ARCHIVED news story
Council backs plans to improve customer service
Released on 29 January 2007
This report shows how brilliantly we are doing ... we are keeping in touch with our residents
Vivienne Clifford-Jackson, Council Leader
South Norfolk Council’s Cabinet has backed recommendations from officers to improve the council's customer service.
It follows a review of the first nine months of the council’s complaints, compliments and suggestions scheme, called "Help us to Help you”.
The 20-page report to Cabinet, from the council's performance and standards team and published on the council’s website, covers the use of the scheme since its launch, and also the results of a mystery shopping exercise, where emails were sent to officers in council services.
The results in the report were welcomed by Council Leader, Councillor Vivienne Clifford-Jackson. She said:
“This report shows how brilliantly we are doing and how well our website is used, where half of the feedback now comes from. The results show that we are keeping in touch with our residents.”
One of the outcomes of the review, as set out in the report, was that the scheme was easy to use and had resulted in a high volume of compliments about council staff.
Geoff Rivers, the Council’s Chief Executive said:
“All feedback is positive as far as we are concerned, even when it is critical. We regard feedback as a way to continually improve our services .
“We have now moved to a position where our residents' views are highly valued, as customers of our services should be, and where what they say results in changes to services.”
The report cites changes to the council’s shredded paper banks service after suggestions from a resident that they were not emptied enough and were not big enough to take all the paper.
The banks are now emptied more frequently and consideration is being given to increasing their size.
Council officers also scored 100% from mystery shoppers on the clarity of the replies they sent. The shoppers sent emails to all services across the council, and rigorously checked and tested replies across a number of criteria. They found that all the replies were in plain English and did not use council jargon.
Cabinet backed all the officers’ recommendations for further improving the service including a review of customer care standards in June, following the results of more mystery shopping exercises and a consultation with customers on what those standards should be.
It also backed recommendations to:
- reinforce its policy of sending an interim response to letters and emails if a full reply cannot be sent in ten days;
- introduce a customer service standard that requires all emails to be signed off with the sender’s name and contact details;
- introduce training on writing emails to improve their quality.
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Contact us
| contact officer/team: | Communications Team |
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| web: | online enquiry form |
| email: | communicationsteam@s-norfolk.gov.uk |
| telephone: | 01508 533611 or 01508 533983 |
| minicom/textphone: | 01508 533622 |
| address: | South Norfolk House Swan Lane Long Stratton Norwich NR15 2XE |
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