Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Telephoning the Customer Service Centre

Telephone Numbers and Performance

You can contact the Customer Service Centre by telephoning the appropriate number below. Lines are open between 8.45am and 5.15pm daily, Monday to Friday. At all other times, for emergencies only, an Out of Hours Service operates on 01702 215000.

Service area   Telephone number
Out of Hours Emergencies 01702 215000
Council Tax, Housing and Council Tax Benefits (including Non Domestic Rates)  01702 215001
Housing Advice and Choice Based Lettings   01702 215002
Parking, Highways and Transport   01702 215003
Planning, Development and Building Control   01702 215004 
Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Licensing   01702 215005
Waste, Fly tipping, Fly posting and Graffiti   01702 215006
Children's Services (including Education and Children's Social Services   01702 215007
Adult Social Services   01702 215008
Registration Services (Births, Deaths and Marriages)   01702 215009
Electoral Registration and Councillor Enquiries   01702 215010 
Leisure, Culture and Tourism (including leisure/sports facilities, libraries, museums and parks)  01702 215011

If you know the extension number of the person or department you want to speak to, you can enter it when prompted and be put straight through.  Alternatively, you can choose from a small range of automated options including being put through to a member of staff from the Customer Service Centre.

If Customer Service Centre Staff are unable to answer your query in full, we will refer your query to a specialist in the department concerned.  We will let you know what is happening, advise you of the action being taken and the likely timescale.

Targets and Performance

Depending on the nature of the enquiry, we have set Response Targets for our staff to achieve. These focus on how quickly calls are answered and how many customers end their call before it is connected (abandoned calls). We have also set a target for the level of Customer Satisfaction we aim to achieve.

Details of our current performance in relation to these targets can be found in the table below:

Current Performance
Service Response time Latest Month: April 2013
Year to Date
Housing Benefits and Council Tax Benefit Specialist Team 80% of calls will be answered within 3 minutes 47.12% 47.12%
Adult Social Services Specialist Team

No more than 5% of calls will be abandoned

80% of calls will be answered within 20 seconds

0.66%

96.47%

0.66%

96.477%

All Other Enquiries

No more than 5% of calls will be abandoned

80% of calls will be answered within 20 seconds

11.73%

84.53%

11.73%

84.53%


We review our standards annually, if you have comments about them that you would like us to take into account, please get in touch.

Last updated: 1st May 2013