Worcester Volunteer Centre Customer Care Policy

Worcester Volunteer Centre Customer Care Policy

Worcester Volunteer Centre – Customer Care Policy

Worcester Volunteer Centre (WVC) is committed to providing a high level of customer service based on the needs of individuals who wish to volunteer and volunteer involving agencies in the community, voluntary and public sectors.

We have defined core standards of customer care based on this commitment and use them to train staff and to work productively with clients, our partners, volunteer using organisations and referral agencies.

Customer Service charter

Our promise to the individuals and organisations we interact with

WVCis committed to promoting access to our services and offering choice wherever possible in the services we provide and the way we deliver them. WVC team members are responsible for providing an efficient, approachable and professional service.

Responses

WVC team members recognise that response to customer contact should be provided in the most appropriate format for the customer.

WVC will ensure that everyone is dealt with:

  • Quickly
  • Fairly
  • In a courteous, helpful manner.

WVC try to:

  • Be open and honest and explain our decisions
  • Ensure that team members take responsibility for resolving or dealing with your query, or that they refer it to an appropriate colleague
  • Give as much information as possible to help you make informed choices
  • Act in accordance with the law
  • Treat you personally, confidentially, with respect foryou and when relevant to your organisation
  • Promote equality and diversity in everything we do
  • Keep to deadlines.

In return WVC would like you to:

  • Give us the information we need to help you
  • Treat all our team members fairly and with respect
  • Give us your views and suggestions to help us to improve our services.
  • Keep any appointments that you have with us.
  • Tell us if you know of any other person who may need our help.

WVC customer care standards

Face to face contact

We will:
  • Make sure that our buildings are as accessibleas possible.
  • Display the opening times externally on our buildings and ensure closure dates are prominently displayed
  • Respect your privacy, offering private areas for discussion if required
  • Make sure our team members identify themselves verbally in-house and by wearing a name badge when officially representing the organisaion
  • Listen to you and respond to your needs
  • Be welcoming, courteous and helpful at all times
  • Greet visitors on arrival and ask how we can help

Contact by telephone

We will:
  • Aim to answer the telephone as soon as possible during normal working hours. If a WVC team member is not available, their telephone will be answered by a colleague (by call diversion, transfer or group pick up) within the target time of 20 seconds (6 rings).
  • Attempt to resolve your query at the first point of contact. If this is not possible we will pass your call to someone who can help or take a message and give you the name of the staff member who will deal with the query.
  • We will use answerphones as appropriate during either office closure times or such times as all team members are dealing directly with customers.

Contact in writing

We will:
  • Aim to respond to standard written enquiries within five working days (one week) of receipt, resolving the issues raised if at all possible. If the issue is more complicated and likely to take longer to resolve, we will give you an idea of how long this will take.
  • Ensure that where Freedom of Information Act requests and complaints are made, customers are aware of the relevant standards that apply.
  • Ensure that within the response provided customers are given a named contact of the WVC team member dealing with the issue.

Contact by email

We will:
  • Aim to respond to emails within 24 hours, except at weekends or during bank or other staff holidays. All emails should at least receive an acknowledgement within one working day stating when a full reply will be made if it is not possible to deal with the inquiry immediately
  • Aim to provide a full response to email enquiries within five working days of receipt, resolving the issues raised if at all possible
  • Ensure that customers of certain services are aware that relevant standards may apply (for example, Data Protection).
  • Ensure that within the response provided customers are given a named contact of theWVC team member dealing with the issue

What we ask of you

WVC team members should not be expected to deal with rude, abusive or threatening behaviour. If unpleasant behaviour is encountered WVC team members will politely state that they will have to terminate the contact (put the telephone down/leave the meeting etc). WVC will pursue appropriate action against any individuals who are abusive or use threatening behaviour to WVC team members.

Delivering an effective service to customers with different needs

All our customers have the right to expect the same level of service.WVCis careful not to make assumptions about people’s needs or abilities but will always consult them to identify their needs.

WVC will make every attempt to supply information in an appropriate format and we will make sure that disabled people and people whose first language is not English can get access to interpreting, translation and communication support.

Making the policy a success

This policy sets out WVC’s commitment to its customers, clients and service users. We will use feedback to learn and improve our services.

We will do this by:

  • Publicising our standards to our customers by ensuring hard copy is available within the office and a downloadable copy available on our website
  • Carrying out customer surveys annually to measure the success of the policy.
  • Introducing internal monitoring to help all our services meet the standards.
  • Supporting and training team members to provide better customer servicewhere necessary.
  • Monitoring our complaints to identify where we need to make improvements.
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