Disability Action Centre (DAC) fact sheet Customer policy (serving customers who may have a disability) Purpose Royal Mail Group (RMG) has long recognised the varied nature of the communities and the customers it serves:- RMG has an important role to play by providing an accessible, excellent service to everyone. This policy explains how RMG seeks to meet the needs of its disabled customers. RMG believes it can best meet its obligations and best serve its disabled customers by not only fulfilling its legal responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) but also seeking to apply the spirit of the law. This document sets out RMG policy (in bold) together with the standards that underpin that policy. If you have any questions about either this policy or about any disability issues generally then please contact the help line; details are provided below. Policy RMG has a continuing commitment to diversity and to the delivery of excellent service. It will endeavour to make sure that its services are fully accessible as is reasonably possible. In the light of this, RMG will: Make sure that all of its employees are aware of their obligations under the DDA and that they understand the benefits of adopting a positive approach towards meeting the needs of RMG disabled customers. RMG will undertake periodic communication exercises to ensure that all employees are made aware of their legal obligations and are encouraged Royal Mail Disability Help line Telephone: 0114 241 4731 Fax: 0114 241 4534 Calls are welcome through RNID Type talk and BT Text Direct Email: dac@royalmail.com Website: www.royalmail.com/dac Page 1 of 4 (issue 12.2005) Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group plc. Registered number 4138203. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ to make all disabled customers feel welcome and to take account of their particular requirements when providing services to them. Train its employees to understand RMG's commitment to its disabled customers together with their legal obligations, including the need to make reasonable adjustments to enable access to its goods and services. Appropriate training will include details of the DDA, practical guidance that has been put together with input from disabled stakeholders and access to relevant policy documents and the Code of Practice. Provide disability awareness and disability etiquette training for all employees who have contact with customers. Appropriate training will be provided to ensure full understanding of how employees can best meet the needs of all disabled customers ensuring everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Appropriate training will be included from the induction stage onwards and opportunities will be provided for employees to develop additional disability related skills to help improve the level of customer service. Monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the policy. Monitoring will be carried out via a variety of methods such as analysing call centre data, conducting regular reviews following the introduction of new products and services, and obtaining independent customer feedback. Business units will work together on a continuous basis to review the policy and identify areas for further improvement. Deal with acts of disability discrimination by employees as part of disciplinary rules and procedures. Awareness, communication and training will be developed to ensure that employees understand how existing corrective and disciplinary procedures should be applied if ever the treatment of disabled customers falls short of that expected. Have a customer complaint procedure that is easy for disabled customers to use. Customer services team will act as a central point for customer complaints, collating and passing on the concerns of disabled customers to the appropriate part of the business. Full (and alternative) contact Royal Mail Disability Help line Telephone: 0114 241 4731 Fax: 0114 241 4534 Calls are welcome through RNID Type talk and BT Text Direct Email: dac@royalmail.com Website: www.royalmail.com/dac Page 2 of 4 (issue 12.2005) Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group plc. Registered number 4138203. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ details will be widely communicated and a record will be kept of all complaints and inquiries to make sure that concerns are acted upon and those lessons are learned. Regularly consult with disabled customers, disabled employees and disability organisations to check that services are accessible to disabled customers. Disabled customers and employees will be consulted, as part of any customer facing project and relationships will be maintained with key disability groups. Customer feedback from every source will be used to identify areas for improvement. Ensuring access for disabled customers to products and services and (where relevant) to premises will be included as an important aspect in all-existing projects and at any project launch stage. RMG will work to influence its suppliers at any point of contact to define our standards and to raise awareness of the needs of disabled customers. Regularly review the effectiveness of reasonable adjustments made for disabled customers. Where reasonable adjustments have been made they will be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain effective. We will act on the findings of such reviews as appropriate in order to maintain effective access to our goods and services. Provide regular relevant training to employees. RMG recognises both the need to provide reasonable solutions to allow its disabled customers to access its goods and services and also recognises the importance of telling its disabled customers about them in an accessible way (e.g. by a simple sign or notice at the entrance to premises or via publicity material). We also recognise that it is important to ensure that our employees are made aware of any such adjustments and are encouraged to adopt a flexible, common sense approach to finding and using satisfactory solutions to any problem faced by disabled customers. This approach will be included as part of any communication to customers. End Royal Mail Disability Help line Telephone: 0114 241 4731 Fax: 0114 241 4534 Calls are welcome through RNID Type talk and BT Text Direct Email: dac@royalmail.com Website: www.royalmail.com/dac Page 3 of 4 (issue 12.2005) Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group plc. Registered number 4138203. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ Whilst we endeavour to ensure the accuracy of information given in this fact sheet, it is intended for guidance only. Inclusion of supplier/organisation details does not imply Royal Mail Group plc approval. Any prices/terms/conditions must be confirmed direct with service provider. If you require this fact sheet in an alternative format, please contact the DAC via: Royal Mail Disability Help line Telephone: 0114 241 4731 Fax: 0114 241 4534 Calls are welcome through RNID Type talk and BT Text Direct Email: dac@royalmail.com Website: www.royalmail.com/dac Page 4 of 4 (issue 12.2005) Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group plc. Registered number 4138203. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ