We use service standards to help us give you a fair and consistent service. 

These standards are the same across the whole council. 

Telephones

We will: 

• aim to answer phone calls within 5 rings (15 seconds) 
• tell you the name of the person or section you are dealing with 
• call you back, on request, to reduce the cost to you of reporting a repair 
• provide phones in our reception areas for you to use 
• use Language Line, so that our service is more accessible  

We are particularly busy on Monday mornings or after a Bank Holiday. You are more likely to get a quick response if you ring us at other times.  

Letters and emails

We will:  

• respond fully to all correspondence (including email) within 10 working days. If this is not possible, we will write to you to tell you when we will be able to fully respond 
• use plain English and translate any letters and information you don’t understand. 

Complaints

We will: 

• respond fully to all formal complaints (including those by phone and email) within 15 working days. If this is not possible, we will write to you stating when we can 
• use plain English and translate any responses and information you don’t understand 
• monitor all complaints by ethnicity, gender, disability, age, religion and sexual orientation to ensure that our service is accessible to all.  

Respecting others  

You or anyone acting on your behalf must not harass, abuse, or use or threaten violence against any council employee or agent 

Our customer care standards 

We want to make sure our staff and contractors treat you and your home with respect. 

All our staff and contractors will:  

• show you their identification card before asking to enter your property 
• have appropriate clothing and the equipment needed to complete your repair 
• use dustsheets where needed, and clean up at the end of each day and at the end of the job. Please let us know if this does not happen 
• always be friendly and courteous and respect your home and culture 
• make every effort to keep you informed of progress and phone you if there are delays (if we have your phone number) 
• send you a satisfaction questionnaire for every repair job

If you need anything translated, our repairs staff can use a phone interpreting service. They will show you a Language Line card if they think you need this service.

If you are a female tenant, you can ask for only women to visit you about your repairs. We will do everything we can to help you with this.

To check our standards, we will regularly look at: 

• a sample of all repair orders, and responses to satisfaction questionnaires, to make sure the quality of work is of a high standard 
• site arrangements to make sure they are safe 
• responses to complaints to make sure they are dealt with properly