News: Customer Service/Care
Review team to identify room for customer care improvement
11 September 2008
Tesco's customer care expertise is being utilised as part of the government's aim to deliver "excellent" public-sector services, a move likely to drive the implementation of thorough customer service training.
Communities secretary Hazel Blears alluded to a current lack in customer service know-how among local authorities as she laid out plans to create a review team, featuring representatives from the National Consumer Council and Ipsos Mori as well as the retail giant.
"Even the best businesses sometimes give their customers problems. It is the quality of solutions which truly define customer care," observed David Cook, the chief executive of Kettering borough council and chair of the new Redress Review Team.
Councils have become highly attuned to the needs and wants of their inspectors, he added, but "perhaps less so" to the demands of customers.
"Now we have an opportunity to put the customer back at the heart of our business."
David North, Tesco's community and government director, commented that his firm puts customers "at the very heart" of its business.
The creation of the review team comes on the heels of news that Lambeth and Westminster councils are sending their traffic wardens to customer service training seminars to improve the profession's image and help motorists.
