Customer Care
Customer Charter
Our Commitment to You
Angus Council aims to provide a courteous and helpful service to our customers. We aim to deliver the best standards of customer care possible and provide the modern customer services that people want.
We will work for and with you, to involve, inform and give you fair and equal access to information and services.
We aim to deliver a consistent and high standard of customer care and will:
- treat you politely and with respect
- be friendly and approachable
- listen to what you have to say
- respect your right to confidentiality
- be open and accountable
- give you the information you need about our services
- give you choice in how you access services
- value and respect the diversity of our customers and try to meet the needs of customers with specific requirements
- work in partnership with other organisations and communities to improve our services
- learn from your compliments, comments and complaints
Through our regular customer surveys we will ask for your comments on how we are doing and we will report on our performance annually.
What We Expect from You
Angus Council has respect for all its customers and in return we expect you to:
- treat us politely and with respect
- be patient, we will do all we can to keep waiting times to a minimum
- not use aggressive behaviour or inappropriate language, as this will not be tolerated
- provide us with the information we need to help you
- be on time for an appointment and let us know if you need to cancel
- let us know if you need an interpreter or information in other formats
Our Standards for Responding to Your Enquiries
Good communication with our customers is important to Angus Council. We aim to respond to your letters, phone calls and emails as swiftly as possible and have the following standards in place so you know what to expect from us.
- We will respond to your letters within 15 working days. If a full response cannot be given within that time you will be given a target date for a full response.
- We will answer phone calls as quickly as possible and any telephone message will be responded to promptly, wherever possible within one working day.
- We will reply to your emails within one working day, either to answer your query or to inform you when a full response will be given. We aim to respond in full within 15 working days but if we are unable to do so we will give you a target date for a full response.
Improving Our Service to You
You can let us know where we've got things right and help us sort out things that may have gone wrong by contacting accessline@angus.gov.uk, call ACCESSLine, the council's direct line for council services, on 08452 777 778 or tell us online using the compliments, comments and complaints form.
Compliments, Comments and Complaints
Our aim is to provide all our customers with good quality services and wherever possible deal with your concerns as they arise.
You can record your compliment, comment or complaint via our online form to tell us where we've got things right, help us improve services and sort things out if they've gone wrong.
However we are keen to resolve any problems as soon as possible so if you have a comment or complaint about a service please raise the matter with those delivering that service first of all - we will do our best to help resolve any problem there and then. Alternatively you can contact ACCESSLine on 08452 777 778 or email accessline@angus.gov.uk.
If we cannot resolve a problem immediately; within the agreed service standards; or to your, the customer's, satisfaction or if you have a complaint about how you have been treated we will record your complaint and give you our formal response within 10 days. If we cannot respond within that time we will inform you when we will be able to provide you with a response.
Our aim is to work things out so we want you to tell us if you are satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or wish us to take further action and have the matter investigated by a senior officer or ultimately the chief executive.
Although most complaints will be dealt with in this way there are separate complaints procedures for some council activities and services, such as social work; equal opportunities; recruitment and bus services. In addition an advice and conciliation procedure is in place to assist parents and the Education department address problems or concerns raised.
When you contact us you will be advised of the procedure to be followed when dealing with your complaint.
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
If a customer is not satisfied with the council's internal investigation of and response to their complaint they should be advised of their right to refer the matter to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman for attention where appropriate.
The Ombudsman offers an independent national service and while complaints can be made to the Ombudsman any time, an investigation will usually only be made if the complaint has been investigated by the council.
Complaints should be made to:
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
4 Melville Street
Edinburgh EH3 7NS
or write to
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
FREEPOST EH641
Edinburgh EH3 OBR.
See www.spso.org.uk for more information.