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Jobcentre Plus: Standards

Volume 460: debated on Monday 21 May 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of mystery shopper exercises at Jobcentre Plus. (133904)

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 21 May 2007:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of mystery shopper exercises at Jobcentre Plus. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

Mystery Shopping is an established method, used by thousands of businesses across the UK, to provide an independent assessment of customer service. It is an important way in which Jobcentre Plus assesses the service it provides to customers, but it is not the only approach used. For example, the Average Actual Clearance Times target measures customer service in terms of benefit clearance times and Jobcentre Plus also conducts customer surveys and acts upon feedback received from individuals, partners and other stakeholders.

The Mystery Shopping programme is one part of the Customer Service Target, which measures performance against the Jobcentre Plus Service Standards. It includes measures of the quality of service provided in key face to face and telephone contacts. The timing of calls to sites is random and can be at any time during business hours so staff do not know when they may be visited or called. Results from the Mystery Shopping Programme are published on the Jobcentre Plus website.

The effectiveness of the Mystery Shopping Programme is regularly assessed within Jobcentre Plus and with the contracted supplier, GfK. The assessment process includes listening to telephone calls and carrying out a series of six accompanied visits per quarter with the independent assessors. This may result in changes to the wording of particular questions to increase clarity and understanding. In addition, when new programmes are introduced, or in response to customer or stakeholder feedback, new scenarios may be developed to test staff knowledge. As a result of these reviews the number and range of scenarios used by the independent assessors was gradually increased in 2006/07.

Results from the mystery shopping programme are used to identify areas for improvement and where further learning and development may be required, either nationally or in particular sites. In the first quarter of 2006/07 national Customer Service Target performance was 1.2 percentage points below profile and, to address this, a number of measures were put in place that had been identified by the Mystery Shopping process. These included the introduction of an A to Z guidance tool which provides information on the policies and programmes that customers (or mystery shoppers) may enquire about, which we expect our staff to understand.

It is still Jobcentre Plus' intention to provide feedback to sites at the earliest opportunity, via the supplier's (GfK) website. Feedback is an important part of mystery shopping as it helps staff and managers to understand where they need to do better in the service they provide dealing with customer enquiries. It enables Business Delivery Unit/District Performance Managers to identify local learning and development needs, or other remedial action, to ensure that the best possible service is maintained for all customers.

For 2007/08 further changes have been introduced to strengthen and improve the “mystery” element by further increasing the number and range of scenarios, varying the way the questions are asked and changing the way feedback is provided.

I hope this is helpful.