Council Contact Centre helps more than 100,000 customers

More than 100,000 customers have visited Swansea Council's Contact Centre in the last year.

The innovative Civic Centre-based unit has transformed the way the Local Authority deals with the public.

The Contact Centre team assisted more than 10,300 customers in September alone and have now served almost 150,000 people since the opening in 2008.

And as the services it provides continues to increase it's hoped it will help even more people in the coming year.

The Contact Centre is based in the Civic Centre on Oystermouth Road and aims to ensure the public are advised and dealt with on a face-to-face basis both more easily and in as few visits as possible.

It is open from 8.30am to 5.30pm on Monday to Thursday, from 8.30am to 5pm on Fridays and from 10am to 3pm on Saturdays.

Staff are trained and have access to a wide range of resources to help people seeking advice on Council services.

They also handle residents' parking permits and disabled car badge applications and payments for various Council services such as Council Tax, rent and parking penalty charge notices outside of the normal business hours.

The Contact Centre additionally accepts student finance applications, taxi licensing forms for drivers and vehicles, bus pass applications and replacement applications, planning applications and passport to leisure applications.

And more services will be provided by Swansea Council through the Contact Centre in the year to come.

Despite the number of customers now using the Contact Centre more than 85 per cent are dealt with within 15 minutes.

The vast majority of queries are resolved by the Contact Centre team directly but they are also able to call on Council departments when further assistance is needed to deal with the customer's query or request.

Cllr Mary Jones, Swansea Council's Cabinet Member of Business, Improvement and Efficiency. said: "The Contact Centre continues to transform the way Swansea Council interacts with the public and I am delighted that more and more people are recognising how the team here can help them.

"With the Civic Centre now on bus rotes including the Swansea Metro the centre is even more accessible now than it was when it opened in 2007.

"We value the work that the Contact Centre team do in conjunction with services throughout the Local Authority."

Contact Swansea Development Manager Deborah Reed said: "Contact Centre staff have readily met the increased demand for their services.

"We are looking forward to the challenges ahead with customers always at the forefront of our minds."