Norwich city council including Norwich city services Limited
We believe that customers have the right to a consistent standard of service whenever and however they contact us. These standards set out the experience customers should receive when contacting any service areas across the council.
Our responsibilities to you
We will:
- listen to our customers and treat them with respect, courtesy and friendliness, being receptive to customer feedback
- identify ourselves and give out our names
- enable and encourage customers to serve themselves online
- tell customers what we are doing and why, when something will happen and when it will not
- enable customers to provide feedback easily, through customer surveys, focus groups, feedback, consultations and improved complaint handling
- provide information when customers need it and in a way they understand
- treat information provided confidentially, look after customer records and data securely
- work with other service areas and organisations to achieve a joined-up and seamless approach to service provision
- train our staff to provide the best possible service at all times, taking the time to get it right first time, every time
Customer portal or by online web forms and email
- We aim to respond to all digital requests received by our customer contact service within 1 day
- We aim for our website, www.norwich.gov.uk to be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- If we know there is a problem, we will let customers know
- All other council services will aim to respond within 5 working days
Telephone
- We aim to answer calls within 2 minutes and give customers a full response
- we offer a call back option so customers do not have to wait in a queue, they will keep their queue position and will be called when an adviser becomes available
- If the person who answers cannot help, they will take responsibility to forward the query onto someone who can
Letter
- We aim to answer all letters within 10 working days
Appointment
- If customers wish for an appointment, we will aim to arrange this within 5 working days
Facebook and Twitter
- We aim to respond to social media posts within 4 working hours.
Making a complaint
- We aim to acknowledge customer complaints within five working days
- We aim to give customers a full response within 10 working days
- If we cannot, we will contact customers to give them a new date for our response
Freedom of information and/or data subject access requests
- We will supply information requested within 1 month, except in exceptional circumstances
- In such circumstances, we will contact customers to let them know why it is going to take longer than 1 month to collate the information requested, or if there are reasons why it is not appropriate to release all the information requested
- We will explain why we are not releasing the information, if that is the case, and explain the appeal process
Translation and interpretation
- If English is not a customer’s first language and they need some help in understanding any of the services the council delivers, we offer telephone or face-to-face language interpretation services
Customer responsibilities
To enable our staff to help, customers will:
- provide us with the information we need and inform us if it changes
- let us know if you cannot attend an appointment
- show us respect and courtesy