Newark and Sherwood District Council has announced a trial for the customer services and housing repairs team to be available on the phones from 8am on Monday mornings

Key departments at a council are to open beyond the hours of the normal working day.

Newark and Sherwood District Council has announced a trial for the customer services and housing repairs team to be available on the phones from 8am on Monday mornings, the busiest day of the week, in a bid to tackle the issue of frustration that people can’t make a call while they’re at work.

The new hours will start from Monday and will run for 12 weeks.

The move is part of the council’s new Customer Promise, backed by its new Customer Experience Strategy.

Each year the council’s customer services and housing repairs team respond to over 170,000 customer contacts, via the telephone, email, web chat or social media.

Enquiries vary significantly from reports of anti-social behaviour to council tax billing and from lost dogs to support with housing advice or waste queries. The website also gets an additional 515,000 views every year.

While most district council services can now be dealt with online either using e-forms or webchat and digital self-service, the team understands that some residents may not be able to contact them this way, or simply just need to speak to a person.

Jill Baker, customer services business manager at Newark and Sherwood District Council said: “We offer a unique service to all our residents. If you call us, we have teams of dedicated people ready to help straight away.

“Our average call waiting times are below two minutes.

“So, whether you contact us by phone, through social media, web chat or email, or even in person at either of our two offices in Newark or Ollerton, our teams are there to help.

“The teams have the knowledge and expertise to answer the majority of enquiries straight away and will take the time to ensure you get the help and information you need.

“The new promise and strategy have been developed to put the customer front and centre of everything we do, and we’ll be making it even easier for customers to contact with us.

“A trial will be starting shortly to provide an out of hours service on Monday mornings, the busiest day of the week for our customer services team on the phones, we will be starting at 8am rather than our current 9 O’clock start.”

Our website, www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk, is often the first port of call for customers. But we recognise that digital is not for everyone and it is incredibly important that when our customers contact us, they get the support they need.

Paul Peacock, council leader, said: “We all know there are certain places we don’t like to phone, banks, insurance companies, the taxman.

“Being put on hold, with long waits and then being passed to lots of different people makes these organisations hard to deal with. We don’t want to be seen like that. We’re approachable and really want to help.”