A cast of ten thousand

Nelson City Council opened the doors of its new Customer Service Centre, and turned the switch on a new service request system in December 2009. Less than four months later 10,000 requests for Council services have been clocked up.

Customer Service Centre Manager Cherie Irving says the 10,000 milestone was both sizeable and a surprise.

“As a one stop shop, our new Customer Service Centre really improves access for counter customers. But perhaps a bigger improvement to service delivery, although invisible to the customer, has been the new service request system. Until the launch of the new system, Council didn’t have a single system to track requests. We were unsure of just how many requests were flowing into the Council over counters, phones and through email - and as a result unable to keep an eye on completion rates. Our new system lets us track all requests and makes our commitment to customers very real and measureable.”

Cherie says the system also gives Council the ability to track request types, gives a better idea of how many staff are needed where and when, showing daily weekly and monthly fluctuations in request volumes. The system also helps spot process hold-ups, all information Council had not had in the past.

Cherie adds that the new system has been a huge change for the organisation.

“All of this is a massive challenge because we are still coming to grips with focusing on our service delivery performance and finding out about the real volume of requests. We are totally committed to delivering great service!”

“I guess you probably have to be working with the system to get excited about it, but for residents it’s pretty simple - it means better service, better value.”