Public protection customer focus group
Contact officer: Nick Willasey, emergency planning manager
Tel: 0151 225 6003
Email: Nick.Willasey@liverpool.gov.uk
Start date: 5 September 2007
End date: 5 September 2007
Purpose of the exercise:
This exercise sought the views on various initiatives including, a new customer charter, the night noise team, changes to the enforcement automatic email response and 'scores on the doors'
Who was consulted and how:
Previous users of the service were consulted via a focus group
Who were the results of the exercise reported to:
The results were reported to the Public Protection division's business management team
What were the findings of the exercise and the changes to the service brought about as a result of the consultation:
The draft customer charter
- You said - 'less jargon' and more plain English, especially in the 'services in more detail' section
We said - okay and we will be looking at the content before publicising the charter - You said - information on the services we provide should be at the beginning
We said - okay, so the charters first page will have a list of the services and teams within our division - You said - the name of the manager for each team was not necessary
We said - okay, but have kept in the name of our divisional manager, Andy Hull and his photograph - You said - make it more clear that the phone lines are staffed and therefore not just an automatic response service
We said - okay and changed the wording to. "If you telephone outside of our opening hours, your details will be taken by an advisor and forwarded to the relevant team. We will then call you back during office hours" - You said - add office opening hours to the contact section as it was not clear what our office opening hours were
We said - okay and have now added this to the contact section - You said - the 'services in more details' section was too long-winded and that the information on the services provided was not always clear
We said - okay and have taken this section out of the copy that will be produced in leaflet form for distribution to the public. We are keeping this section in the copy that will be available to view on the Environmental Health and Trading Standards websites and we will be looking at the content before it is made public to make sure the information provided is clear - You said - include a section for frequently asked questions to the service
We said - this is a good idea and will consider including this as a section in the copy to be published on the Environmental Health and Trading Standards websites - You said - include a section that gives the contact details for services that customers mistakenly come to us for, especially Environmental Services, refuse collection and anti-social behaviour noise complaints
We said - this is a good idea and will consider including this as a section in the copy to be published on the Environmental Health and Trading Standards websites - You said - we should look at distributing the charter leaflet through supermarkets and the free newspaper circulations, but did not think doctors' surgeries were relevant
We said - we would approach the supermarket chains to ask for this service, but have decided to still consider doctors' surgeries as a good opportunity to reach customers who may wish to use our services
New Night Noise team
- You made a number of comments on the new Night Noise team, suggesting a later start and finish, the 'key holder' term to be changed to 'contact details' and the response time should be looked at
We said we are going to monitor this new service during its first six months and then will review standards and response times, possibly at another focus group meeting in 2008. We are using the term 'contact' rather than key holder in our publicity.
'Scores On The Doors'
- You all agreed that the 'Scores on the Doors' website was a good service
We were very pleased with your response and will continue to increase the availability of additional information relating to our division on this website
Trading Standards automatic email response
- You said - change the second paragraph to take into account consumers
We said - okay and have now changed it
You said - can the original email be returned with the automatic response as an attachment
We said - this was a good idea and raised it with our Information Technology section. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office does not allow us to do this