Cheshire East Council has launched a public consultation on its first ever customer experience strategy and is asking residents and businesses to share their views.

The consultation, which begins today and will end on 15 January 2021, seeks to engage with residents and businesses to gain their views on the council's customer services.

The council says it wants to put customers at the heart of everything it does, with the consultation aiming to find out more about what a good experience should look like for different types of customers.

Many of the council's services are delivered in partnership with other organisations, such as central government and the health service, and the strategy also looks at how to join up with these services to provide value for money.

The strategy sets out the council's aims to:

• Work as one organisation to offer a clear and consistent experience for customers;

• Ensure staff have the knowledge, skills, capability and tools to deliver a positive experience, however and wherever a customer interacts with the council;

• Deliver what customers need at the first point of contact;

• Have clear information for customers to access on all services;

• Keep customers informed of progress and provide information which clearly sets out services, access routes and waiting times;

• Use innovative technology to support digital access to services, and;

• Provide value for money

Cllr Amanda Stott, cabinet member with responsibility for customer services, said: "With an estimated population of 384,000, Cheshire East is the third largest local authority in the North West, so it's really important that we understand our people.

"Our customers may not have a choice of councils to deal with, but that doesn't mean we can't strive to ensure their experience with us is consistently of a high quality, that we adapt to changing needs and respond to feedback when designing and delivering our services.

"I am really pleased with the work that has gone into this strategy – the first of its kind for Cheshire East. Thank you to staff who took time to share their views during the internal consultation – their feedback has helped to further develop areas of the strategy before we launched this public consultation.

"This strategy is a great starting point in transforming the experience our customers have with us for the better. I look forward to helping the council really drive this forward."

To have your say, find the consultation online here.