At your service

     



Shepway Council has put the spotlight on the way it looks after its customers and has published a set of standards to ensure its up to the mark.

The Customer Service Charter sets out what customers can expect when they visit or call the council or write or send an email. It also sets out general aims based on providing an efficient, fair and courteous service.

The charter is set out in a new leaflet Customer Service in Shepway which also highlights how the council wants to improve customer services over the next three years.

Plans include creating a single customer service team, introducing technology that will make accessing services even easier, carrying out more improvements to its reception area and queuing arrangements at the Civic Centre, increasing the use of text messaging to communicate with customers and improving the payments service.

Cllr Pam Carr, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said the council had always been committed to giving a good service but publishing the charter would help to make sure that this commitment was clear to both customers and to staff.

"It clearly sets out what our customers can expect from us. We have carried out customer surveys and a lot of the improvements we have already made are a result of what they told us," said Cllr Carr.

But she said it was not just about publishing a lot of words on paper.

"It's about trying to instill customer care into the council's culture. All staff will know what is expected of them and will be aware of the values, standards and behaviour that the council wants and that customers deserve. And this is only the start. We'll be monitoring what we do and will continue to invite customers to tell us what they think.

"We can't change things overnight but we are serious about getting things right."

A copy of Customer Services in Shepway is available from the Civic Centre in Castle Hill Avenue, One Stop Services in Hythe, New Romney and Lydd or by contacting the customer services team on 01303 853 000.