Customer Access Strategy

We would like to share our Draft Customer Access Strategy ^{(pdf, 2.6mb)} with you here in order to gain feedback from residents and businesses in South Derbyshire on the document content and our priorities which will help to inform the final Customer Access Strategy.

The aim of the strategy is to shape how the Council will serve its customers in the years to come, and to define the projects and initiatives it needs to deliver in order to achieve its ambitions. We want local people to feel valued by their Council, trust us and have excellent customer experiences in their dealings with us, whatever channel they choose.

The Customer Access Strategy will set out how we will improve access to our services for our customers. We want to make dealing with the council as quick and easy as possible, making the best use of technology whilst working in a cost-effective way. We want customers to have the best possible experience when they use our services, and we recognise that people contact us in many ways – one size does not fit all.

This strategy will outline how we will develop a variety of access channels for our customers and continue to improve the quality and consistency of our services, outlining principles which will guide the design and delivery of services. Most of all though we want to commit to seeing customers as people and ensuring that systems work for them.

The draft Customer Access Strategy is our proposal for the channels we will use to deliver services to, and interact with, our customers. It explains how we will meet the contact demands of our customers using the resources we have available with the needs of the customer being our priority. It is also imperative that we continue to move forward with the digital changes needed to meet the needs of our customers. We recognise however that access to our services through digital means is not available to everyone, therefore we will ensure that customers can continue to contact us and receive our services face to face where necessary as we understand the importance of this for some customers.

The strategy sets out the context for the current work intended to make the Council easier to connect with for residents, visitors, businesses and other stakeholders. We want to put our customers at the heart of everything we do, reflecting their feedback in the design and delivery of services, and to provide appropriate support to those who need it, ensuring that customer experiences are easy, effective and convenient.

We would welcome any feedback you may have on the draft strategy which will help to shape and form the final document that will be adopted by the council.

You can give your feedback by completing this short survey.