Putting people at the heart of everything we do

Wokingham Borough Council is asking residents for their views on its draft Customer Experience Strategy.

Despite the challenges the council faces, it is ambitious, committed to and passionate about delivering improvements to the customer experience across the whole organisation as well as striving for fully accessible and efficient services.

The draft strategy sets out a vision that puts our community at the heart of everything the council does, providing the best possible experience for residents, whoever they are and however they make contact. Using customer feedback to change the way the council works is also key to the strategy.

This new strategy supports the strategic outcomes in the council plan.  Its ambition is to get the basics right and improve the experiences customers have when they interact with the council. Customers told the council what they feel is important to them, this includes:

• Feel listened to
• Are able to get what they need
• Trust in the council to spend money wisely
• Feel valued as a customer

Working with customers

The draft strategy has been shaped in partnership with customers, residents and partners such as the voluntary sector, community groups, town and parish councils, youth council and colleagues across the council.  To gather feedback, the council has used surveys as well as facilitated sessions and workshops with these key stakeholders.

Following the experiences customers said they wanted, the draft strategy addresses three key areas of focus the council plans to deliver:

• Being insight driven - Putting people at the heart of our services by listening to what they tell us, so the council can better understand customer needs and priorities
• Being outcome focused - Making sure services deliver value for money, and are designed to help customers achieve the right outcomes
• Continuously improving - Getting the basics right and use customer feedback to inform service design in line with changing customer needs and expectations

Setting our vision and ambitions

Cllr Sarah Kerr, executive member for climate emergency and resident services, said: “We know that our residents have inconsistent customer experiences when they interact with us. There are pockets of excellence but it is not replicated across the whole organisation.

"This strategy sets out our vision and ambitions around improving it and ensuring we have a consistent experience for all. We recognise the diversity of the communities we serve and want to build strong relationships with them and understand their needs and priorities.

“The work we have carried out over the past year with key stakeholders has provided some useful information to help us shape the draft strategy. They told us what matters to them and the things that make a difference to how they feel about their overall experience.

"We have used this insight to set out what we need to achieve and what we will do to get there. The promises within our Customer Charter underpin the strategy alongside some key principles – listen more, take steps to understand our communities needs and act on feedback so we continuously improve.”

Take the survey

At its meeting on 29 June, the borough council’s decision-making executive agreed to consult on the draft Customer Experience Strategy. From Monday 3 July, you can give your views on the draft strategy. 

Visit the council's Engage Wokingham website to take the survey.

The survey is open until 16 August 2023.

The council has also created an easy read version of the strategy.

Cllr Kerr added: “We welcome comments on all aspects of the draft strategy and I urge you to complete the survey.”