Information regarding live chat service provided by Social Security Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

Request for Information 1: Do you have any specific Service Level Agreements (SLA) or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the time that live chat users wait between requesting to speak with an advisor and the chat being connected to an advisor?

Request for Information 2: If yes, please detail those SLAs or KPIs. Please also provide performance details of those for the most recently available 12 month period.

Request for Information 3: Do you have any specific SLAs or KPIs relating to how quickly advisors should seek to resolve the request of the user once they are connected to each other on live chat?

Request for Information 4: If yes, please details those SLAs or KPIs. Please also provide performance details of those for the most recently available 12 month period.

Request for Information 5: For the most recently available 12 month period, please provide the average waiting time (Mean and Median) that users have waited to be connected to an advisor, by month.

Request for Information 6: For the most recently available 12 month period, please provide the average chat time (Mean and Median) that users are connected to an advisor, by month.

Request for Information 7: How many members of staff (FTE) do you have dedicated to answering live chat communications? If you do not have staff specifically dedicated to live chat, how many people tend to look after the live chat function at any time.

Request for Information 8: Is the live chat service provided by Social Security Scotland staff or is it outsourced to an external organisation? If it is outsourced, please provide details of the organisation providing the service.

Response

Request for Information 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7: 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not hold the information you have requested. This is because Social Security Scotland has no SLAs or KPIs in relation to wait times for webchat. 

Social Security Scotland does not have a dedicated number of staff solely responding to live webchats. Rather than creating dedicated teams limited to one type of work, Social Security Scotland has developed an agile, multi-skilled workforce, with the flexibility to meet changing demands by matching resource to demand throughout the day. 

Social Security Scotland is continually reviewing and improving services to further decrease webchat wait times. 

Request for Information 5: 

Month	Average Queue Wait Time (hh:mm:ss)	Median Queue Wait Time (hh:mm:ss)
June 2022	00:09:18	00:05:10
July 2022	00:09:40	00:05:51
August 2022	00:05:55	00:02:28
September 2022	00:05:36	00:02:32
October 2022	00:05:52	00:03:14
November 2022	00:08:46	00:04:48
December 2022	00:12:11	00:08:08
January 2023	00:19:52	00:18:36
February 2023	00:18:32	00:15:51
March 2023	00:17:51	00:15:43
April 2023	00:20:36	00:16:49
May 2023	00:13:59	00:12:25
June 2023	00:12:01	00:09:55

* see note below 

Request for Information 6: 

Month	Average Chat Time (hh:mm:ss)	Median Chat Time (hh:mm:ss)
June 2022	00:13:22	00:11:22
July 2022	00:12:53	00:10:57
August 2022	00:13:47	00:11:41
September 2022	00:14:07	00:12:06
October 2022	00:14:23	00:12:31
November 2022	00:14:08	00:11:57
December 2022	00:14:29	00:12:23
January 2023	00:14:59	00:12:51
February 2023	00:15:37	00:13:23
March 2023	00:15:36	00:13:28
April 2023	00:16:28	00:14:05
May 2023	00:16:40	00:14:17
June 2023	00:15:12	00:13:00

*Note: the information provided in the tables above is based on management information and has not undergone the same level of quality assurance as our published information. 

Request for Information 8: 

All staff responding to live webchats are employed by Social Security Scotland. 

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.