Michael Ring
Question:373 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will instruct all employees of his Department that when they sign their names to correspondence, the name be printed also below. [24908/01]
Written Answers. - Departmental Employees.
Under a Government decision in July 2000 Departments and offices were required to commit their organisations to principles of quality customer service. One of these is "Timeliness and Courtesy". Included in this principle is the requirement to "give contact names in all communications to ensure ease of ongoing transactions". This example of good customer service has been a feature of our approach for some years now. The most recent reiteration of this can be found in my Department's customer action plan 2001-04 which was published in May 2001. The plan includes our commitment to quality customer service "What You Can Expect From Us". On the subject of correspondence, we state that "we will ensure that all letters and e-mails will carry a legible contact name and telephone number". This commitment can be seen in leaflet and poster form in our local and public offices. The provision of high quality correspondence to our customers is featured in a number of our staff training programmes. In particular, this issue is an integral element of our customer service training programme which has been delivered to more than 2,500 staff who deal with the public.