Customer Charter

Name: TDA
Address: Tor Hill House, Union Street, Torquay, Devon, TQ2 5QW
Telephone: 01803 926310

This document can be made available in other languages and formats. For more information please telephone 01803 208973

Our Customer Charter

TDA is committed to building excellent relationships with customers, clients and external partners and to the continuous improvement of the services we provide. This Charter sets out the quality of the service you can expect from us.

Mission Statement

Our purpose is to be a leading provider of property and business services, valuing people and place.

Our commitment to you

We value our customers, clients and colleagues and treat others with respect and integrity. All staff of the organisation will accept responsibility and accountability for their actions.

We believe in treating every customer as an individual, therefore we are committed to providing effective and efficient services in a professional manner. We have a commitment to provide services free from discrimination on the grounds of ethnic or social origin, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or nationality.

As one of our customers you can expect:

To be dealt with promptly and efficiently
To be treated with respect and courtesy
To enjoy a safe, clean and healthy environment at our premises
To be able to give feedback on our services by making suggestions, comments and/or complaints
To keep your data secure as set out in Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR

Standards of Service

As part of our commitment to a high standard of customer care we aim to do the following:

Respond to customer telephone calls in a timely and courteous manner
When it is not possible to transfer you to the right place we will take a message, or give you the correct number to telephone; alternatively we will provide you with an e-mail address
Answer your letter, fax or email within 5 working days of receiving it
Include in our reply: the name, email address, direct line telephone and fax number of the person replying to your letter, and our full address
Reply to your letter clearly, concisely and courteously and in plain English, avoiding jargon, abbreviations and acronyms wherever we can
If we think it will take more than 5 working days to reply to your letter, we will let you know we have received it and tell you how long it will take to provide a full reply
Acknowledge e-mails sent via our website within two working days
Ensure that employees are trained to help or give advice, or put you in touch with the right person to answer your query
Ensure that staff remain courteous and helpful and make every effort to explain things clearly and in terms you understand, keeping jargon to a minimum
Ensure our premises are clean, welcoming, safe and tidy for all of our visitors
Treat all of our customers fairly
Use customer feedback to review and improve our services

Visiting us

If you have an appointment and are unfamiliar with our location, we will give you a location map and directions. We will also give all visitors to our offices a contact name and telephone number. If you require special access, we will make the necessary arrangements.

When you arrive at our office you will be greeted at reception and shown to your meeting within five minutes of the time of your appointment, or informed if there has been an unavoidable delay. In the event of an emergency, the person you are meeting will be responsible for ensuring your safe evacuation from the building.

If you don’t have an appointment our reception staff will contact the appropriate team to help you.

If you need privacy we’ll arrange a suitable quiet room.

If we have to cancel a meeting we’ll do our very best to give you at least 24 hours’ notice unless there are exceptional circumstances which prevent this.

What we expect from our customers

We expect that our customers will be on time for appointments we arrange, or let us know if they are delayed or unable to attend
We expect that our customers will treat us with respect
While recognising the importance of good customer service, we also recognise that there will be occasions when customer behaviour is unacceptable
TDA will not tolerate harassment, threats or assaults. If a customer calls or visits us and behaves in a threatening or abusive way, or uses threatening or abusive language, we may terminate the telephone call or ask them to leave the office. If a customer writes to us using threatening or abusive language we may not reply to the letter
TDA has a duty of care to protect staff from abuse from members of the public. Where appropriate, the TDA will take legal action to protect staff from persistent harassment, threats of violence or violence

Customer Feedback

TDA will:

record your comments, complaints or compliments and use them to improve our services
deal with any complaints in line with our complaints procedure (see below)
treat all complaints seriously and confidentially, whilst remaining fair to all concerned
apologise when we are wrong and do our best to put things right

If you have any comments or suggestions for improvements please contact us.

Complaints Procedure

TDA has a three stage complaint process to ensure that if you are unhappy with the response we give you in Stage 1, you can ask more senior staff to consider the issue again in Stages 2 and 3.

Stage 1: You should first take up your complaint informally and directly with the person with whom you have been in contact. You can express your dissatisfaction in person or by letter, fax, e-mail or telephone. You will be asked if you want a formal response. If you do, you can expect a written or email reply from us within five working days.

Stage 2: If you are not satisfied with the response you should then write to your first contact’s manager setting out your complaint clearly and in detail. We will acknowledge your letter as soon as possible setting out how we will deal with your complaint. We make every effort to deal fully with all complaints within 20 working days.

Stage 3: If you are still not satisfied with our explanation you can write to the Chief Executive TDA. You will receive a full response within a further 10 working days.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01803 926310
By letter: TDA, Tor Hill House, Union Street, Torquay TQ2 5QW

Our lines are open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday (9am to 4pm on Fridays), except during public holidays. Outside of these hours, you will be able to leave a recorded message. All answer-phone messages left outside of these hours will be dealt with as soon as possible the following working day.