2011-2012 Annual Report - Full Version - PDF - Palmerston North ...

What the Council Does Customer ServicesSupportServices128Activity - Customer ServicesWhat the Council doesThe Council exists to provide services to people inPalmerston North. Residents and City organisationsare the Council’s customers and the Council aimsto provide all of the services described in theseActivity pages to residents at a high standard. Todo this the Council regularly talks with residentsto understand what services they expect theCouncil to provide and to understand the qualityof services that they are willing to pay for (eitherthrough rates or fees). All staff aim to provide highquality, timely services to the people that use theirservices.Part of this service includes a central CustomerServices Centre on The Square that is the first pointof contact for the public to access the Council. TheCustomer Services Centre provides residents withinformation about Council activities, a means tolog complaints and faults about Council services,to lodge applications for various consents andlicenses, and enables residents to pay their ratesand any fees or charges for Council services. TheCustomer Services Centre is open from 8am to5pm Monday to Friday (except Wednesday whenit opens at 9am).The Council also provides a 24 hours a day, sevendays a week Call Centre service (06 356 8199).Anyone can ring up the Council to log a complaintor fault, or get information about Council services.The Council also provides a website with a widerange of information about Council services, andaccess to public documents and forms (www.pncc.govt.nz).Why the Council does this and itscontribution to Council vision andmajor goalsBy giving people information on all Councilservices, this Activity contributes indirectly to allfive of the Council’s major goals.The Council provides a vast number of services,and many of these happen without anyonetaking much notice. However, when people needinformation or advice, a centralised CustomerServices Centre makes it simple for people toget in touch with the Council. The prominentCustomer Services Centre on The Square is wellknown to residents, and provides an easy wayfor people to find the information they need.The Council provides the Call Centre togive those people who are not able tocome into the physical Customer ServicesCentre a means to contact the Council.Palmerston North City Council Annual Report 2011/12Most services can be provided over the phone,with any forms or documents able to be posted,emailed or faxed out to residents who cannotcome into the Customer Services Centre. The afterhours service ensures that even residents whoare not able to come into the Customer ServicesCentre during business hours have access to theCouncil. The Council provides the website to meetthe changing needs of modern society providing awide range of information.What happened in the yearThe year was highlighted by changes being madein terms of how the Call Centre service operates.Following a review of the service in 2010/11, two keybodies of work were undertaken, namely a changeto the staffing structure and the implementationof a number of new work practices.In October, following the change in work practices,a workforce management tool was introducedto facilitate call volume forecasting and staffThe after hours service ensures thateven residents who are not able tocome into the Customer ServicesCentre during business hours haveaccess to the Council. The Councilprovides the website to meetthe changing needs of modernsociety providing a wide range ofinformation.rostering. Whist the changes had the desiredimpact on the call quality and gave the agentssufficient time to follow the call handling process,service levels and abandonment rates deteriorateddue to insufficient numbers of experienced staff.A number of steps have been taken to addressthese issues, which has resulted in some degree ofimprovement in performance levels.The Call Centre focus for 2012/13 will be oncontinuing to identify opportunities to improveworking practices, refine the resourcing modeland associated cost model. The goal will be toreturn the service to a level of performance thatmeets performance measures.