Customer services

The Council's Customer Services Centre is your first point of contact for any enquiry or formal complaint you have in respect of Council Service Delivery.

The team will be able to discuss any enquiry and, if they cannot help you at first point of contact, they will point you in the right direction. The Customer Services Centre handles about 300,000 enquiries a year by telephone, e-mail, letter, fax and face to face. Customer Service Advisors deal with general enquiries, formal complaints including those made to the Local Government Ombudsman and received from Members of Parliament.

Some frequently asked questions

If I have an enquiry about a Council Service what should I do?

If you have not approached the Council previously and do not know who might deal with the enquiry then contact the Customer Services Centre as they may be able to resolve it at your first contact. If it is a more complicated enquiry they will be able to put you in contact with the right person or department.

Customer Services do not know all the answers to all questions about the Council, however, they will treat you courteously and help to make sure you get an answer to your question. 

The Council's web site can help you with individual questions but if you have previously approached the Council on an issue and have the name of the officer who spoke to you, then we suggest you re-contact that officer.

How do I complain about the service I have received?

The Council does try to deliver a high standard of service. However, there may be an occasion when you have not been satisfied with how you were treated or with the result of your approach to the Council.

A complaint may be that you are dissatisfied about the standard of our service, action we have taken or lack of action. This may have affected you personally or a group of customers. Some complaints however, are actually enquiries. An example of this might be that your neighbour has built a wall and you are unhappy about it. The Council may not be aware that the wall was built until you advised them. We will therefore treat this as an enquiry even if you phone up to complain that your neighbour has built a wall.

However, if you have told the Council about the wall and they do not get back to you to advise what they can or cannot do, and as a result, you are dissatisfied, then we would treat this as a complaint against our service.

If you do wish to complain it is best to try and resolve this with the department that delivers the service. If you are not satisfied after doing this you can contact the manager of that service or contact the Customer Services Centre. We will then take it up on your behalf. If you remain unhappy you can make a formal complaint.

How do I make a formal complaint?

The Council has a complaints form to enable you to make a formal complaint. You can download this by clicking on the link at the side of the page. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint in two working days and provide you with a unique reference number. The Customer Services Centre will investigate the matter along with the Head of the Service your complaint relates to. We may wish to visit you or telephone you to better understand the details of your complaint. We will endeavour to provide you with a written response within 10 working days but if it is likely to take longer than this we will keep you informed of the progress.

Will staff speak to me face to face?

Our Customer Services Advisors are available as part of the Main Reception in Building 9,Council offices, Seaside Lane.

Is the investigation of my complaint independent?

Customer Services is completely independent of other services within the Council. It will investigate your complaint as independently as it can. Any complaints made about Customer Services will be initially investigated by the Head of Customer Services.

The Council wants to help and it wants to resolve your complaint. If we feel we have done wrong we will try to put it right. Where possible we will provide you with options to resolve your concerns.

There may be cases where we feel that your dissatisfaction is not due to the fact that the Council has done anything wrong. An example might be that we have not taken legal action against an individual because we felt we had no grounds to do so, having followed all necessary procedures. If this is the case we will tell you so and advise you that we are not able to take things further, however, you may remain unhappy with the decision.

Unsatisfied with the outcome of my complaint

If after pursuing an informal complaint and then a formal complaint you remain dissatisfied, then you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman. This is an independent organisation who will, in most cases, investigate your complaint further. 

In some cases the Ombudsman will not investigate your complaint. An example of this is if you have an ordinary right of appeal against the decision or where legal action is being taken.

The address of the Local Government Ombudsman is:

Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry 
CV4 0EH

Telephone 0845 602 1983 or 024 7682 1960

If the Ombudsman chooses to investigate the matter they will contact you and the Council to understand both parties views before making a decision.

How do I get involved in customer satisfaction surveys for the council?

If you let us know your name, address and telephone number we will then make arrangements for you to participate when we conduct surveys. You may be keen to join a focus group in a particular service. If you do, let us know and we will see if this is possible.

What else does Customer Services do?

Customer Services tries to be pro-active rather than re-acting to complaints. It does aim to try and handle all your general enquires at first point of contact. It also undertakes Customer Satisfaction Surveys on behalf of the Council. These results are reported to the Resources Scrutiny Committee.

How do I thank the Council for what it has done for me?

The Council aims to provide good levels of service. Officers are often thanked for their help. It helps the Council to know that it does a good job. We encourage customers to thank staff personally for what they have done. If you are particularly satisfied with a service that has been provided then we invite you let one of our Customer Services Advisors know and they will pass on your comments to the individual concerned as well as their line manager.