Dorset County Council is creating a £2.8m customer contact centre so it can solve customer enquiries at the first point of contact.

The Dorset Direct centre is being set up under a three and a half year deal with IT services company Steria. It is part of an overall customer care strategy to improve citizens' experience of the council by providing a consistent level of information and service, whether the contact is via telephone, email, letter or fax.

Telephone enquiries are the most popular contact method, numbering nearly 800,000 last year.

The call centre will provide the public a direct line for customers to ring and allow enquiries to be dealt with on a ‘one and done’ basis, reducing the time spent on the phone.

Having one central point of contact will also make it easier to log and track enquiries, helping the council identify recurring community issues.

Councillor Alan Havelock, cabinet member for corporate resources at the council, said: ‘Dorset Direct will greatly improve the way the council communicates with its customers, building on the best traditions of customer service that already exist across the authority.’