Our commitment to our customers:

  • We aim to provide the best possible service to our customers in an efficient, polite, professional , and timely manner.  

  • We will treat you with respect, be courteous and helpful, and, in return, we expect to be treated the same way.  

  • We will treat all people fairly and equally, regardless of age, gender, religion, political opinion, race, marital status, dependent status, sexual orientation, or ability/disability, in accordance with our equality duty under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.  

  • We will not ask you for personal information unless it is relevant to your enquiry.  

  • We will handle all information you provide confidentially and comply with data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation. We aim to provide the best possible service to our customers in an efficient, polite, professional and timely manner. 

Standards for Customer Contacts

We will:

  • Answer your call promptly (within 20 seconds).

  • Greet you appropriately (including providing a name).

  • Aim to provide you with contact details of the staff member who will deal with your enquiry. We will provide the option to leave a message or to speak to another staff member if the person is unavailable. 

  • Where we are unable to provide an immediate answer to a query, we will take all necessary details and call you back at the earliest opportunity

When you contact us by phone

Our working hours are 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, with a lunch break between 1 pm and 2 pm. Outside of these hours, calls will be forwarded to an answering machine.  

We will: 

  • Pick up messages daily and respond within 48 hours (sooner if possible!)

If we are unavailable, you will be directed to our answering machine 

When you write or email us

We aim to respond within 48 hours, except for occasions when the charity is closed.

We will: 

  • Supply names and contact details in letters and emails.   

  • Deal with correspondence via our website and emails sent to info@supportingcommunities.org within 5 working days, and wherever possible, as soon as possible upon receipt of your correspondence.  

  • Acknowledge queries on social media within 24 hours (during the working week) and fully respond to the query within 5 working days upon receipt.  

  • In cases where it is not possible to respond fully within 5 working days, we will send an acknowledgement, explain the reason for the delay and respond in full within 15 working days from receipt of your correspondence.  

All information you provide will be dealt with in confidence and in accordance with Data Protection law & GDPR. 

We will: 

  • Provide relevant, up-to-date information that is easy to read. 

  • Keep our website up to date and provide relevant online information that is easy to navigate, presented in an accessible format.  

  • Publish hard copy information where applicable and ensure the availability of all relevant material online.  

  • We will ensure our website is accessible and user-friendly. The accessibility widget (powered by AccessYes) is available on our website.  

Our information

We will:

  • Provide a customer feedback form on our website and acknowledge comments within 5 working days, and wherever possible, as soon as possible upon receipt.    

  • Produce, publish, and make available in print and online a clear and comprehensive Complaints Policy and Procedure. 

  • Acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to respond in full within 15 working days. (On occasion, additional response time may be necessary, but we will keep you informed along the way.)

  • Apologise where mistakes have been made and aim to put matters right as soon as possible. 

Comments and Complaints

We will:

  • Aim for at least an 85% satisfaction rate from our customers on a regular survey of our service standards.

  • Publish our customer service standards performance annually within our Annual Reports, commencing with Annual Report 2021/22.

  • Use our customer base to monitor our standards and use the feedback to improve service delivery.  This includes: 

    • Surveys sent by email to a random selection of recent customers each month

    • Feedback from our customers, such as NIHE, Housing Associations  

    • Training evaluations 

    • Customer Focus Groups 

Monitor Our Performance