WOKINGHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL exists to serve residents and the community, and their satisfaction is key to that.
That’s the view of Cllr Gregor Murray, the executive member for resident services, communications and emissions at Wokingham Borough Council.
He was speaking in response to a question asked at the virtual meeting of the council’s executive committee, held on Thursday, November 26.
Cllr Gary Cowan pointed to agenda item 50, which focuses on customer satisfaction. He quoted from the report: “Evaluating the customer journey in this way will help to understand strengths and weaknesses in ways of working, and actions that need to be taken to improve” and wanted to know how councillors would be involved and “how will that improvement manifest itself publicly?”
Cllr Murray said: “Gathering feedback from residents, either directly, or via their elected representatives, will enable us to better understand their reasons for contacting us and help us to better redesign either our service provision or our channels of communication to better meet the needs of our customers.
“We would welcome comments and input from members around this voice of the customer project. Cllr Jim Frewin has already been in contact with officers and has volunteered his help and career expertise in this area, which has been greatly appreciated so far. If other members wish to offer their insight or expertise, then I will gratefully receive it.“
He added that the project was hoped to make it easier for residents to contact the council, and find help “more quickly”.
And Cllr Murray promised that once the new customer service strategy is ready to be delivered, it would be presented to the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee for a formal discussion by councillors.
He added: “Customer service is an ongoing thing … it needs to be at the heart of everything that we do. It’s an ongoing prerogative of every (councillor) that if they’ve got an idea of how we can improve our customer service, I want to hear it.”
