The following standards apply to all parts of the council when dealing withtelephone calls to or from customers, and support the general principals withinthe Council's Customer Service Charter.
- We will answer all telephone calls promptly, with 80% of the calls we receive being answered by a person within 20 seconds.
- We will ensure that, whenever possible, calls from customers are dealt with by the first person who answers the call.
- If the person who answers a customer's telephone call cannot fully deal with the call it will, whenever possible, be forwarded to someone who can. If this is not possible someone who is able to deal with the enquiry will phone the customer within a time limit agreed with the customer, or the customer will be given the correct contact details for that person.
- If we have to transfer a customer's call to another person, we will always give the receiving person the brief details of the call.
- When we answer the phone we will use a bilingual greeting and always give our name and either the full name of the Council or the name of our service, office or department.
- When we phone a customer we will always tell the customer our name and either the full name of the Council or the name of our service, office or department.
- Whenever possible calls will be answered by a person, but if calls have to be answered by voicemail or answer machine, they must be responded to by at least the end of the next working day.
- Whenever possible, we will ensure that the first voice you hear when you phone us is a person and not an automated system, but, if we do use an automated or voicemail system we will ensure that it is bilingual, uncomplicated and easy to use.
- We will ensure that any customer who wishes to telephone the council in Welsh or other spoken languages, can do so easily and will receive the same standard of service.