#contactcenterworld

Cupar, UK, June 2, 2021 -- Fife Council staff have been praised for continuing to maintain customer service standards during the coronavirus pandemic.

Newly published figures show that between April 2020 and March 2021, contact centre workers answered calls quicker than in the previous three years despite working from home, fielding nearly 430,000 enquiries in total.

An average, 57.5% of calls were answered within 20 seconds - the highest level of speedy pick-ups since 2016/17.

Fife's call centre operators were spinning several plates during this time: operating the Covid Community Helpline to arrange access to food, medicine, dog walking and transportation; contact tracing; social work calls; and normal council services such as housing and roads.

Diarmuid Cotter, head of customer services at Fife Council, said: "Staff had to become logistics experts, help with business grants - it's absolutely incredible what the stuff have done.

"I've been quite proud of how it turned out."

Covid-19 has also seen Fifers use social media, live chat and email more than ever to get their council issues sorted.

During the first quarter of 2020/21 between April and June, when non-essential phone lines were closed, a third of all queries were dealt with online rather than by phone. That has dropped to around a quarter - which is still twice pre-pandemic levels.

#contactcenterworld

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: https://www.fifetoday.co.uk

Date Posted: Friday, June 4, 2021