29/04/2024: Please be advised that there are on-going issues with the online forms. ICT are still working on a resolution and whilst this happens, we may not have access to forms. We will provide a further update in due course

25/04/2024: In case you have received any calls, ICT are aware of performance issues on the server that hosts our live online forms databases - the online forms are running, but there are some delays and it may be a bit slow.

The issue is with the ICT support team just now and we’ll keep you updated on progress.

23/04/2024 Update
Moray Council’s Emergency Planning Officer (Ross Ferguson) has provided the following update for CC staff awareness today/tomorrow:

From: Ross Ferguson
Sent: 23 April 2024 11:07
To: Andy Donegan
Cc: Donna Kelly
Subject: Contact Centre - Oil spill

Andy/Donna

Just to let you know that the contact centre may get a call from the oil company today/tomorrow saying an oil spill has occurred at sea and that it will potentially effect/land on the Moray coastline.

If this occurs it is part of the Oil Pollution TTX and is not an actual event.

But your team should relay any messages they receive to oil pollution officer who is Nicola Moss (ex 3777 / mobile 07876195250 ) – if Nicola is not available then pass these to the on-duty MERC who is Alasdair McEachan (ext 3080 / 07771977187).

Thanks
Ross

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

22/04/2024
Moray Council will be taking part in a simulated emergency oil spill incident in and around the Strathlene beach area of Buckie over the coming days.

Should you receive any queries from the public, please reassure them that it is merely a training exercise being carried out by partner agencies including Coast Guards, SEPA, Moray Council & Police Scotland.

Some information may be shared by PR on Social Media channels but I don’t have any knowledge of this at this time. If you have any questions regarding this following enquiries from the public, please Email these to the senior mailbox in the first instance.

Kindest regards
Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

Please be advised that ICT have noticed a couple of emails this week that are scams, please remember and be vigilant when picking up any emails and report any emails that you are unsure of to the Seniors in the first instance, do not do anything with it until told otherwise. Please see example below:

There have been emails received from two accounts over the past few days - sheilabrumby50@icloud.com and sheilabrumby50@hotmail.com with the subject "Catch up", which contain the following:

From: Sheila Brumby

Sent: 12 April 2024 16:04

Subject: Catch up
Hi, you have a moment to talk on email? Kind regards, Sheila Sent via BT Email App

These emails are a scam - If you respond to this email, the sender will attempt to engage with you with the intention of purchasing an Amazon gift card for them.

Please note when working emails or calls, if the customer details pre-populates with a member of Councils staffs own Lagan record can you please ensure that the details are changed to the relevant organisation/team, ie The Moray Council (Housing) etc. If it is not possible to link to an organisation, please use the relevant anon record. Can you also please remove the staff member’s work email address from their lagan record.

Please be advised that there is a current issue with Pay360, Banking have been made aware and are currently investigating. We will update in due course.

Update 12/04/2024 - Capita applied a fix On the evening of 11/04/2024 to resolve the issue with online payments and online balances are now showing for Council Tax Accounts, Housing Accounts , Garage Accounts, etc.

If problems persist, please raise via your Senior

11/04/24 - ICT are unable to give an estimate on timescale and it is sitting with CAPITA, as soon as this is resolved a post will be added to the General news.

Please note that the Taxation Support team over lunchtime today advised that April’s Ctax recovery and 1st reminders run has been cancelled due to the ongoing issues.

Please note that as soon as the Support Team are able to offer an update this will be added to the General News page. I appreciate how frustrating this is but sadly it’s out of Customer Services control.

Kindest regards
Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

04/04/2024 - There is an issue with balances showing in Pay360 online which has resulted in some council tax accounts and housing rent accounts showing as no balance online, which has been passed to Captia to investigate.

In the meantime payments can be made over the phone. It may not load with the customer details so please make sure you use the correct account numbers when taking the payment.

If you have any questions, please raise with your senior in the first instance.

Following the changes made to the Default waiting time (increased from 10mins to 20mins from 08:45 on 18/03/2024) I thought that it would be beneficial to share with you the positive impact this has had on the number of calls answered via the Default skillset:

Skillset Updates

As I highlighted in my original news post, although we’ll never be able to eliminate calls to the default skillset as some calls go there regardless e.g. calls to the Revenues line where the caller doesn’t select one of the IVR options. However, this has allowed us to reduce them to a more manageable level meaning that those customers who chose to hold are more likely get to speak with an Advisor trained to assist with their enquiry.

Kindest regards
Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

Following my previous update which indicated that all Email customers should receive automated responses to enquiries sent to one of the many Lagan mailboxes, an issue has now been found indicating that this is not happening.

After this was highlighted to me, I sent a number of Test Emails from my personal email to the following sample of Lagan mailboxes:

• Ctaxbills
• Housing
• Revenues
• Roads.Maint
• Waste

I only received an automated reply to the test I sent to the Housing mailbox and as a result I have raised an urgent log for the Support Team to investigate and resolve. All updates re-this issue will be added to the General news page.

Kindest regards
Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

Following some enquiries regarding Lagan Emails and setting an automated reply, please be aware that the following automated reply is sent to all customers who Email one of the mailboxes that come into Lagan.

Thank you for emailing the Moray Council.

If you have e-mailed us recently, we are working through a larger than normal volume of enquiries and are trying to ensure that those that need our help and support most are given priority. Please be patient and our Customer Service colleagues will be in touch as soon as they can.

If you feel your enquiry is an emergency and is out with normal working hours (Mon-Fri 0845-17:00) please contact the out of hours number on 03457565656

This automated reply has been in place for at least the last couple of years although does get altered when offices are closed e.g. Christmas, Easter, May Day. It is also worth highlighting that this automated reply has deliberately kept as short as possible as I appreciate that some customers will/do not read it therefore making it any longer simply wouldn't make a difference.

Kindest regards

Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

As some of you may remember, Moray Council’s telephony is in the process of being upgraded (yes this has been ongoing since just before Covid). Unfortunately a required upgrade for Customer Services Call Recording software has meant that Customer Services move to the new telephony remains suspended, I have a meeting with ICT, Emma and Andy at the end of this week to gain an update.

In the meantime, changes being carried out by BT, mean that with immediate effect, if dialling one of the Ashgrove or Elgin Library extensions these will no longer work e.g. if dialling Joan Wood at Elgin Library instead of dialling 2619 you will now need to dial the external number 9562619.

Please note that I do not anticipate that this will cause us many issues, I will share an update if there is anything that comes from the telephony upgrade meeting that I feel staff need to be made aware of.

Kindest regards

Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

Following on from my “Important information and updates on several areas of Customer Services” (at the top of the General news page) where I discussed Voicemails as an area of concern. As you will be aware from that post a change to IVR messaging meant that the only line which specifically offered customers the ability to leave a voicemail was Housing Repairs.

As a result of growing concerns that these voicemails were generally not for urgent/emergency issues, I asked seniors to review all Housing voicemails left over the last 3 weeks in March. Following a review of the information provided to me, it was clear that the voicemail option was not being used as intended (on average 2 out of 10 voicemails related to urgent/emergency concerns and of those 2 the customer had already called back before we could get to their voicemail) therefore I have rerecorded the Housing Repair IVR messaging to hide the voicemail option (this was discussed and approved by Andy).

Again as per my original news item, although customers are no longer offered the option upfront to leave a voicemail for any service area, if they press the right button at the right time they will find the loophole that will allow them to leave a voicemail (for any service area we cover). However, it’s hoped that voicemails will now be significantly reduced and as a result more manageable.

Kindest regards

Donna / Customer Service Team Leader

It has been brought to Banking’s attention that no allpay payments have been received in today’s file as anticipated.

Banking are liaising with ICT and will advise once the file issue has been identified.

This will have an effect on any payments made at paypoints, please be mindful when giving out account balances as these may be inaccurate. The last date for allpay payments we received was on Sundays file with payments up to 29/03/24 no payments on Monday as this was a bank holiday.

Sorry for the inconvenience.