24 September 2007, 07/318
Give your views for National Customer Services
Week
To celebrate National Customer Services Week (1st to 7th October),
West Lancashire residents will be asked to give feedback on their
customer experiences.
West Lancashire District Council has a vision of 'putting customers
first' and already has a string of awards and commendations under
its belt for its excellent customer services. Just last week it
added to its victory roll when the Skelmersdale Customer Service
Point (the CSP) won the "Front-Line Customer Service Team of the
Year" in the National Customer Service Awards in London, beating
some of the UK's top companies including BT and Barclay's.
To show just how dedicated the Council is to customer services, it
will be conducting a customer satisfaction survey during the
week-long event to assess people's opinions and experiences of
contacting the Council.
The Council already carries out these surveys regularly and thought
it would be good to launch the latest survey during National
Customer Services Week and also raise awareness about what they can
do to help citizens wishing to access the Council's services.
Feedback from the surveys will be used to further improve services.
For example, as a result of recent comments from residents, the
Skelmersdale Customer Service Point now deals with travel
concessions whereas previously this was only dealt with in
Ormskirk.
Cllr Geoff Roberts, Leader of the Council, said: "One of our main
priorities is our commitment to providing top quality customer
services, stated in our vision as 'Putting Customer Services First-
building a community second to none'. We are now among the very
best district councils in the country, not only serving our
customers, but delighting them. We already boast a 3 star rating
from the independent Audit Commission for 'Customer Access and
Focus' and have been assessed overall as an 'excellent' Council.
Nearly every member of the team has an NVQ in Customer Services,
we've just won a top national award, and every day we show our
dedication to customer services.
"What better opportunity is there than National Customer Services
Week to recognise what we do and give our residents a chance to
tell us what they think of our services?"
The Council also recently agreed a set of 'Customer Care
Objectives' and reaffirmed the 'Corporate Standards of Customer
Care' to be expected. This document was delivered to homes across
the district in spring in a bid to provide even better services for
all customers. Anyone who has not received a copy can download it
from the Publications section.
Customer Services act as an initial contact point for all
customers. They currently deliver 107 services including: new
occupiers for council tax, dealing with pest control reports,
receiving keys to council properties, undertaking housing benefit
verification. They also deliver a wide range of services and
requests for Street Scene including complaints about missed bin
collections, fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles and many, many more
services. This means that customers have their queries dealt with
in just one visit or phone call. Currently, over 60% of services,
and increasing levels of customer queries, are resolved at the
first point of contact.
The Council has a 'click, call, come in' approach to give people a
choice of how they can request services, pay bills or seek
information -
· Click to go online through the website http://www.westlancsdc.gov.uk
at a time that suits you, 24/7, 365-days a year
· Call the Council on 01695 577177
· Come in to the council offices at 52 Derby Street Ormskirk or the
Customer Service Point in the Concourse, Skelmersdale
Related information
> Council
news
> Council news and publications
> Customer Service Point, Skelmersdale