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Our digital helper Tom is innovative new technology that allows people to communicate with us 24/7. Think of it like having your own personal assistant who can help you in real time with common questions and tasks. It means that any time of the day or night you can get instant answers and support accessing information. Ask Tom is enhancing our customer offer and is an addition to the many ways of contacting us.

Tom has been live on our website now for a few years, has answered over 30,000 of your queries with 34% being outside of working hours and scoring 98% customer satisfaction.

As well as seeing Tom on our website, you’ll also speak with Tom when you call our contact centres.

From the main service pages on our website, click on the ‘ASK TOM’ button/image on the right-hand side of the screen. To start chatting, choose ‘Continue’ to confirm you have read and understood our Privacy Policy. You can then ask Tom a question or something you're trying to do.

To get the best out of Tom, start questions with, “How do I…”, “I want to…” or “Can I…”. Use four words or more but don’t make them too long. Try not to personalise the question.

If you don't get the answer you're looking for, try re-phrasing the question.

We have built in ‘Hints’ for the most frequently asked questions to help you find what you are looking for.

You can ask questions about many of our services including:

• Council Tax
• Waste
• Parking
• Blue Badge
• Registrars
• Benefits
• Pest Control
• Registering a Birth
• Leisure
• Street lighting.

If you would like to provide online feedback when using Tom, click on the ‘Rate this result’ button in Tom’s response and let us know if the answer was helpful or not.

When you call us, Tom will try to help you. If Tom can’t help you, your call will be directed to the right person.

Previously our contact centres used recorded messages, these gave you a list of numbered options. You would have to listen to the message and choose an option for your query or the team you thought might be able to help you. Tom will have a conversation with you to understand what you are looking for and will transfer your call if needed.

To get the best out of Tom, try sentences such as, ‘I want to pay my Council Tax’ or ‘How do I report a missed bin’.

Tom will find you the most appropriate answer, then offer to text you the answer along with any helpful links. So when Tom asks ‘Would you like this answer sent to you as a text message?’ say ‘Yes’ to receive the message.

Let Tom know if the answer wasn’t helpful and say that you would like to speak to someone, Tom can then connect you to an advisor. By giving us feedback it helps us to fix any issues and continues to improve the customer experience.

We acknowledge that some customers cannot navigate Ask Tom, for example D/deaf and hearing-impaired customers. We have therefore made some adjustments to assist them access our services:

• If a customer wishes to contact the council by telephone using Relay UK or a similar interpreter service, they can do so by ringing our main switchboard on (01952) 380000. The interpreter will confirm that they are acting on behalf of a D/deaf or hearing-impaired person as part of their introduction to the call. The call will then be directed to the relevant team, overriding Ask Tom, which is not suitable for calls of this type.
• In addition to this, the council offers email facilities and online web forms, as well as Ask Tom (Digital Assistant) on the website. If Ask Tom is unable to answer your enquiry online, it can also point you to our web chat facility, which is available during office opening hours. This is available for a number of our services, including Council Tax, Neighbourhood Services and Highways. When web chat is not available for a service, email contact details for them will be provided.