Customer Partnership Panel survey: reporting of missed bins

According to recent data that we gathered, the number of people who choose to telephone to report a missed bin is increasing.

This means that rather than do it themselves online, people would prefer to wait in a telephony queue to speak to a member of Customer Services.

As a council, we would like to explore the reasons behind this, to see if we can do anything to improve our digital platform and encourage people to use our self-service options instead.

61% of people contacted responded to the survey.

The survey found that 82% of respondents said that they would report a missed bin online as their first impulse.

Alongside this, respondents commented that:

• online is the best way to submit a report
• even though it is impersonal it saves time doing it online
• reporting online is easier than making a phone call, which is how it should be
• some elderly people may not have the internet, so telephone is easier
• they would rather talk to someone

The survey also found that:

• 76% of respondents felt that the instructions on the website are clear
• respondents rated their confidence that filling in the online form would work as 7.5 out of 10 (with 1 being a low level of confidence and 10 being the highest level)
• respondents rated their likelihood to recommend online reporting to a friend or family member as 9 out of 10 (with 1 being not likely and 10 being very likely)

Overall, respondents felt that:

• instructions are clear but the process is too prolonged
• it is very comprehensive but when people are in a fuss they sometimes don’t take the time to read
• we should make our website more intuitive; make access quicker and easier

It is clear the online process could be streamlined. One thing that makes the process longer is the recommendation to sign up for an online account. This step offers no value to the customer who wishes to make a simple, fast report. It may give the impression it will take a long time to report, whereas in reality it takes less than a minute. This may cause people to pick up the telephone. We will be removing this part of the form so customers are directed straight to the reporting tool.

We need to make sure customers know that they are getting the same level of service whether by telephone or online, and that they can be confident online reporting works by presenting our metrics. We will improve the content to include this information.