Agenda item

Self Service Payment at LinkPoint Offices

Report of Head of Customer Service and ICT

 

Summary

 

This report seeks Executive approval and funding for a new approach for taking payments in the LinkPoint offices, moving from PayPoint terminals to Self Serve Payment Kiosks, in order to achieve savings and improve customer service.

 

Recommendations

 

The Executive is recommended to:

 

(1)               Relinquish our PayPoint agent status and discontinue taking payments using Paypoint terminals, but retain our PayPoint client status to enable the public to pay council bills at other Paypoint Agents

(2)               Agree to stop the facility to deposit cheque payments at the LinkPoint offices and receive cheque payments only by post.

(3)               Agree a supplementary capital estimate of up to £100,000 for the purchase of automated payment kiosks and their introduction into LinkPoint offices

(4)               Agree to reduce the Customer Service Advisor establishment by 3 FTE after successful transition to the new arrangements

 

 

Decision:

Recommendations Approved

Minutes:

The Head of Customer Service and Information Systems submitted a report to seek Executive approval and funding for a new approach for taking payments in the LinkPoint offices, moving from PayPoint terminals to Self Serve Payment Kiosks, in order to achieve savings and improve customer service.

 

Resolved

 

(1)               That the Council relinquish PayPoint agent status and discontinue taking payments using Paypoint terminals, but retain PayPoint client status to enable the public to pay council bills at other Paypoint Agents

(2)               That agreement be given to stop the facility to deposit cheque payments at the LinkPoint offices and receive cheque payments only by post

(3)               That agreement be given to a supplementary capital estimate of up to £100,000 for the purchase of automated payment kiosks and their introduction into LinkPoint offices

(4)               That agreement be given to reduce the Customer Service Advisor establishment by 3 Full Time Equivalents after successful transition to the new arrangements

Reasons

 

The outcome of a recent review into the payments service has identified the introduction of self-service payment kiosks as an alternative that will help address most of the operational issues. Although requiring capital funding of up to £100,000, these will allow for the reduction in the staff establishment of 3 FTE (from existing vacancies) and provide a return on investment within two years.

 

Options

 

Option One

 

To continue to use PayPoint and seek to introduce improvements

There are significant operational difficulties in using PayPoint. We are advised that their product is retail-based and not designed specifically for Local Government use, therefore specific requirements and enhancements we have looked at cannot be supported.

There are high operating costs and issues with customer satisfaction that cannot be improved easily.

This option is not recommended

Option Two

Create four dedicated cashiering roles at the “specialist” level. 

Dedicated cashier roles would undermine the improvements made in developing a flexible cross-discipline workforce. An extra burden would also be placed on rota and absence management.

The LinkPoint offices are no longer set up with a designated cashier point.

This option is not recommended

Option Three

Withdraw payment processing completely and direct our customers to other retail PayPoint Agents.

Other Agents would benefit from increased commission revenue and possible secondary spend.  As an example, Oxford City Council no longer has cash offices and has confirmed that they no longer take any cash payments at all.  They refer their customers to local PayPoint agents. 

The report “Delivering Value for Money in Local Government: Meeting the challenge of CSR7” cites High Peak Council as an example of good practice in this area, when they stopped taking cash and cheques at their offices and directed customers to local PayZone agents.

The Council would be able to reduce the Advisor establishment by at least 3 FTE.  There would also be further savings on the costs of collecting money from LinkPoint offices each day (approx £20,000 per year)

This option is not recommended as the Council has committed to continued cash payments

Option Four

Cease being a PayPoint Agent and implement Self Service payment kiosks. 

Ceasing to be a PayPoint agent but retaining client status will still allow our customers to pay council bills at any PayPoint agent, supporting the strategy to help local businesses.

These machines process cash (give change), cheques and card payments, provide receipts, read barcodes and can give basic account information – balances etc.

A one off investment of up to £100,000 can be recouped by directly reducing the resource within Customer Service.  Given the amount of time spent handling payments, a reduction in 3 FTE would not impact the service delivery – i.e. would make available the same resource to deliver all services other than cash handling. 

It is suggested that resources are reduced permanently two months after implementation, using them in the interim to help through the transitional period.

 

Supporting documents: