The council has unveiled a new service standard for the way it deals with phone calls, emails and visits from the public. Councillor Paul Osborn, Harrow’s portfolio holder for communication, said all organisations used jargon to some degree but councils were seen as being among the worst offenders. “We are now working to ensure that council terms, which can include all sorts of baffling acronyms, don’t get used when we talk to the public. Our residents want to hear plain speaking and that is what we’ll deliver,” he said.
The council will use national Customer Care Week to set out the standard of service local people can expect in future. The pledges were agreed after the authority asked a panel of residents about their experiences of dealing with the council. As well as using the new plain English terms staff will be expected to answer 90 per cent of telephone calls within five rings, or 30 seconds, e-mails will be acknowledged within 24 hours and personal callers to council offices will be seen within 15 minutes.