Standards of Service

Swindon Borough Council believes that its customers have a right to expect the best possible service from the council and its staff. To achieve this, a set of formal customer care standards have been established. These state that:

• All customers should receive a pleasant and courteous service at all times
• An efficient and effective service that meets the needs of all customers will be provided by members of the council's Customer Services Team at all times
• When dealing with representatives of the Customer Service Team, all customers will receive the right information... first time... every time
• All customers will be able to identify all Customer Services staff by name or identity badge
• Whenever it is necessary for a member of the Customer Services Team to leave a contact name with a telephone caller, they will provide their name, Service Area and 'direct-dial' telephone number
• All contact details will be included in all written correspondence to customers
• Public opening times for the Customer Services Department are quoted on all written correspondence when relevant
• The Customer Services Team will continually strive to deliver a service that is easily accessible by all sections of the community

Specifically, We Aim:

• To attend to at least 90% of customers visiting in person within five minutes of their arrival
• To answer the telephone within four rings
• To deal with telephone queries immediately and to avoid passing callers around the council
• To respond to all written correspondence within ten working days of receipt
• To ensure that all reception areas in the Civic Campus are open continuously Monday to Friday 9.00am-4.30pm
• To ensure that, for telephone enquiries, all service areas are staffed continuously between Monday to Thursday 8.30am-5.00pm and Friday 8.30am-4.30pm
• To work towards national standards in customer care, thus providing customers with a consistently high standard of service
• To use all comments and complaints to help identify areas where we need to improve our service and the steps we need to take to realise those improvements