Issue - meetings

Purpose:  to present a formal public-facing Customer Services Charter. This was a key action within the Communications and Engagement Strategy and will form part of the ‘One Council’ approach (also known as ‘Many Channels, One Service project) being developed. Elements of the Digital Strategy will also be incorporated in to the Charter in line with other commitments to further digitisation.

Resolved that: Executive

·         Approve the draft Customer Charter.

This decision is eligible to be ‘called-in’.  However, if the decision has not been ‘called-in’ by 5.00pm on Friday 20 January 2022, then it will be implemented.

Councillor Lynne Doherty introduced the report (Agenda Item 7), which set out a Customer Charter detailing a number of proposed service standards which customers could expect when dealing with the Council, regardless of the contact channel chosen. 

Councillor Lee Dillon queried customer recourse in the event that a commitment was not met. Councillor Dillon further queried whether there should be an out of hours service provision. Councillor Doherty clarified that the complaints process was included on the Charter, and that this was in line with other local authorities.

Councillor Doherty agreed to include a response commitment for out of hours emergencies within the Charter.

Councillor Adrian Abbs referred to his membership of the OSMC Customer Journey Task Group (the Group), and commented that it was surprising that the Group had not had the opportunity to review the Charter, suggesting that it would have benefitted from the scrutiny.

Councillor Doherty agreed to Councillor Macro’s request to remove the use of acronyms from the Charter.

Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter seconded the paper and highlighted the second proposal within the report which referred to adopting the Charter in tandem with a concerted internal effort towards a culture whereby good customer service was seen to be the responsibility of all within the organisation. Councillor Ardagh-Walter felt that the Council already provided good customer service to residents but commented that parallel work would need to be undertaken to train new joiners to adapt and interpret the Charter to specific and varied situations, with the overall core aim of providing a quality service for residents.

RESOLVED that: Executive

·       Approve the draft Customer Charter.