Customer Service Standards

Environmental Response

Our Customer Service Standards set out in detail the level of service you can expect from the Environment Response Team at Swale Borough Council.

These standards may include Council wide standards that apply to the whole organisation and more specific standards for then Environment Response Team.

The Environment Response Team will ensure:

• Our officers present themselves in a professional way, and will be well trained and knowledgeable.
• They provide an efficient service that meets requirements of both our customers and partner agencies.
• We consult with our customers on how our service meets their needs, how it can be improved, and act on recommendations to develop and improve our service.
• That we continually look to improve our service.
• That we send out customer satisfaction forms to a random selection of customers, and measure our performance.
• We investigate fly tipping, where evidence is likely, and to update the customer within 3 working days. Fly tipping will be passed to our contractors promptly for removal if on public land.
• That we regularly update customers with progress for ongoing cases unless the customer has asked not to be updated, or the officer has explained that the case will be closed (for noise cases there will be a minimum of 3 weekly updates)
• We inspect potentially abandoned vehicles within 24 hours of the incident being reported
• Collect (or action) ‘found’ stray dogs within 3 hours if reported between 9 am to 9 pm (unless agreed otherwise with finder).
• That we remove offensive or racially motivated graffiti within 24 hours of it being reported. All other graffiti may take up to 28 days.

When you contact the Environment Response Team you can expect us to:

• Respond to all general correspondence within 10 working days, and respond to all emails or new requests for service within 3 working days.
• Answer all telephone calls within 20 seconds, with staff providing their name or the team you are speaking with.
• Use language that is easy to understand in all our written correspondence and we will include a contact name and telephone number.

Where possible, we will publish our performance levels for overall customer satisfaction so that everyone can see how we are doing.