Customer Service Charter

Stratford District Council is dedicated to having commitment and respect for each other, our business and our customers. We will be honest, courteous and efficient and use our knowledge and experience to be effective by doing the right thing at the right time. We support a culture of innovation by examining alternatives, challenging the obvious and having a flexible attitude.

Service standards

Our philosophy is to provide quality service to all our customers. We endeavour to get things right the first time.

Telephone:

• We aim to answer your call within 20 seconds during business hours.
• We will greet you politely and identify who you are speaking with.
• If we need to put you on hold for any reason we aim for this to be no longer than 60 seconds.
• Requests for service will be forwarded to the appropriate contractors the same working day they are received.
• We will transfer your call to the correct person if your enquiry cannot be resolved at the first point of contact.
• We will take a message if we are unable to transfer your call.
• We will return messages before close of business the next working day.

Voicemail:

• Each staff member will have a personalised voicemail greeting so you know who you are leaving a message for.
• We will return voicemail messages before close of business the next working day.
• If a staff member is on leave they will return your voicemail message on their return.

Letters, faxes and applications:

• All enquiries will be actioned within five working days.
• If we are unable to provide a full response to you within five working days we will provide you with an expected timeframe for your query to be resolved.
• Applications will be processed within the timeframes set by relevant legislation.

Emails and online requests for service:

• All email enquiries will be actioned within five working days.
• Requests for service will be forwarded to the appropriate contractors the same working day they are received.
• If we plan to be out of the office for more than one working day, our out-of-office email reply will reflect this and will provide an alternative point of contact.

Social media:

• We will respond to general enquiries within two working days.

Visiting Council Offices:

• We will greet you politely on entering our offices.
• We will acknowledge you if there is a wait.
• If you have an appointment we will meet with you on time.
• We will contact the appropriate person if your enquiry cannot be resolved at the first point of contact.
• If the person you require is unavailable we will take your contact details and ensure they are passed on.

Help us to help you

• We will treat you with dignity and respect, please extend the same courtesy to our staff.
• If you wish to see a staff member or your query is complex, please call us to arrange an appointment.
• Let us know when things have changed, such as your contact details.
• Please have the correct information at hand when contacting us.

Complaints and compliments

• We welcome your feedback to help us improve our performance.
• All complaints will be investigated to ensure we have done everything we can to assist.
• If we have made a mistake we will do our best to put things right.
• We will celebrate our compliments and strive to keep improving.