Hull City Council

"The Hull City Council contact centre is a well-developed and evolving service. Recent changes in its specification have provided for greater customer focus, better responses and greater efficiency. However both partners recognise the need to learn from the best in the industry and to continually improve the experience for the people of Hull, and so welcome the opportunity to join the Top 50!" Andy Brown, head of citizen engagement, Hull City Council.

KCOM Contact Centres has worked with Hull City Council since August 2000. The contact centre has evolved considerably in that time and now handles around one million calls each year, supporting over 2,500 business processes Services are available through a single number - 300300 - which has become a high visibility brand for the council's customers, and the calls are free of charge to land line users.

The aim of the partnership is to deliver high quality public services to the people of Hull, taking account of the diverse range of callers and their access requirements - staff reflect the demographics of the local community and understand their issues and concerns.

The Council and KCOM have a commitment to continuous improvement and the one-number' strategy is designed to drive learning from the demands and experiences of customers across a range of public services.

This ensures that customers have easy access and receive consistent responses and resolution at first point of contact. The contract - recently retained by KCOM after an exhaustive Europe-wide procurement process - demands high levels of responsiveness to customers, with 98% of calls answered, and over 80 per cent within 20 seconds. It is essential that the operation of highly efficient to ensure that the people of Hull receive real value for money.