We established a two-year performance target for 2009-10 and 2010-11 in order to allow us to measure and monitor our progress against the customer service standards we planned to achieve by 2010-11. These include the time we will take to acknowledge and respond to enquiries, investigate complaints and deal with complaints about our own service.
In 2010-11 we were able to build on the success of the previous year and came within touching distance of meeting all six of our customer service standards, exceeding our performance of previous years.
Our service standard of completing 90 per cent of investigations within twelve months in 2010-11 was a significant increase on the target we had set ourselves in 2009-10 (to complete 55 per cent of investigations within twelve months). At the end of 2010-11, we had completed 88 per cent of investigations within twelve months, representing notable progress on our performance of 65 per cent in 2009-10.
By the end of the year we had:
- resolved 23,667 enquiries
- concluded 419 investigations and reported on 412 (7 investigations were discontinued)
- reduced the average length of an investigation from 392 days to 323 days – a fall of 18 per cent
- resolved 1,276 complaints about us, 155 of which 12 per cent were fully or partly upheld
- met five of our six customer service standards, and
- positioned ourselves well to meet all six of our customer service standards in 2011-12.
The breakdown of performance against the targets set for 2010-11 is set out below. Information about our overall performance against our 2010-11 Corporate Business Plan commitments is published in our 2010-11 Resource Accounts.
Our performance against our customer service standards
| 2010-11 standard | 2010-11 performance | 2011-12 standard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email enquiry | Acknowledgement sent within one working day | 100% | Acknowledgement sent within one working day |
| Written enquiry | Acknowledgement sent within two working days | 100% | Acknowledgement sent within two working days |
| Substantive response to enquiries | 90% within 40 working days | 91% | 90% within 40 working days |
| 2010-11 standard | 2010-11 performance | 2011-12 standard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From acceptance to investigation | |||
| Within 12 months | 90% | 88% | 90% |
| 2010-11 standard | 2010-11 performance | 2011-12 standard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial response to complaints | 95% within 5 working days | 96% | 95% within 5 working days |
| Substantive response to complaints | 90% within 16 weeks | 99% | 90% within 16 weeks |
