Council named as finalist in national customer service award

Exceeding customer expectations, service excellence and outstanding professionalism – these are just some of the reasons council received the Highly Commended Award for the Customer Service Team of the Year at last night’s National Local Government Customer Service Network Awards.

Service Delivery Portfolio Councillor Ted Hungerford said the National Local Government Customer Service Network Awards recognised outstanding local government teams who provided excellence in customer service.

“We were one of six councils across Australia to be named as a finalist in the Customer Service Team of the Year Award,” Cr Hungerford said.

“To be acknowledged with a Highly Commended Award on a national level is a huge honour and demonstrates best practice in customer service.

“The criteria for these awards looked at innovation, change and improvement and culture of the team environment.”

Cr Hungerford said with customer expectations continually rising, the highly challenging discipline of customer service was arguably the critical success factor for many organisations.

“Our Customer Contact team are the face of council and strive daily to deliver a service that exceeds our customer’s expectations,” Cr Hungerford said.

“Our dedicated team handle in excess of 255,000 contacts per annum and is committed to ensuring the needs of individual customers are met and providing the best service they possibly can.

“In fact, our Customer Contact team has been a local government pioneer by introducing contemporary communication channels for customers including web chat and self-service options.

“The team continuously seek customer satisfaction feedback on how they are doing and what they need to focus on to understand their customers and improve their service.

"In fact,  95% of our customers rate their customer service experience as satisfactory or higher."

Finalists in the Customer Service Team of the Year Award were:

Bellingen Shire Council, New South Wales - Winner

Sunshine Coast Council, Queensland – Highly Commended

City of Canada Bay Council, New South Wales

City of Canterbury Council, New South Wales

Maitland City Council, New South Wales

Townsville City Council, Queensland.