Service Standards

Information about the our Customer Charter and Service Standards.

The CRC has held a Customer Service Excellence award since 2019.

Customer Charter

Customer Focus

We will communicate in a friendly, positive and professional manner.
We are committed to meeting your needs to the highest possible standard.
We are committed to providing inclusive, accessible and welcoming services in-person and online.
We will hold your personal information in the strictest confidence.

Always Improving

We welcome all feedback, concerns and suggestions and use these in the development of our services.
We always examine ways to improve the service we provide and rectify any mistakes so they do not happen again.
Our collections are open to all and we are dedicated to making them more accessible and inclusive through continuous focused improvement.

What we ask of you

You show courtesy to our staff and other users.
Help us protect our collections by following handling guidelines and staff instruction on the care of our collections.
Help us to improve by giving us your views and suggestions.

Service Standards

During 2023/24 and 2024/25 there has been significant increase in demand for our services, including enquiries and teaching with collections requests, with overall access to our collections increasing by over 100%. This has resulted in challenges in meeting our service standards for certain requests, for example responding to research enquiries. We will continue to review our service standards and performance as we strive to meet your needs.

If you have any feedback, please use our Feedback Form.

Results

Standard	2023/24	2022/23
1. Email enquiries receive an acknowledgment response within 1 working day.	100%	100%
2. 85% of enquiries receive a full response within 30 working days.	100%	97%
3. 85% of digitisation enquiries are scoped within 30 working days.	TBC	TBC
4. We will provide excellent service and professional expertise when facilitating academic teaching with our collections.	New service - N/A	N/A
5. We will provide a friendly, positive and professional service.	100%	100%
6. We are committed to meeting your needs to the highest possible standard.	99%	100%
7. We are committed to providing inclusive, accessible and welcoming services in-person and online.	91.5%	100%

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You Said, We Did

Please could evening opening hours be extended to include vacation periods

We revised our opening hours so that evening opening hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays are now year-round.

It would be good to have a listed catalogue so that you don't need to know what you are looking for, but can look through archive collections relevant to your research

The Archives Team created a new webpage that allows users to explore the collections thematically, and provides a list of key collections with links to the full catalogue records.

Please allow water inside the Reading Room or at least have a water fountain

Unfortunately we cannot allow water in the reading room due to the risk to collections, however we have now installed a water fountain near the CRC reception area so that users have easy access to drinking water.

It is frustrating when collections are closed due to data protection legislation or I have to wait for decision about accessing potentially sensitive material

Heritage Collections staff have an obligation to protect personal data of living persons that may be contained in our archives. However, we have now implemented new systems that allow for a more efficient screening process that means we can confirm open / closure information for researchers more quickly. The changes have included:

Introduction of a Duty Archivist system that means there is dedicated resource each week to look at requests for material screened under data protection.
More comprehensive screening records to allow user services staff to provide accurate advice about whether a collection is accessible.
Introduction of new procedures for individuals undertaking research projects that takes in to consideration the researcher's ethical duties.
A new Protected Access webpage with UK GDPR and Copyright fact sheets to make our decisions more transparent.

All processes are approved by the University's Data Protection Officer and abide by the University's policy.

Why can't we find everything on DiscoverEd?

We frequently find that users are searching for archive and manuscript items on DiscoverEd. These are catalogued using an archives cataloguing platform and can be searched online: https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/

When I first went to the CRC, it can feel a bit daunting if you haven’t been before

We know that research libraries can sometimes be intimidating spaces for new users, therefore we have made changes to make our reception areas more welcoming. We have installed comfortable seating to invite you to linger and updated our gallery wall and exhibition cases for you to explore. Free postcards and leaflets with images and information about our collections and services are available. We’ve also created a number of pre-arrival resources, including Sensory Maps and Visual Guides, to give you an idea of what to expect before you arrive.

I’m frustrated with lack of access to the School of Scottish Studies Archives streamer service due to my working hours and limited service times

We extended our streamer service appointment days from Tuesday-Thursday to Tuesday-Friday to make it more accessible.

How we listen to our users

Throughout the academic year, we use a variety of tools and techniques to gain insight and understanding to help us improve our services. The main methods are outlined below:

Method	Frequency	Purpose
User Feedback Form	Constant	Gain detailed understanding and feedback regarding all in-person and remote services across our sites.
Teaching with Collections Feedback Form	Twice yearly	Gain detailed understanding and feedback from our academic staff of their experience of using our Teaching with Collections service.
Customer Experience Research	Once a year	Such as, Customer Journey Mapping or Mystery Shopper exercises. This allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of our users. The process involves setting a series of tasks and receiving feedback on how those tasks were completed, and how the experience could have been improved.
Working Groups	Constant	Focused evaluation and improvement of our services through staff-led working groups focused on Accessibility and Diversifying Audiences. Activities include staff workshops, training, audits, and internships.
Complaints	Constant	We provide clear information on our Complaints Handling Procedure and how to submit a complaint.
Exhibition Evaluation Forms	Per Exhibition	We invite visitors to the Exhibition Gallery to complete evaluation forms about their visitor experience. This evidence contributes to future exhibitions planning.
Project & Strategy Consultation	Per Project / Strategy	For specific projects or strategic reviews, we undertake intensive consultation with relevant individuals in the form of interviews and surveys.

Success Measures

Email enquiries receive an acknowledgment response within 1 working day.	In April 2019 our enquiries system moved to Unidesk, ensuring that all enquiries receive an automated response with information that may be of use.
85% of enquiries receive a full response within 30 working days.	Quarterly reporting through Unidesk will provide details of the rate of success, with annual results published online.
85% of digitisation enquiries are scoped within 30 working days.	A sample of turnaround times over a period of three months each year will be measured against this element.
We will provide excellent service and professional expertise when facilitating academic teaching with our collections.	>85% of responses select ‘Fairly Satisfied’ or ‘Very Satisfied’ in user surveys relating to Teaching with Collections.
We will provide a friendly, positive and professional service.	>85% of responses select ‘Very Satisfied’ in user surveys relating to ‘Availability of our staff’, ‘Attitude of staff’
We are committed to meeting your needs to the highest possible standard.	>85% of responses select ‘Very Satisfied’ in user surveys relating to ‘Quality of staff’s advice’
We are committed to providing inclusive, accessible and welcoming services in-person and online.	>85% of responses select ‘Very Satisfied’ in user surveys relating to access and facilities.
We will hold your personal information in the strictest confidence.	GDPR Privacy Notices and retention schedules.
We welcome all feedback, concerns and suggestions and use these within our development of our services.	We enable users to provide feedback and comments, or to make complaints, in the following ways: in person (including feedback forms) or online (Link to Online Feedback Form here).
We always examine ways to improve the service we provide and rectify any mistakes so they do not happen again.	We will provide information to users about improvements made in response to their feedback or complaints; an Equality Impact Assessment will be carried out for all service changes.

This article was published on 2024-08-21