Memorandum from the Disability and Carers
Service
The Disability and Carers Service (DCS) has
strategic business objectives to improve the experience of its
customers and stakeholders. A significant percentage of our customers
come through the voluntary sector and they are almost all customers
of other DWP agencies. It is therefore important in designing
our future services to ensure that our current services are as
customer focused as possible so that we understand:
— what our customers want and need
and they know what we need from them;
— the role that third parties play
in providing services to our shared customers.
Knowing What Customers Want -Through talking
to disabled people, carers and their representatives we have developed
the DCS Customer Promise:
"We will treat our customers and their
representatives with respect and deliver an accessible, accurate,
efficient service, keeping our customers informed, listening to,
and learning from, what they tell us."
This underpins how we expect to improve our
services and treat our customers. It drives improvements to our
services and is used to reinforce core messages with staff that
customers are at the heart of our business. We know that the vast
majority of our staff share this view with 82% of responses to
the staff survey agreeing that the agency is committed to delivering
a quality customer service. We will continue to undertake research
with our customers to understand their views and attitudes.
Designing People In—To ensure we
design the outward aspects of our service, so they meet the needs
of our customers, we have set up the Disability and Carers Advisory
Forum. It comprises representatives from national voluntary organisations.
This arrangement has allowed us to involve customers and their
representatives from the outset in developing change initiatives
in the business and provides a forum for them to identify areas
where we might improve our services.
We have set up a number of sub-groups of the
Forum to look at specific aspects of our service. The Family Carers
Group provides DCS with a means of engaging organisations that
represent the needs of children, young people and their families.
Outside of this formal structure DCS hold events
focused on specific issues. When we piloted the Customer Case
Management initiative in our Bootle and Manchester regional centres,
it was supported by local events involving local organisations
that were consulted and informed about the impact on our joint
customers. Their views informed the evaluation of the initiative.
Working Together—While the vast
majority of working age customers are content to contact the Agency
via the telephone, there are some occasions when they need face
to face help. Working together, DCS and The Pension Service are
piloting an extension of the local visiting service so that it
will deal with DCS's working age and children customers. The Pension
Service Local Service is already available to our older customers.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction—DCS
sponsor an annual customer satisfaction survey by MORI to measure
and evaluate customers' perceptions of our services. In 2005 this
indicated that 83% of our customers were satisfied with our services.
Top-line results from the 2006 MORI survey indicate that this
figure has increased to 86% with over half of all DCS customers,
56%, very satisfied. Against specific elements of the customer
promises, levels of satisfaction have risen by, typically, 5%
points.
This year we are supplementing this annual survey
of customer satisfaction levels with a programme of Mystery Shopping
that provides "real time" data. This will allow us to
assess the quality of our service "in year".
1. Using Customer Feedback—we
believe customer feedback and early resolution of customer complaints
is a key source of information to support the future design and
delivery of our service. Part of our customer promise states "We
will listen and learn from your views and comments." We
have therefore taken steps to improve our handling of complaints
and make sure we address the causes of the most common complaints.
DCS routinely analyses complaints data to identify
opportunities for business improvements. This data is a standing
item at quarterly DCS Executive Management Team meetings chaired
by the Chief Executive. The top 6 most serious complaints where,
for example, customers have felt sufficiently strongly about an
issue to pursue the matter with their MP are tracked against measures
that will address the issue that has given rise to the complaint.
DCS believes strongly that our work to date
in understanding the needs of customers has, in part, led to the
increased satisfaction levels. We have some way to go so that
we improve on the 86% of customers already satisfied, but we are
confident that our strategy will help us do so. Only by full and
meaningful consultation can DCS be confident that it is designing
services that meet, as far as possible, the very diverse and special
needs and expectations of our customers.
March 2007
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