Customer Insights Group

Purpose

As part of the Customer Experience Team, a Customer Insights Group has been formed to provide the opportunity for South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils to gather customers' experiences of interacting with our services.

Definition of the Customer Insights Group

The Customer Insights Group (CIG) is a group of customers and members who share their experience of a specific topic or service in a moderated setting to inform service improvement. 

The CIG has no executive powers. The CIG is only authorised to support the duties within its Terms of Reference.

Members of the CIG are not authorised to enter the South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils buildings without a member of staff present at all times.

Who can attend

The CIG is open to:

1. South Norfolk or Broadland residents
2. South Norfolk or Broadland businesses

We will also engage with our members separately to understand their experiences.

Process for getting involved

1. Sign up for the Customers Insights Group
2. Teams across the Council will share involvement opportunities with you based on the preferences you select when you sign up 
3. You can let us know if your preference change or if you'd like to leave the Customer Insights Group at any time.

Duties

The duties of CIG are to:

• Share feedback on gaps in our understanding of customer experience
• Support with user testing during the development of council services
• Bring an independent customer perspective to the design, improvement and delivery of Council services
• Attend structured interviews and/or usability studies
• Work in partnership with the Customer Experience Team to help improve our services
• Share suggestions and offer potential solutions for consideration alongside future improvements as required
• Adhere to the Councils’ governance guidelines, values and CIG code of conduct
• Be respectful of the views of other people at all times

Support arrangements

The group will be supported by:

• Digital Customer Experience and Accessibility Officer
• Business Analyst
• Digital Business Analyst

The Digital Customer Experience and Accessibility Officer, Business Analyst and Digital Business Analyst will provide appropriate administrative support for the CIG.

The administrators of the CIG will review membership of the group annually to ensure that they still want to be involved.

South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils will not be responsible for any expenses incurred by members of the Customer Insights Group in connection with their participation in activities or meetings. 

Interviews, engagement sessions and usability studies

Involvement in structured interviews, engagement sessions and usability studies will be based on preferences stated upon sign up and therefore could be a mixture of online, in-person and telephone. Your preferences can be updated at any time by contacting the group administrators. 

Code of Conduct

When attending structured interviews/usability studies, group members should:

• feel encouraged to share their views
• treat each other with respect
• respect confidentiality
• behave in a professional manner
• avoid raising individual grievances or complaints about a service they, a family member or friend has received. Such concerns need to be taken to the Service Leads.

CIG will not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour from anyone. Anyone behaving in a way that is considered unacceptable by colleagues will be asked to refrain from that behaviour or asked to leave the session immediately.

Confidentiality considerations

Information given to you by the South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils about services, policies or projects should be treated confidentially unless otherwise stated. The Councils will always be clear about the boundaries and limits of sharing but the default position should be one of confidentiality. Any information disclosed must not go outside of the session. It is recommended all discussions be of a general nature, not disclosing customer or staff names.

Reporting and monitoring progress

Progress will be measured by the administrators of CIG on a regular basis, reviewing the feedback provided by the group and what action can be taken from the feedback.

The Customer Experience Team will report back using ‘you said, we did’ to keep CIG members updated on the progress of improvements.

These terms of reference will be reviewed annually.

Date approved by Experience and Insights Lead: December 2025

Date for Annual Review: December 2026