Staff in Stratford District Council's Customer Services Team were faced with a massive increase in demand as a result of the pandemic - the team saw call volumes triple overnight compared to similar times in previous years.
Serena James, Customer Services Manager at Stratford District Council, explains how the team coped with the extra pressure.
"Understandably, when everything started to change as a result of the pandemic, lots of people had all sorts of questions they wanted to ask the council. We almost became the fourth emergency service for many residents.
"Often, the first point of contact at the council is the Customer Services Team, who, overnight, were faced with around triple the amount of demand they would usually expect to have.
"Pre-COVID we would expect to receive around 400 calls per day. Once the pandemic hit and lockdown started, this would frequently reach around 1,200 a day - initially this level of demand lasted for around six weeks, and the demand remained high until April 2021.
"Residents were desperate for information or advice and so we saw a similar rapid increase in our emails to the council also.
"The team had to cope with the increase in demand with no additional staff and a significant amount of extra hours were worked to help deal with the unprecedented situation.
"The Council were also required to take on new work as part of the national response to COVID. The staff became responsible for lockdown calls to those who were shielding and vulnerable people in the district to arrange delivery of food parcels, and those who generally needed help with their welfare.
"The staff realised how vital their work was. It was common for residents to tell us we were the first people they had spoken to in ages - one extreme example was a woman who told me she hadn't talked to anyone in five weeks.
"The Contact Centre normally operates from the main Council Offices so when COVID hit, strict health measures had to be introduced to keep staff safe. We put a one-way system in place, put up screens between desks to combat infection transmission, introduced social distancing and liberal amounts of hand sanitiser.
"In the early days the team developed a siege mentality as a coping method to deal with the increase in demand and the extra hours worked, combined with some difficult phone calls. However, later in the year, we began to realise that this had taken a toll on our staff mentally.
"When the team are all in the office they all pull together when faced with adversity. For example, it's usually clear when a colleague has faced a tough call, and we would always check in on them once it was finished to make sure they were OK.
"COVID changed all that as we had to send staff home to work remotely. The risk of working in an enclosed space was too great and so we found ourselves with no alternatives even though we knew it meant our staff would find it harder to pick each other up after a particularly difficult call.
"To mitigate this we set aside half-hour slots where staff could catch-up with each other and talk about things besides work to keep morale up.
"Stratford also took the clear and decisive step to provide its face-to-face customer service from Elizabeth House each time lockdown was lifted. The Council wanted to show support to residents and businesses that Stratford-on-Avon was open for business. This decision was unique across Warwickshire but we were determined to give people choice in how they needed to reach us.
"This was a big ask for the staff, who had never been required to wear PPE and had learn how to communicate with visitors behind a screen and through a mask, which was challenging at first.
"Despite all these challenges, the staff have been absolutely incredible. Nobody could have predicted how much the pandemic would affect all our lives, and the team was often the first point of contact for people seeking information.
"That meant there was a huge amount of pressure on each and every one of them, and they coped brilliantly in unprecedented circumstances.
"Since restrictions have eased, we have had the opportunity to reflect and learn lessons from that incredibly busy period.
"We will continue to provide a quality empathetic service to all our residents as Stratford District eases itself back into normality."
