This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Improving customer service
19/05/2005
The Accounts Commission report Improving Customer
Service Through Better Customer Contact was published
today.
Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform Tom
McCabe said:
"I believe that customer focused services will result in
better public services for the people of Scotland. I
welcome the progress and improvements councils have made in
modernising their services and urge them to continue the
modernisation process.
"These improvements are an important part of our public
service modernisation agenda. They also take forward our
Efficient Government agenda by delivering savings which can
be ploughed into frontline services.
"I would like to highlight those 24 councils across
Scotland that are now operating contact centres and first
stop shops. In fact I launched a fine example of this in
East Dunbartonshire earlier this week where the commitment
to providing a first class service to their customers was
plain to see. I would like to see this type of service
replicated in every council in Scotland.
"The Executive has shown its commitment to customer
focused services through supporting the Customer First
strategy and by investing substantial resources in local
authority service improvements through the Modernising
Government Fund. This underpins our pledge to deliver more
convenient and responsive public services, encourage the
take-up of online access to services and ensure that at
least 75 per cent of core service requests can be dealt
with at the first point of contact."
The Executive is sponsoring the 'Customer First'
strategy with £34.55 million of funding from the third
round of the Modernising Government Fund (MGF).
The programme will be managed under the direction of the
new Improvement Service and was developed in partnership
with councils to consolidate and take work forward from the
first two rounds of the MGF.
Customer First sets specific targets for improvements in
customer services. The primary objective is to deliver
public services at first contact, with citizens having a
choice on how they transact with local authority services,
via the telephone, face to face, online or at home.