Hertfordshire Community Trust Adult Referral Hub Telephone Mystery Shop – How well does the service respond to a variety of calls?

Healthwatch Hertfordshire was asked by Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (HCT) to undertake a telephone mystery shop of their East and North Hertfordshire Integrated Care Co-ordination Centre (Adult Referral Hub). The Hub manager and Head of Patient & Carer Experience asked for a focus on calls at different times of day & weekends to understand how these experiences may differ and to observe soft skills such as standard & clarity of communication and tone, as well as process such as ease of access. For example using the phone options, waiting time, information and correct signposting. This work took place from 28th August 2023 to 10th September 2023 and included a Bank Holiday Monday.

Key findings:

• It is important that first contact is welcoming and supportive as some callers may be nervous about calling the service either for themselves or for family or friends.
• Callers were greeted by professional and polite administrators. Callers were not always told the name of the service and sometimes administrators did not say their name or it was unclear.
• The findings indicated that there were some really supportive responses and some excellent signposting, however there are a few themes that could be developed to improve the call experience as well as some good practice that should be shared with the team.
• The Friends and Family recommendation scores were mostly positive but with a number of ‘neither’ scores.