The Municipality of Thames Centre aims to provide services with professionalism, transparency, and inclusivity to achieve high quality and service delivery standards. This customer service charter will ensure a consistent practice that reflects a commitment to municipal service excellence and accountability.
Who Are Our Customers
- Residents and Clients of all programs and services
- The public, including visitors to Thames Centre parks, trails and facilities
- Property owners, legal staff, real estate staff, local business, engineering firms and other consultants
- Key stakeholders from the agricultural, environmental and development communities
- Municipal, Provincial and Federal governments
- Members of Council and Staff
In Our Commitment To Our Customers, We Will...
- Provide customer service that is timely, welcoming and helpful
- Provide knowledgeable, professional and courteous service
- Treat customers with respect, fairness, patience, openness and equality
- Ensure it is easy and convenient to contact us
- Maintain customer confidentiality and abide by all privacy legislation
- Work to provide accessible services and to the provision of alternate formats consistent with the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service
- Ensure our customer service locations are accessible, safe and healthy environments
- Provide a clear process to manage and resolve issues
For Continuous Improvement, We Will...
- Ensure that all customers have the opportunity to provide feedback on the service received through a Thames Centre feedback form
- Review performance regularly, and provide an annual highlights report to our customers via our website
- Respond to all feedback (when required) if accompanied by contact information in a timely manner
- Continuously review our commitments and customer service standards on an annual basis
For Our Customer Service Standards We Will...
- Answer telephone calls in person whenever possible during office hours
- Outside of office hours, or when it is not possible to answer a call in person, ensure that messages are forwarded to appropriate staff within two business days
- Ensure all staff provide a courteous and accurate email/voicemail greeting indicating when they will be next available to respond to messages
- Acknowledge receipt of mail, voicemail and email generally within two business days
- Review Permit and Planning applications per Municipal and Provincial timelines, guidelines and regulations
- Keep customers informed of timelines and advise of potential delays
- Post notice of service disruptions on website, telephone system and social media channels
- Use plain language wherever possible, and provide more detail or explanation when asked
- Ensure posted tools online such as: procedures and guidelines, fee policies and schedules, maps, open data, technical checklists, requirements for all applications and requests are up to date and accurate
- Explain our processes and provide a time estimate on all work when possible
- Respect our customers’ time by keeping scheduled appointments, and strive to attend to general counter queries from customers without appointments
What We Expect From Our Customers
We ask that you please....
- Behave courteously towards our Members of Council, staff and our other customers
- Be respectful of posted rules including those regarding parking, entry fees, smoking, motorized vehicles, wildlife, pets, etc.
- Reach out to update contact information for invoices, billing, returned mail etc.
- Refrain from unwelcome verbal and/or physical actions including profanity and attempts at coercion
- Refrain from engaging in any act that gives rise to the concern for personal or public safety
What We Expect From Customers Applying For Licenses, Permits and Planning Approvals
- Active participation in pre-consultation meetings
- Provide quality technical submissions and complete applications to avoid delay in processing
- Respond and provide outstanding review requirements in a timely manner
- Commitment from applicants to close permits and provide updates on changes