Customer promise and service standards

Customer service standards

Respectful

Staff will:

Arrive promptly for appointments;
Greet customers respectfully and in a welcoming manner;
Wear a name badge, or show identification if visiting customers;
Be polite;
Listen to what the customer says and make sure we have understood fully;
Take time to explain;
Offer a choice if possible;
Not make assumptions or discriminate on grounds of gender, gender identity, disability, age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, or income level.

Accessible

Staff will:

enable the customer to do business with the Council online as much as possible;
be well-trained to be able to help customers at their first point of contact;
ensure Council premises are accessible to people with disabilities and provide a welcoming environment with clear signage;
use plain English;
provide contact details on letters so the customer can ask questions;
book an interpreter if required by a customer whose first language is not English;
provide text in large print on request.

Responsive

Staff will:

answer the phone within 30 seconds;
respond to emails and letters within 10 working days of receipt; if a full response is not possible by then, send an acknowledgement stating when a full response will be made;
respond to complaints in full within 10 working days;
where possible, avoid asking for the same information twice;
keep the customer informed of progress if there is a need to wait for the next step.

Discreet

Staff will:

collect personal information, only if it is needed to deliver services;
be willing to justify why information is being collected;
keep personal information secure and delete or destroy records containing personal information that is no longer needed;
locate personal information held on a customer at their request, and delete it in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation;
be discreet when asking for personal data in public;
provide a private room for a meeting on request.

Effective

Staff will:

seek to answer questions accurately at first point of contact;
use customer usage data, customer feedback and mystery shopping to improve customer care and service quality;
provide information so customers can access the services they want;