Telephone, live chat and WhatsApp
We use the 8x8 call centre platform to support customer calls, live chats and WhatsApp messages into and out of the council's call centre, as well as to transfer calls to back office teams.
The 8x8 call centre platform allows calls to be escalated to video calls where appropriate (for example to view a missed bin to see if it is contaminated).
Telephone calls
Calls made direct to, or from, our contact centre (01543 308000) or our joint waste service (0345 002 0022) are recorded and kept for three months from the date of the call. Callers are notified their call will be recorded.
We also record outbound calls made by other services, such as housing and revenues and benefits, and you will be notified of the recording before the call starts.
Call recordings are used to increase your security, for our record keeping of transactions, and for our staff training purposes.
We do not record any financial card details if you make payments by telephone.
If a call is transferred from the contact centre to a member of staff outside the contact centre, the recording stops.
We use voice recognition on our 8x8 system (through 8x8 intelligent customer assistant) to help provide quick automated responses to general enquiries. Our voice recognition does not currently collect or store personal data.
We will only share your data if we are required to do so by law.
Video calls
Whilst customers are on the telephone to one of our customer servcies agents, if they are reporting a physical issue (such as a missed bin), it is possible for our agents to ask the customer if they can provide us with access to their telephone.
This then allows for the customer to show the agent an issue - for example the contents of their blue bin, so the agent can advise what waste should not have been placed in the bin.
Whilst the video footage is not stored, our customer service agents can take a screen shot if the customer provides permission through their phone.
Any screen shots are stored in our customer relationship management system against the related service request - for example if the bin did not include something that could not be recycled.
We do not take screen shots of people or any confidential data/images.
Automated telephone calls
Some or all calls made to our contact centre may be responded to by 8x8 AI, which is an automated response that provides answers based on the questions a customer asks verbally.
Whilst the conversation a customer has with 8x8 AI is not recorded, if the call is transferred to an customer services agent, elements of the conversation (for example the subject matter) may be passed through to the 8x8 dashboard, so that the customer services agent knows what topic the caller need support on. This data is only kept for the period of the call.
If a call handled by the 8x8 AI is not responded to in full, and the call is transferred to a customer services agent, the call is then recorded as per a normal telephone call to our contact centre (see above).
Live chat
We use live chat to allow web users to interact with a customer services team member online.
The personal data we collect from you to facilitate this will vary and will always include the customer's name. Depending on the nature of the customer's query, it may also include contact details, council tax or benefit reference numbers, or national insurance numbers.
We will never ask for full bank account details across live chat - we may ask for the last four digits of your bank account number to verify who you are.
Please do not reveal special category data over live chat and call us on 01543 308000 if you need to discuss the following:
- personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin
- personal data revealing political opinions
- personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
- personal data revealing trade union membership
- genetic data
- biometric data (where used for identification purposes)
- data concerning health
- data concerning a person’s sex life
- data concerning a person’s sexual orientation
We store live chats for three months within our secure 8x8 telephony system, after which they are automatically deleted from the system. We will not:
- sell or rent your data to third parties.
- share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Whilst we delete live chats after three months, we may store data gathered from the conversations into back office systems for longer - for example if you speak to us about council tax, details from the conversation may be added to your council tax account, similarly for benefits, housing, planning, environmental health, waste, elections, licensing, and other services (please see our service specific privacy notices).
We will only share your data if we are required to do so by law.
We use WhatsApp to provide services to customers.
The personal data we collect from you to facilitate this will vary and will always include the customer's name. Depending on the nature of the customer's query, it may also include contact details and council tax reference numbers.
We will never ask for bank account details across WhatsApp.
Please do not reveal special category data over WhatsApp and call us on 01543 308000 if you need to discuss the following:
- personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin
- personal data revealing political opinions
- personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
- personal data revealing trade union membership
- genetic data
- biometric data (where used for identification purposes)
- data concerning health
- data concerning a person’s sex life
- data concerning a person’s sexual orientation
We store WhatsApps for three months within our secure 8x8 telephony system, after which they are automatically deleted from the system. We will not:
- sell or rent your data to third parties.
- share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Whilst we delete WhatsApps after three months, we may store data gathered from the conversations into back office systems for longer - for example if you speak to us about council tax, details from the conversation may be added to your council tax account, similarly for benefits, housing, planning, environmental health, waste, elections, licensing, and other services (please see our service specific privacy notices).
WhatsApp considers chats with businesses that use the WhatsApp business messaging service to be end-to-end encrypted. WhatsApp state that once the message is received, it is subject to the business’s own privacy practices. Find out about WhatsApp secure business messaging.
We will only share your data if we are required to do so by law.