We regularly undertake mystery shops of our services to see how well we respond to the needs of our customers. The latest wave was carried out in late 2006 and a summary if results is below.

Summary
Telephone speed checks
In total there were 20 telephone speed checks.16 calls were answered within our Customer Charter standard. 2 calls were answered outside of our publicised target. 1 number dialled was a fax machine (this number was given incorrectly to the mystery shoppers) and the last number dialled was unobtainable. These results show a continuing trend in the adherence of speed of telephone answering in line with our Customer Charter standard. There is also encouragement that 14 out of the 18 calls answered were greeted with a Hello/good morning/afternoon, organisation, department name/ speakers name and how may I help you. Again this shows that staff are using the generic greeting and therefore leading to excellent satisfaction levels in the speed check results.

Handling the enquiry
We had some excellent feedback from the handling of enquiries within the sales department. Other good scores achieved were in some of the schemes and two enquiries within Housing. Of the calls handled well, the feedback stated that staff were, very polite and courteous. Staff were knowledgeable and gave additional information such as websites to visit or alternative contact numbers. Of the calls not handled well the staff members had a lack of awareness of service standards.

Recommendations
A recommendation was for officers taking calls to gather as much information about the enquiry as they can. This has been built into all staff development plans.