Standards and Performance

We are committed to continuous improvement, set ourselves challenging targets and monitor our performance on a regular basis. The following are the overall standards we aim to achieve, together with specific standards for business rates:

Overall Service Standards

• We aim to answer 95% of all telephone calls between 8:45 am and 5:15 pm, 80% of them within 15 seconds.
• We aim to answer 95% of your letters within 10 working days.
• When answering the telephone, we will give our name and the name of the section.
• When answering correspondence, we will use language that is easy to read and understand and provide details of a named contact or contact point.
• We will use customers' complaints, compliments and suggestions as a way of improving the service.
• We aim to be fair, polite and helpful.
• We aim to provide a level of service that meets our customers' needs, but if we make a mistake we will apologise and give priority to putting it right.
• We will not make promises we cannot keep.
• We will keep under continual review the training and development requirements of our staff.

Business Rates Service Standards

• For 2008/2009 we aim to collect 98.9% of the business rates due within the current year thereby achieving an above average collection rate in comparison with other local authorities.
• We aim to process 90% of all applications for charitable and discretionary relief within 10 working days.
• Where there has been a change of circumstances, e.g. you have moved business, we aim to send a bill within 10 working days of receiving all the relevant information in 90% of cases.

There may be occasions during times of peak workload when we are not able to meet our aims. We aim to manage our resources as effectively as possible to keep such delays to a minimum. We monitor our performance and our results for 2007/2008 are set out below:-

Performance 2007/2008

Business Rates

• Business Rates collected 98.63%, against a target of 99.1%
• Direct Debit take-up 51.12% of all payers, target 53%

Overall

• Percentage of telephones answered 84.22%, against a target of 95%
• Telephones answered within 15 seconds 96.51%, against a target of 80%
• Correspondence answered within 10 working days 82.56%, against a target of 95%
• Amendments leading to new or revised bills within 10 working days 75.71%, against a target of 90%
• Applications for reliefs and discounts within 10 working days 98.86%, against a target of 90%