Customer service and the planning system: a research study

2 Introduction

2.1 Background and purpose of the research

Delivering excellent customer service requires firm and long-term commitment at all levels of a system, organisation or network. Implementing major changes or improvements can often require a culture change that needs time to permeate through teams, processes and operations. Such change needs strategic foresight, a clear implementation plan, buy-in from all those involved, effective use of available resources, and a regular cycle of evaluation to measure performance, change and continuous improvement. Above all, it depends on the views of customers, being responsive to their needs and managing expectations within available resources.

The 2017 People, Places and Planning Consultation set out a vision for the planning system in Scotland to be open for business, internationally respected and a conduit for improving people's lives by creating better places and supporting delivery of good quality homes. The consultation raised concerns that planning services are currently under-resourced and that costs to applicants should be better aligned to the services provided. However, a condition of any fee increase would be that planning authorities deliver better customer service and improved performance. Key themes within the consultation included the need for strong leadership and smart resourcing, for example capitalising on the efficiencies and customer benefits to be gained from the digital transformation of planning services.

The Scottish Government commissioned this exploratory research to gather intelligence on how customer service is measured by a range of organisations (public and private sector, within Scotland and beyond) with respect to services provided to the general public. It sets out to show examples of good practice and suggestions that could help to strengthen quality of service and respond to the current ambitions of the planning system.

Research objectives:

• Identify existing customer service standards across local authorities in Scotland and the levels these are measured against for quality assurance purposes;
• Explore and report on other methods and exemplars of customer service to establish where lessons can be learned by the planning service, including innovative approaches;
• Present potential approaches, techniques and measures (including resource requirements) that could represent good practice and be easily adopted by planning authorities.

2.2 Methodology

The research was undertaken between April and June 2018 involving a desk-based review and telephone interviews.

The desk review explored a variety of organisations' approaches to delivering and measuring customer service. These organisations (classified into five groups) are listed in Table 1. The review involved sourcing and examining a range of documentation and resources available in the public domain.

Table 1 Organisations sampled for the desk review

In-depth telephone interviews were undertaken with seven Scottish planning authorities and seven other stakeholder organisations (Table 2). Discussion topics covered approaches to measuring and monitoring customer service; customer service standards and accreditations held (including the perceived value of these); customer service strengths and weaknesses in the planning system (including e-planning); and suggested improvements.

Table 2 Telephone interviewees