Customer Standards

The council is committed to providing a high quality customer service that is modern, efficient and accessible to everyone.

We are planning to update our Customer Standards and need your feedback. Our proposed new standards have been designed so that you know what service you can expect from us.

We will measure our performance against these standards so that we know where we need to improve. Please take a few moments to let us have your thoughts on the proposed updated standards.

We aim to be a Council that is:

• Friendly and helpful
• Open and honest
• Easy to deal with
• Reliable and responsive

Treating you fairly

We will:

• Be polite and helpful and treat everyone with dignity and respect
• Act openly and honestly
• Listen and be sensitive to your individual needs
• Do what we say we are going to do
• Let you know what to do next if you’re not happy
• Support customers when they are vulnerable and react quickly where there are safeguarding concerns
• Value your privacy and ensure that your personal information is kept safe and secure

Keeping you informed

We will:

• Tell you what to expect and how long it will take
• Deal with requests and complaints as quickly as we can
• Provide you with clear and understandable information
• Keep you updated with progress and let you know if there is going to be a delay
• Make sure the information on our website and any other publication is kept up to date

Getting it right

We will:

• Aim to get it right first time
• Make it easy for you to access information and services
• Make sure we do what we say we are going to do
• Say sorry when we get it wrong and do everything reasonably possible to make it right
• Explain our reasons for outcomes to you clearly
• Improve how we do things by asking for your views, listening to what you say and acting on your feedback
• Make sure our staff are fully trained, knowledgeable and provide a positive customer experience

Making it easier to deal with us

We will:

• Provide you with a choice of ways you can contact us
• Ensure all of our services are easy to access
• Make as many of our services as possible available on our website so you can access them at a time to suit you
• Offer cashless payment methods wherever possible
• Help you access a service if you aren’t able to do this yourself
• Identify ourselves so you always know who you are dealing with and what services we represent
• Point you in the right direction if you do not need our services

How you can help us

We ask that you:

• Treat our staff with courtesy and respect
• Go online wherever possible
• Give us the information we need in order to provide a service to you
• Tell us about any changes that may affect the service we provide to you
• Tell us where we have exceeded your expectations or where we might have got it wrong
• Tell us where you think we can make improvements to our services