Services & Information Winter support Colchester Borough Council is providing support for residents, businesses, and communities throughout winter. CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARD What you can expect from us Please contact us through our website where possible. You can self-serve online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can find information about our services, pay, book and upload documents using our website and we will process your query quickly and efficiently. We offer a friendly, accessible and professional service, where trained staff are ready to help with your enquiry. No matter how you contact us, we aim to: be welcoming, fair, responsive and courteous actively listen to our customers and use feedback to meet your needs and improve our services and products have professional, well-informed staff, who take pride in what they do let you know what we can provide and what you should expect get it right for customers and do the best job we can make sure everyone has easy, equal access to our services communicate in plain language and avoid jargon respect your right to privacy and confidentiality We aim to give you the following assurances for whichever way you contact us. In times of high demand, we thank you for your patience while we deal with a higher than average number of enquiries. Online You can access most of our services and products online 24 hours a day. When you self-serve, we aim to: ensure our website and online processes are clear, quick and easy to use make sure all information on our website is up to date use your feedback to consider improvements we can make to our website process your query online and aim to resolve it as soon as possible provide training and help to people less confident in accessing our online services Email When you email us, we aim to fully respond to your enquiry within 2 working days; however where this is not possible we will contact you to acknowledge your e-mail and let you know when we will provide you with a full response. Telephone You can access most of our services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, if you do need to contact us by phone, we aim to: resolve your query at the first point of contact where possible advise you when you can access our services online provide you with the name and department of the person you are speaking to answer your calls within an average of 90 seconds or be directed to a voice mail to leave a message. respond to you by the next working day if you leave a voicemail message with us. We aim to achieve very high levels of customer satisfaction across all service areas (our target is for 85% or more of customers surveyed to say they are satisfied with our services) Please note: Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes. In Person You can access most of our services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, if you do need to visit us, we aim to: assist you to access our services and products online wherever possible refer or signpost you to the appropriate services keep our public areas safe, clean and welcoming ensure the name badges of our staff are visible help you if you have special communication or access needs. Our customers are important to us. We aim to anticipate and meet your needs so we can deliver excellent customer service. We will try our best to resolve all of your enquiries at the time of contacting us. However, where this is not possible we will strive to keep you informed on what is being done to resolve your enquiry. How you can help Colchester Borough Council is committed to providing excellent customer service. There are a number of ways you can help us to achieve this: Our services are available online. In most cases, using our website is the quickest and easiest way to access our products and services and resolve your query 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can use our website to find information, pay a bill, book a service, or upload you documents. Council tax and benefits customers can now supply your documents easily online using your smartphone, tablet, other device or computer from the comfort of your own home. Just go to www.colchester.gov.uk/uploadevidence You can make a payment online at www.colchester.gov.uk/payments or using our automated payment line 01206 282725 or text phone 18001 01206 282300 If you do need to come and see us, bring with you all the correct documentation and information. We can then deal with your request quicker, reducing the number of unnecessary visits Inform us when you need to cancel your appointment or request for a service Treat our staff and other customers with courtesy and respect. Our staff and other customers will not deal with violent, rude or disruptive customers Keep us updated with any changes that may affect the services we provide, for instance those involving benefits, council tax or assisted collection Help us to get it right It helps us to receive feedback on your online enquiry, telephone call or visit. We constantly strive to provide the service you expect so please let us know how we are getting on. You can provide us with feedback on all of our web pages by clicking the 'Feedback' tab on the right-hand side of the page. You will then be given the option to rate the page and leave a comment (see below): Help Us Get It Right Our Equality Impact Assessments We complete Equality Impact Assessments for policies, procedures and practices that have an impact on customers and employees. Please follow the link below to read the Equality Impact Assessments for the Customer Service Centre. Equality Impact Assessments Customer Strategy Our Customer Vision is to put customers at the centre of everything we do, improving and delivering the best service we can. Our Customer Strategy was created through consultation with customers and staff and sets out how we are going to support and help our customers in line with the Better Colchester Strategic Plan. Customer Strategy Information Jobs Freedom of information Help us get it right Sustainability Fraud Customer service charter Strategic plan Colchester Commercial Holdings Ltd Colchester Ambassadors EU Exit and You Coronavirus (COVID-19) Contact Rowan House, 33 Sheepen Road, Colchester Essex CO3 3WG Contact our services Help Privacy policy Cookie policy Accessibility policy Terms and conditions Disclaimer and copyright Cookie Control Our site uses cookies. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. 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