Shropshire Council cuts back longer customer service times on Mondays

The council says it receives a "minimal number of calls" to its customer services centre after 3pm on Mondays so it has decided to bring it into line with the end of the week.

The changes, coming into effect on Monday are on top of a reduction in hours earlier in the year when the centre operated from 8am-6pm Monday to Friday, and 9am-1pm on Saturdays.

Shropshire Council has also announced the launch this week of a new voice-automated call answering system means that enquiries about waste bins and recycling can be processed automatically, without being answered by a customer services adviser.

The council has confirmed that its local hubs in Shrewsbury's Darwin Centre and Ludlow Library are unaffected.

It says in the three-month trial period it has been able to talk to over 3,000 older, vulnerable residents about a range of issues, raising awareness of the support that is available, and directly referring over 300 to appropriate help.

In August 2023 the council introduced new opening times which saw the customer services centre open from 9am to 3pm from Tuesdays to Fridays, and an extended opening time until 6pm on Mondays on a trial basis.

The council says as the trial period comes to an end, the decision has been made to end the extended Mondays hours, closing at 3pm instead, in line with the rest of the week. This reflects the busiest hours of the day, with a minimal number of calls being made to the centre after 3pm.

Councillor Robert Macey, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for culture and digital, said: “The revised customer services centre opening hours have been a huge success, creating more time for our advisers to reach people who might otherwise not be aware of the support that is available to them, particularly over the winter months.

“This initiative was started during the pandemic and continued as part of our cost of living campaign last year, helping thousands of Shropshire residents to access funding and community support when it is most needed.

“The last three months have shown us the value of focusing our resources on our most vulnerable residents, and we are confident that ending the extended Mondays opening times will allow us to expand on this.

“More services than ever before can now be reached online, and the innovative technology being developed by waste management services works like a virtual assistant, meaning that these requests will be completed over the phone 24/7.

“We are working hard to expand this technology into other service areas, so that people without Internet access can still find the information they need outside of our customer service centre opening times.”

Shropshire Council’s customer services centre will be open 9am-3pm Mondays-Fridays from Monday, December 11, 2023.