Customer Service Statement

Purpose

The Swimming Teachers’ Association is committed to an efficient, responsive, and supportive service for all our customers and wherever possible to exceed customer expectations.

The Swimming Teachers’ Association seeks to be consultative and collaborative working with employers, industry bodies and customers to achieve the highest standards in all areas.

We are continually working to achieve a high level of service by maintaining quality assurance standards which are compliant with regulatory requirements. We take every care to ensure we are delivering a high standard of service but are aware that there may be occasions that we do not meet both yours and our expectations, in this instance please raise your concerns with us immediately so we can address them, respond positively, and rectify any mistakes made. Please review our Complaints Policy on our website or you can request a copy by contacting us.

Policy

The Swimming Teachers’ Association aims to:

• We will provide products and services which support the overall charitable objectives of STA and meet the needs of our customers and the leisure industry as a whole
• We are committed to continual improvement, identifying, and sharing good practices
• We are committed to listen and respond positively to all customers, aiming to answer all their needs without passing them on to multiple advisors
• We are committed to delivering reliable information always and will remain competitive with the industry
• We will provide a courteous and accurate response to all customer enquiries, including those with specific areas of expertise and for customers to feel they have had a positive experience receiving the answers/information they requested
• We aim to ensure all our products and services are delivered efficiently and are of the highest standards.

Customer Enquiries

• We aim to deliver a personal service to our customers whenever you contact us with an enquiry. When you speak to an advisor they endeavour to resolve your query first time, or will take responsibility for making sure they source the correct information for you. If this is the case the advisor will keep you informed of the progress on a regular basis
• We aim to answer the telephone within 12 seconds when you contact us
• If you contact us via email we aim to respond to your enquiry within 5 working days
• If we receive correspondence from you by letter we aim to respond to your enquiry within 7 working days of receipt providing your contact details have been included.

Zero Tolerance

We are committed to dealing with all customers fairly and consistently, including those whose actions we consider to be unacceptable. We believe that all our customers have a right to be heard, understood, and respected. Our aim is to provide an accessible service for all and will make every effort to accommodate the needs of our customers.

This policy details how we are committed to treating our customers in a fair and positive way whilst managing actions that may result in unreasonable demands on our services or on our staff. The unacceptable behaviour of customers can sometimes make it difficult for us to deal with the issue or complaint in question.

This policy is required to address a very limited number of cases where actions become unacceptable which could lead to abuse of our staff, may cause a delay in fulfilling other tasks and prevent us from providing a service to other customers.

The policy explains how we may deal with unacceptable behaviour, this will ensure we can protect our staff and continue to provide a quality service to our customers.

We will not tolerate any form of unacceptable behaviour during any form of contact, this could be as follows:

• Face to face contact
• During a telephone conversation
• Contact via email or live chat on our website.

Unacceptable behaviour can be as follows:

• Aggressive or abusive behaviour
• Unreasonable demands
• Unreasonable levels of contact
• Unreasonable use of the complaints process.

We will take the following actions when appropriate:

• If a customer becomes aggressive or physically violent towards staff, we will report this matter to the police and will cease all communications with that person
• When a customer behaves in an unacceptable manner towards a member of staff, a warning letter will be issued explaining that their behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated, our records will be updated accordingly
• If the unacceptable behaviour continues after a warning letter has been issued by us, this will be reviewed by our senior management team and may lead to a suspension. If a suspension is put in place this will be reviewed on a quarterly basis. However, this can be shortened if we feel that the behaviour has changed in such a way that the restrictions are no longer appropriate. If the customer continues to behave in an unacceptable manner the restrictions can be extended for a further three months.

Monitoring and Review

This policy and its procedures will be reviewed regularly for improvements as part of our quality assurance requirements. This will ensure it is fit for purpose, reflects the services we deliver to our customers and we provide services which are relevant to the requirements of individual needs. Regular reviews will ensure that we are adhering to our quality policy statement.

Contact details for The Swimming Teachers’ Association are as follows:

Tel: +44 (0)1922 645097
Email: info@sta.co.uk

If your enquiry is in respect of orders for products then this should be addressed to: orders@sta.co.uk