Customer Services

Outline

The Comhairle has committed to setting up a Customer Service function to deal with customer contacts for a range of services through face to face contact, by phone and online.

The Customer Service project is part of the Scottish Executive’s Customer First initiative and has been developed as part of the national Modernising Government and Best Value agenda.

Services will be delivered through a new Access Point in Stornoway Town Hall and through the Comhairle’s existing Area Offices.  There will also be local Access points based in Community Areas throughout the islands

The Scottish Executive expects that all public services should be available online wherever possible.  This will be a key component of the Customer Service project along with the ability to pay bills and request services. Benefits that will arise from the project will include:

• Quicker and more reliable responses to customer queries throughout the Comhairle;
• A single point of contact for a range of services at times more convenient to the customer
• The ability to measure the effectiveness of our service delivery.

The project contributes to the following Comhairle’s strategic objectives

• Establishing Service Access Points across the Communities
• Ensuring that all citizens of the Western Isles have access to and are aware of core services
• Making more use of IT to improve the delivery of services
• Providing customer focused and friendly services