Managing Customer Relations Policy

Whilst we understand that some customers may act out of character in times of trouble or distress, we are also clear that our staff do not have to tolerate unacceptable or abusive behaviour.

The officer interacting with the customer

Staff members who directly experience aggressive, offensive, abusive, or unreasonable behaviour or actions from an individual have the right to deal immediately with this behaviour either by:

• removing themselves from the situation
• ending the call after a polite warning has been given
• asking the individual to leave the premises
• not replying to an abusive email, letter, or social media comment

To understand whether the incident is a one-off or circumstantial, or repetitive, staff will add information about the incident onto the staff warning register and inform their manager.

The officer can consult their manager for support logging the incident on B-Safe the council’s Health and Safety system, and in the meantime, should maintain an accurate record of the incident.

The manager in consultation with the Head of Service

When a member of staff reports unreasonable behaviour on B-Safe and to their manager, the manager will consider several different aspects:

• unreasonable behaviour or actions can present in letters, telephone calls, face to face interactions and on social media - in some incidences, the customer will behave unreasonably whilst engaging with the council in one way but behave reasonably in other ways
• the circumstances leading to the incident
• whether the customer is known to the council, by reviewing B-Safe
• whether it is known that the interaction was with a disabled customer, including hidden disabilities, that might result in a need for further support

Having considered the different aspects, the manager will consider next steps, which could include no further action, or continue to monitor by reviewing the records on B-Safe.

In the event of consistent or extreme unreasonable demands, behaviour or actions or aggressive and abusive behaviour, we might need to limit the contact a customer has with a specific member of staff or with the council as a whole.

We consider any decision to restrict contact with us very carefully and any action we take will always seek to be reasonable and proportionate.

Before we take any action to limit a customer’s contact with us, the manager will tell them that their conduct is a concern to us, giving them the opportunity to change the behaviour or actions.

Also see

• Customer service standards
• Our customer centre
• The Council Plan