Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 4 November 2023

NUNEATON and Bedworth borough council’s Customer Services Team has been recognised for its service quality by an industry award scheme run by the Government’s Cabinet Office.

The team was assessed in ‘several’ areas, including customer insight, culture of the organisation, information and access, delivery, timeliness, and quality of service.

In addition, they were acknowledged with the ‘Compliance Plus’ mark for their corporate commitment to ‘putting the customer at the heart of service delivery’, and leaders in the organisation actively supporting this and advocating for customers.

In a report from Assessment Services, who have over 30 years of experience in assessment and accreditation, Registered Customer Service Excellence Assessor Graeme Murdoch, said: “The Customer Services team is a proactive team that puts customers first through pre-empting their needs, listening carefully to what they are saying and providing a high-quality customer experience.”

He continued: “Staff recognise that every customer may have diverse needs and they endeavour to ensure that service provision caters for a range of needs; from colleagues who are multilingual, to those who are experts in specific areas, these are known as customer champions.

He concluded: “Against an environment of a tough economic climate and tight budget controls, there remains a corporate commitment to deliver excellent customer service and to put this at the heart of service delivery.”

The authority’s customer services team deal with around 25,000 queries annually, on a number of varied issues, such as council tax payments, food hygiene in cafes, stray dogs, and council housing queries.

Its commitment to delivering excellent customer service is set out in the Council’s Customer Experience and Digital Strategy, which was approved by cabinet back in September.

The next step of this strategy seeks to deliver a ‘digital by default’ offering, which looks to ensure digital channels are our customers’ go-to method for contacting the Council.

The borough council aim to achieve this by “guaranteeing a fast and efficient online route to provide service, helping to increase choice for customers, offering greater flexibility and making lives easier for users”.

Coun. Sam Croft, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate, said: “I’m delighted that our Customer Services team has been recognised in this way and want to pay tribute to all the hard work that they do to deliver an excellent service to the residents of Nuneaton and Bedworth.

“This is the result of two years of hard work to improve our processes and drive a culture change here at Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council to put the customer at the heart of everything we do.

“I know that they will continue to work hard to make our service even better, as we now move on to achieve our goal of providing a digital-first service for customers.”