Customer promise

When you contact us we will work to:

Phone and live chat

• Respond as quickly as possible by phone - this does depend on how many people are calling us at any one time. Our lines are usually very busy first thing on a Monday morning (or Tuesday after a bank holiday) and at lunchtimes, so please be aware you may have a short wait at these times. 
• Respond within 2 minutes on live chat, available during working hours.
• Be courteous, caring and clear in our how we speak and write - free from jargon and buzz words.
• If we take something away to deal with, we will keep you updated of progress in a timely manner.

WhatsApp

• When you WhatsApp us we will get back to you by the end of the working day if you message us before 4pm, although we do aim to respond within two hours.
• For messages sent after 4pm or outside working hours, we’ll respond on the next working day.
• Our responses will be courteous, caring and we will be clear in our writing - free from jargon and buzz words.
• Please be aware that we won’t discuss confidential or sensitive matters over WhatsApp. If needed, we will call you to address those issues.

Emails 

• Our response to emails differs between departments:
  • emails sent to revenues@lichfielddc.gov.uk, benefits@lichfielddc.gov.uk will be responded to immediately through a bounce back response. This will set out the timescale in which customers can expect a full response. We will work to get you a response as quickly as possible, however our response times may differ depending on the time of year, the current case load and resources. 
  • emails sent to enquiries@lichfielddc.gov.uk will be responded to within one working day, however this may include us informing you that your enquiry has been passed to a department to respond to. Response times thereafter will differ depending on the department's case load and capacity.
• Our responses will be courteous, caring and we will be clear in our writing - free from jargon and buzz words.
• If a response requires significant investigation, we will keep you updated of progress in a timely manner.

Queries passed to our service teams

Whilst we try to resolve the majority of customer queries at first point of contact through our customer services team, we may pass your query to our service teams and ask them to respond to you. Equally you may contact a service team directly, either by email or telephone.

When your query is handled by our service team, our response times will differ - this will depend on time of year, case load and availability of staff (for example if you email an officer direct and they are on leave, you should receive an automatic bounceback telling you who else you can contact in their absence if possible, but if they are part of a very small team, you may not receive a full response until their return). 

All our service teams aim to acknowledge emails either immediately (with a bounce back telling you when you can expect a full response) or within five working days, again letting you know when you can receive a full response.

As standard, you can expect full responses within the following timeframes:

Letters (non evidence)

• We discourage people sending letters to us, as they take longer to arrive, longer to process and there is always a risk of them not arriving to us.
• We encourage customers to contact us via LiveChat, WhatsApp, online (via our single form), email or telephone, before sending us a letter.
• If you do send us a letter, we will endeavour to get it to the responsible team as soon as possible, however response times will vary. 

Letters/evidence 

• If you need to send us evidence please do not send us original documents (unless we have explicitly asked you to do so).
• We are unable to return originals and are very happy to accept clear photocopies or photographs - either hard copy or digital.
• Homeless case evidence can be emailed to housingoptions@lichfielddc.gov.uk
• Housing register evidence can be emailed to ldhenquiries@lichfielddc.gov.uk
• Council tax and business rates evidence can be emailed to revenues@lichfielddc.gov.uk
• Benefits evidence can be emailed to benefits@lichfielddc.gov.uk
• Other evidence can be emailed to enquiries@lichfielddc.gov.uk 

Face-to-face

• Aim to greet customers within five minutes of arriving.
• Be courteous, caring and clear when speaking to you - free from jargon and buzz words.
• Provide a welcoming, safe and accessible environment.
• Provide clear signs in reception areas.
• Be on time, or let you know if we will be delayed.
• Carry official staff photo passes.
• Arrange to discuss issues in private if required.
• Where appropriate, make other arrangements to see you if they cannot visit us.
• If we take something away to deal with, we will keep you updated of progress in a timely manner.
• Offer additional support including SignLive and support for hidden disabilities. 

Visiting you

• Be on time, or let you know if we will be delayed.
• Be courteous, caring and clear when speaking to you - free from jargon and buzz words.
• Carry official staff photo passes.
• If we take something away to deal with, we will keep you updated of progress in a timely manner.

Complaints and compliments

• Make it easy to report a complaint, comment or compliment - find out how to send us a complaint or compliment.
• Acknowledge all complaints immediately and provide a full response within 20 working days, or let customers know when we will respond in full - read our complaints policy.
• Treat complaints confidentially, while making sure we are fair to everyone concerned.
• Let you know how to take your complaint further if you are not satisfied with our response.
• Say sorry when we are at fault and do our very best to put things right.
• Record complaints, comments and compliments and use them to review and improve our services - read our annual report.

Find out how to contact and visit us.