Achievments
Citizens Advice Direct has successfully developed a telephone advice service based in Glasgow.
Key achievements
- Development of telephone triage service delivery model
- Referral and signposting to local bureau for face-to-face advice
- Delivery of services for other organisations
- Providing telephone skills training to other organisations
The results from recent evaluation have been excellent. Our clients said
- 90% were able to get through first time
- 95% felt that the advisor actively listened to them
- 84% felt that advisors helped to clarify the issue
- 91% felt that the advisors relayed the information and it was easy to understand
- 78% found information useful
- 78% stated that their problem was resolved with the advice given
- 95% would recommend the service to others
The service works in partnership with the local Citizens Advice Bureaux operating a system of triage, this allows clients who require face-to-face advice to be quickly identified and referred on while more straight forward cases are dealt with on the telephone.
This system of delivering advice has been recognised as a model of good practice. In particular, Citizens Advice Direct received an award from the Telephone Helplines Association in 2005 for the research which led to the development of this service delivery method.
This method of telephone triage allows Citizens Advice Direct to answer 95% of clients’ calls and deal with 90% of those clients’ issues on the telephone. A recent survey of our clients revealed that 95% of clients where satisfied with the service they received and would recommend it to their friends.