Hastings District Council wins National Customer Service Award

The Hastings District Council Customer Service Team has won the 2014 ALGIM Customer Service Local Government Team of the Year award.

The award was presented at the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) Customer Service symposium held in Hamilton early this week. The award was established in 2010 and provides the opportunity for teams, either call centres or front of house to demonstrate the difference the team has made to the organisation and its customers.

Mayor Lawrence Yule says “This is a real credit to the whole of the customer service team who have worked hard to ensure that they provide a high quality service to our ratepayers. Six customer service teams from throughout the country entered this category and to come out at the head of a strong field is a fantastic achievement.”

Lawrence Yule says “It is important that Council encourages staff to enter these awards as it helps raise their game and encourages best practice. It is gratifying that the Customer Service team has been recognised for their efforts to improve their service levels and rewards the development of new skills that serve the community.”

The judges noted the “impressive year on year service level target achievements along with better information management and continuous improvement that has led to a better understanding of customer demand and trends in behaviour.”

In October 2010, Council began a project to streamline its service delivery through the creation of a telephone contact centre and central customer service area on the ground floor of its Lyndon Rd offices.

The contact centre handles nearly 120,000 calls each year and answers 87% of these within 20 seconds. This is a 15% increase in service level from the 72% achieved in the first year of operation.

This improvement has been achieved without increasing staff numbers but rather through careful planning, creating process efficiencies and maximising the resources available.

ends

© Scoop Media