To approve the Customer Care Strategy and action plan.

That the Customer Care Strategy and action plan be APPROVED.

87.1           The report of the Communications and Policy Manager, circulated at Pages No. 9-23, set out the Customer Care Strategy and action plan which Members were asked to approve. 

87.2           Members were advised that, in the Council Plan, a promise was made that the Council would put the needs of its customers at the heart of what it did and would listen to what they said, treating people fairly and without bias. The Customer Care Strategy was an important step to making this a reality as it detailed how the Council planned to deliver customer care and outlined the organisational commitments it would make to its customers. In addition, the action plan showed where the Council wanted to be and explained how it would monitor and report its progress in achieving those pledges. In addition, as part of its commitment to customer care, the Council would encourage the adoption of common customer care standards across the authority. The Strategy had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee where it had been endorsed and recommended to the Executive Committee for approval.

87.3           The Communications and Policy Manager explained that, whilst the standards were not unique, the Council had not had them before. They had been developed with Managers at all levels and, as such, were fully supported throughout the authority. For some teams this would be a considerable culture change but there was a commitment from Managers who had wanted to put into place something achievable and effective. The Customer Care Strategy aimed to: introduce a set of customer service standards for staff to follow; make it easier, simpler and more convenient for customers to interact with the Council when requiring a service; use feedback from the residents’ survey to help shape future service delivery; make sure staff were equipped with the skills to deliver high quality customer service; promote approaches to delivering services that were more convenient for customers and less expensive to deliver for the Council; utilise technology to better manage and serve the changing access needs of customers in line with the Council’s emerging digital strategy; and work with partners in the public services centre to ensure customers experienced a seamless and worthwhile experience when visiting the offices.

87.4           Referring to the standards as attached to the Customer Care Strategy, a Member noted that, in terms of responding to emails and telephone calls, the timescales were not very specific but in respect of letters they were. She was of the view that responding ‘as soon as possible’ did not really demonstrate good customer care. In response, the Communications and Policy Manager explained that the number of emails and telephone calls received by the Council was extremely significant and as such it was very difficult to put a time limit on responses; there was, however, a commitment to respond as soon as possible which was of the utmost importance. In respect of the telephone, the main changes being introduced were that, if there was not a member of the team to answer a call, the voicemail message which was left would provide useful information about how long the Officer would be away from the office for etc. This would at least help the caller to know if their query would receive a response fairly quickly or if the officer was away on holiday for a week or two.

87.5           Members agreed that this would be a culture change for some teams but it was definitely something that needed to be addressed and they welcomed the introduction of the customer care standards. The Chief Executive advised that Officers knew they were not perfect at the moment and this was the reason for the introduction of the strategy and standards as a way of managing the issues and tackling the problems. It could be difficult to get work done when there were constant interruptions so he understood why sometimes people chose not to answer a telephone but, if this was the case, alternative arrangements needed to be put into place to ensure the residents who were calling were able to get the help they required. Accordingly, it was