HWRC Call-Handling Service

Background Hampshire County Council (the Authority) is a major county council situated in southern England, providing public services to over 1.3 million residents. Working with Southampton and Portsmouth city councils, through its statutory duty as a designated Waste Disposal Authority (WDA) it manages a network of 26 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs).

Following a period of closure during the first Covid-19 lockdown in Spring 2020, Hampshire's HWRC reopened with a number of restrictions in order to maintain social distancing measures. Some sites experienced severe congestion however and the decision was taken to introduce an online booking service from 15 June 2020.

While every effort was made to encourage residents to use the online route, it was recognised that a minority of the population needed an alternative means of booking if they were unable to use the internet for some reason. A temporary external phone line was set up for this purpose as the County Council's own call centre was suspended to all but critical service calls due to the pandemic.

Hampshire County Council is seeking to explore opportunities to continue to provide a telephone booking line beyond the end of the existing contract. Expected call volumes are such that the County Council does not feel it can manage this internally so would be looking for an external organisation to partner with us to provide this specific service for a further period.

Scope of the Contract

The primary aim of the project is to provide an alternative option for those residents unable to book online. A smooth, effective service is required to assist residents with their requests, however there should equally be a commitment to actively encouraging as much customer channel shift as possible and encouraging use of the online portal as the quickest and simplest way of making a booking.

A small proportion of booking slots (around 5%) are made available exclusively to telephone bookings every day. Agents should courteously assist with requests to book a slot, advising them of the available times.

The contract would be for six months initially, with scope to extend for a further six months if resource and demand requires this. An internal review will be conducted at that point to evaluate capacity to take this service in-house.