last updated : 21/04/2010
