Discover how DBS improved their customer satisfaction scores by using our contact centre agreement.

Published 17 August 2022

Last updated 17 August 2022

Background

The Disclosure and Barring Service’s new contact centre provider helped to improve their customer satisfaction scores

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions by processing and issuing DBS checks for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

The DBS has been ranked the highest-rated public service organisation for customer satisfaction throughout the UK. They wanted to keep customer satisfaction scores high whilst continuing to deliver a reliable service.

The requirement

The DBS had a requirement to procure a new outsourcing contract for their contact centre services. The supplier would be responsible for processing requests for, and issuing, DBS checks for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

The supplier would need to have the capability to deliver on the two key aspects of the DBS service:

  • the disclosure process supports a request from an applicant for disclosure of criminal records and local police intelligence. It includes the production and despatch of the disclosure certificate, as well as managing any challenges by an applicant of the certificate content
  • the barring process supports the assessment of an individual’s suitability to work with children or vulnerable adults, from referral to a decision to bar or not to bar and appropriate updates to the barred list.

The solution

With the support of our Contact Centre category team, the DBS undertook a series of market engagement sessions that identified the best solution for their requirement was to run a further competition using lot 2 of the Contact Centre Services framework.

This would allow the DBS to award to a single supplier to transition and deliver existing contact centre and business process outsourcing services provided by the incumbent supplier.

HGS was awarded a 3 and a half year contract to become DBS’s contact centre service partner. They provide a multi-channel contact centre which manages contacts from applicants regarding system issues as well as the status of their application in the process through a range of channels including web portal, web chat, inbound telephony and SMS.

The outcome

With the support of HGS, the DBS received a customer satisfaction score of 81.4 out of 100, with the average score for public sector organisations sitting at 76.9.

The DBS was also ranked highly by customers in areas such as reputation and trust, and whether they would recommend using DBS services in future.

The UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which was published in January 2022, has shown that the DBS is the highest-rated public sector organisation in the UK for customer satisfaction.

The UKCSI is published twice a year by the Institute of Customer Service and details an increase in DBS’ customer satisfaction score from January 2021 to January 2022.

Within the report, the DBS was benchmarked against 10 other public sector organisations including HM Passport Office, the Environment Agency, and the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

The independent index is calculated using feedback from around 10,000 consumers in an online survey covering 13 different sectors, and over 260 public and private organisations.

Eric Robinson, CEO of The DBS, said:

“We are incredibly very proud that DBS has been recognised as the highest-rated public sector organisation for customer satisfaction in the UK. The result demonstrates the organisation’s strong commitment to providing high quality services and the dedication and hard work of DBS staff which has been even more important during the pandemic for the customers we serve. 

We welcome feedback from the survey and we will use the findings alongside responses from our own DBS customer survey to ensure we continue to further improve services for our customers.”

Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, added:

“Through this challenging period, some businesses have adapted well and responded to changes in their customers’ circumstances and needs. DBS’ strong showing in the UKCSI is encouraging and shows that public sector organisations – much like those in the private sector – who build trust and deliver on their promises will be rewarded with customer loyalty.”

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