To help achieve our commitment to good customer service we have developed standards which set out how you should be treated when you contact us – by telephone, letter or in person. These standards will enable us to monitor our performance.
Telephone Calls:
- All sections will have clear duty cover arrangements during opening hours.
- Calls to our Contact Centre will be answered within 40 seconds. Calls to any other numbers within the Trust will be answered within 5 rings except in exceptional circumstances.
- Calls will be answered, in a clear and professional manner, with the greeting ‘Vale of Aylesbury Housing ‘, followed by the name of the officer answering the call.
- In the event of the officer requested being unavailable, the person answering the phone will either divert the call to another member of staff who can help or take a message themselves.
- Customers will be called back within 1 working day wherever possible.
- Voice mail will only be provided to a small number of staff and its use closely monitored.
- Voice mail messages will be updated regularly and return calls made within 1 working day.
Letters:
- Correspondence to the Trust will normally receive a full reply within 10 working days.
- If a full reply cannot be sent in 10 working days an acknowledgement or holding reply will be sent within 5 working days.
- Letters will be drafted in clear, plain English.
- Letters will normally be sent out in the name of the member of staff dealing with the matter together with their job title, telephone number and e-mail address.
- Anonymous letters will be investigated even if a responsecannot be sent.
- Where appropriate, correspondence will be translated into different languages.
- A minimum 12 point Verdana regular typeface will be used or a 16 point typeface if the reader is known to have a sight impairment or prefer larger print.
Personal Callers will:
- be given private interviews on request;
- be given appointments with named officers upon request;
- be seen within 10 minutes of their details being recorded at reception.
Appointments:
- Appointments with specific members of staff will be made upon request.
- All appointments will be made for a mutually convenient time and date.
- Appointments can be made either at The Trust’s offices or the customer’s home.
- If for any reason, such as staff sickness, an appointment cannot be kept or a customer is kept waiting, then they will be kept informed and an apology offered.
- If a member of staff calls on a customer who is not at home then a calling card will be left.
- Where English is not a customer’s first language a translation or interpreting service will be provided.
