Customer service standards
We are committed to providing the best possible services for
everyone who visits, lives or works in Peterborough.
We have agreed a set of customer service standards which
outline our aims.
They are:-
Customer care principles
1.
Courtesy and helpfulness
We will:
- be polite, positive, helpful and treat you with respect and fairness.
- ensure our staff are highly trained and proactive.
- listen carefully in order to understand and respond to your needs.
- tell you our name and wear a name badge.
- give you an explanation of our actions.
- do everything we can to resolve your query to your satisfaction
Additionally
- If we are unable to resolve your enquiry, we will forward it to the appropriate person.
- Where appropriate, we will keep a progress record on your enquiry and any advice we gave showing what has been done, by whom and when.
- We also expect customers to maintain certain standards and we will not tolerate abuse of staff.
2.
Effective two way
communication
We will:
- agree the nature of your enquiry with you and discuss when you can expect us to resolve it (if possible).
- keep you informed on the progress and final outcome of your enquiry what happened last, what will happen next and when it will happen.
3.
Putting things right
- We will do our best to identify and address the cause of customer dissatisfaction to prevent further incidents.
Furthermore:-
When we visit you, we
will...
- explain who we are and show you an authorised identification card
- explain the purpose of our visit
When you visit us, we
will...
- ensure that you can access our offices
- ensure our reception areas will be clean and welcoming and provide information about council services
- ensure our reception staff see you promptly
- make sure you see someone appropriate to deal with your enquiry or arrange an appointment for you, if necessary
- provide an interpreter, or other support, if needed, (this may need us to make an appointment
- explain any delays of over 10 minutes to your arranged appointment
- ensure the person dealing with your enquiry gives their name and wears a name badge.
- make other arrangements with you, if you cannot visit one of our offices
When you telephone us, we
will...
- aim to answer your call within 20 seconds (5 rings)
- for those customers who have impaired hearing, a minicom service is available on 01733 452421
- provide our name to allow you to follow up with another call if necessary
- thank you for your call
- aim to direct you to the person you ask to speak to, or to someone else who can deal with your enquiry
- if the person you need to speak to is not available, we will try to help, take a message or arrange for someone to ring you back
- if you leave a voicemail or answerphone message, we will aim to call you back within 1 working day
When you write to us (including
fax and e-mail), we will...
- acknowledge your e-mail within 1 working day of receipt
- aim to reply to your correspondence within 10 working days of receipt, and if we cannot achieve this write and let you know when a full reply will be sent
- ensure our reply identifies the person who is dealing with your enquiry so that you know who to contact if you need to
Our customer services standards cover a number of measurable
targets which are monitored across the council.
The latest available figures are:
Overall performance for Peterborough
City Council
2008/2009
|
|
Apr 08
|
May 08
|
June 08 | July 08 |
|
Letters responded to within 10 days
|
66%
|
76%
|
90% | 91% |
|
Telephone calls answered within 20 seconds
|
79%
|
76%
|
75% | 82% |
2007/2008
|
|
Apr 07
|
May 07
|
June 07
|
July 07
|
Aug 07
|
Sept 07
|
Oct 07
|
Nov 07
|
Dec 07
|
Jan 08
|
Feb 08
|
Mar 08
|
|
Letters responded to within 10 days
|
78%
|
72%
|
76%
|
78%
|
86%
|
86%
|
82%
|
85%
|
90%
|
84%
|
79%
|
93%
|
|
Telephone calls answered within 20 seconds
|
53.5%
|
61%
|
69%
|
72%
|
78%
|
79%
|
83%
|
87%
|
85%
|
86%
|
87%
|
79%
|