Contact us

Our digital helper, Tom, is innovative new technology that allows people to communicate with us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Tom can help you with common questions and tasks in real time, meaning that at any time of the day or night you can get instant answers and support with accessing information. Tom is enhancing our customer offer as an additional method of contacting us.

Tom has been live on our website now for several years, answering over 30,000 queries with 34% being outside of working hours, 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’ image on the right-hand side of the screen and select ‘Continue’ to confirm you have read and understood our Privacy Policy. You can then start chatting with Tom by asking a question or stating what you wish 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 questions too long or try to personalise them.

If you don't get the answer you're looking for, please 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 or direct your call to the right team.  

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

To get the best out of Tom, keep questions short and simple, 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 details along with any helpful links. 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 ask to speak to an advisor if you need further assistance. By giving us feedback, we can continue to develop and improve the customer experience.

We acknowledge that some customers cannot navigate Tom, for example D/deaf, hearing-impaired, speech-impaired or non-verbal 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, hearing-impaired, speech-impaired or non-verbal person as part of their introduction to the call. The call will then be directed to the relevant team, overriding 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 will be provided.