Customer service standards

Working in partnership with Waveney, Suffolk Coastal adopted a new Customer Access Strategy in August 2012 which sets out our commitment to providing services that meet your needs around the clock.

• Customer Access Strategy (new window PDF 234KB)

Our aim is to provide our customers with an excellent, consistent and reliable service. These are the standards that you can expect:

We will:

• Respect all of our customers, dealing with them in a fair, objective, polite and helpful manner.
• Respond as quickly as possible to all requests for information or services.
• Respect your right to privacy and confidentiality.
• Actively seek your ideas and feedback, acting on them where appropriate.
• Apologise if we get it wrong and put it right as quickly as possible.
• Ensure our services are as accessible as possible.
• Seek to deal with enquiries at the first point of contact until they are resolved.
• Where possible deal with our customers’ enquiries at the first point of contact until the enquiry has been completed, if we need to pass your enquiry onto someone else we will confirm how long it will take to be resolved.
• Where practical, provide, interpretation, translation or other support, if requested (an appointment may be required to achieve this).
• Insist that partner organisations delivering services on our behalf apply these customer service standards as a minimum for their own standards.

If you visit us:

• We will aim to deal with your initial enquiry within 10 minutes of your arrival, or let you know if you have to wait longer.
• We will keep our reception areas clean and tidy and provide up-to-date information about our services.
• If you have made an appointment we will ensure that you are seen on time or kept informed of the reason for any delay and confirm when you will be seen.
• We will offer you a private interview room, if you ask for it (this may need to be booked).

If you telephone us:

• We will aim to answer your call within 20 seconds.
• Your call will be answered by a member of staff, who gives their name and who will take responsibility to ensure that your call is dealt with efficiently.
• We will phone you back within 2 working days if you leave a message.
• When the offices are closed we will tell you about our out-of-hours service and when the offices will next be open.

If you email or write to us:

• We aim to respond to letters within 10 working days and emails within 5 working days.
• If this is not possible we will acknowledge your correspondence telling you why and we will give you a response date.
• We will respond to you in plain language.
• We will respond in large print or Braille if requested.

What we expect from you is:

• Openness and honesty, giving us as much information as possible to assist us in dealing with your enquiry, letting us know if you have any special needs.
• Full co-operation and for you to be respectful when dealing with the Council - we will not tolerate abuse, threats or harassment, on or off Council premises.

Your feedback

We are committed to delivering a quality service. We want to know if you are happy or unhappy with any of our services and any suggestions you have for improvement. You can give us feedback through our website or through the Govmetric terminals and feedback forms in our reception area.