SERVICE POLICY

Our fundamental purpose is to compile and maintain the public registers, accurately, timely and cost-effectively. We aim to meet our customer needs and to provide, develop, extend and improve our existing services. Technology is pivotal to the Agency and we strive to ensure that its use improves our efficiency and effectiveness and that our customers benefit from this investment. Registers of Scotland is committed to the principles of the Service First Charter Mark programme. Our standards are listed here in this section. Performance against these standards is monitored and published.

Personal Callers: Our upgraded accommodation provides a pleasant and comfortable environment for visitors and customers. One-stop-shop Customer Service Centres are available in Edinburgh and Glasgow to deal with your enquiries. Personal callers to the Centres will be greeted immediately and attended to within 10 minutes of arrival. All staff will be identifiable by name badges and will also identify themselves in telephone calls and letters.

Telephone Answering:
Telephone calls to the Agency will be answered within 10 seconds of connection to the switchboard. Calls to direct inquiry lines will also be answered within 10 seconds. A monitoring system operates to ensure that these targets are continuously set.

Our Service promise:
Our key performance targets are published in our Annual Report and on the website. We have an ongoing commitment to providing a rapid response to your needs. Some of the ancillary turnaround times are;

General Letter Enquiries	8 working days
Post Registration Enquiries	8 working days
Copy Deeds	2 working days
Office Copies and Land Certificates	5 working days
Extracts from Books of Council and Session	6 working days
Pre-Registration Enquiries	7 working days
Land Register Reports	3 working days
Corrections to Land Certificates	8 working days

Consultation:
We regularly consult existing and potential customers about the services we provide. Reports on the results of consultation will be published and freely available. We are committed to consulting our customers as widely as possible in order to monitor and ensure that we respond to customer needs.

Various procedures have been put in place to ensure that this happens;

-	A market research programme which includes regular surveys, mystery shops and focus groups;
-	The Joint Consultative Committee meets three times a year with representatives of the Law Society;
-	Regular contact with the Scottish Law Agents Society and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland;
-	Regular meetings with representatives of the Private Searching firms;
-	Talks/seminars/meetings/workshops are regularly arranged with members of professional organisations.

Value for Money:
The Agency is subject to scrutiny by various external bodies who have a particular role in ensuring it provides best value for money. We are a self financing organisation committed to meeting expenditure from income and making savings by increasing efficiency wherever possible. Regular monitoring of our internal functions ensures compliance with stated aims of improving service delivery and best value for money. We are audited by external auditors who review procedures and financial arrangements.