South Gloucestershire Council is committed to delivering excellent services to all our customers and in order to make sure we are taking into account the ever increasing expectations of our customers we have updated our Customer Care Charter.
This new charter comes into effect from 1 January 2010 and has been developed with a range of staff and customers to make sure that we are focusing on what is important to you.
Introduction
We aim to provide high quality services and information.
This new charter sets out the targets we work to when delivering services. These relate to the whole council. Some services have further specific standards. Where these apply we will tell you.
Customer care
We aim to:
- Offer a friendly, welcoming and professional service
- Make our services, reception and public areas fully accessible
- Listen carefully to your question and give you the most appropriate and full reply as possible
- Advertise our opening times and emergency contact details when our offices are not open
- Offer a range of ways you can contact and communicate with us
- Treat everyone politely and fairly
- Use plain language and avoid the use of technical terms or abbreviations
- Arrange for an interpreter or British Sign Language signer if necessary
- Try and find out who will be able to help you if we are unable to give you the information or service you are looking for
Answering phone calls and text messages
We aim to:
- Answer your call within 6 rings / 20 seconds. If we are very busy and your call joins a queue we aim to put you through to a customer advisor within 60 seconds
- Answer your call clearly stating our name and service
- Put you through to the right place first time if it is necessary to pass your call to someone else, and tell you who you are being transferred to
- Take your number and call you back within 2 working days if we need more time to answer your question
- Respond to your text message or phone message within 2 working days
Responding to letters, faxes, emails and web forms*
We aim to:
- Send an acknowledgement within 5 working days and a response in full to your letter within 10 working days of receiving it. Where a full response cannot be given, we will update you regularly
- Send an acknowledgement within 2 working days and a response in full to your email, fax or web form within 5 working days of receiving it
- Where a full response cannot be given we will update you regularly
- Give you details of who is dealing with your question and their contact details
Meeting our staff
We aim to:
- Deal with your questions within 10 minutes of you arriving at our public offices, or give an explanation for any delay
- Be on time for appointments, let you know beforehand if we need to change it and give you an explanation for the delay
- Make sure that the first person you deal with either answers your question or passes you onto the right person
- Make sure private rooms are available in our public offices if you wish to talk about a private or confidential matter
- Make sure our staff carry official identification at all times
- Treat you and your property with respect
Information
We aim to:
- Produce information about services that is accurate, accessible, useful and up to date
- Tell you how to get information in other languages or formats such as large print or audio tape
- Hold personal information about you securely and in line with the Data Protection Act
What we can expect from you
Please can you:
- Treat our staff with courtesy and respect. We will not tolerate rude or abusive behaviour
• Give us all relevant paperwork and as much information as possible so we can deal with your question as quickly as possible - Arrive on time and let us know beforehand if you need to cancel or rearrange an appointment
- Give us advance notice if you need a signer, interpreter or translator
- Be reasonable with your requests and demands
- Let us know if you are unhappy with the service you have received
Compliments, Suggestions and Complaints
We welcome and value your feedback so that we can improve the services we provide to you.
hether you want to compliment us, make a suggestion or let us know that something has gone wrong please contact us.
More information is available in our leaflet titled ‘Help us to get it right’, available from our public offices, by calling 01454 868009 or by viewing our compliments and suggestions and complaints page in the ‘see also’ box.
* Different timescales apply to correspondence dealt with under the Corporate Compliments, Suggestions and Complaints procedure and other legally defined periods for responses, such as Data Protection and Freedom of Information