Putting people first - core customer standards
One of Islington Council's core values is customer focus, which the Council
describes as "treating everyone fairly with dignity and respect, focusing on
the needs of all our customers and staff in everything we do". Equality is
also one of CEA@Islington's key values.
The following guidelines are therefore the absolute minimum that the Council
and CEA@Islington expect in terms of customer focus from every member of staff.
Letters
Our core standards are:
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To respond to all letters within 10 working days
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To give a named contact and telephone number
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Our intention must be to send a full reply to all letters that require a
response within 10 working days. If due to the complexity of the issue, this
is not possible, the service user should receive a response that tells them
about progress to date, with a timescale for a full response.
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We should use language that is easy to read and understand and make sure that
any complex or technical words are explained.
We should always give a contact name, telephone number and e-mail address if
available. If a letter is passed on to another service, we should make clear
in the reply who it has been passed to.
Telephone calls
The core standards are:
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To answer all calls within 6 rings
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To say "good morning" or "good afternoon"
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To say "CEA@Islington", the name of your service, and then your name
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All telephones should be answered within 6 rings, even if it is a colleague's
phone that is ringing. Be friendly and polite, and listen carefully so that
you are able to respond to the call.
Use of voicemail and answerphones
The core standards are:
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During office hours, service users should have the option of talking to a real
person
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Voicemail and answerphones should only be used sparingly. Give details of the
name and full telephone number of someone the caller can talk to.
Face to face
The core standards are:
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All CEA@Islington staff will wear a name badge when meeting with members of
the public, visiting schools or at formal meetings with outside agencies
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Make sure your name badge is clearly visible at these times
Reception areas
The core standards are:
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No-one will be kept waiting for longer than 10 minutes.
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If waiting times are longer, people should be kept informed
Complaints
The core standards are:
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To provide a copy of our complaints leaflet to anyone that wishes to complain
or comment about a service
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Take responsibility for resolving service users concerns yourself
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We should be looking to increase the number of dissatisfied users who complain
(not the number of dissatisfied users). This shows we have an effective
complaints system.