Queensland’s Ipswich City Council has worked with the Queensland Partnership Group (QPG) to develop a strategy that will greatly improve customer service across Council’s rates and service delivery teams.
QPG is a collaborative enterprise between Australian customer relations specialist, UCMS, and the Local Government Association of Queensland. It works specifically with Local Government to enhance business performance through strategically focused relationships that transform and improve the delivery of public services.
Ipswich’s Chief Financial Officer, Jim Lindsay, said Council engaged QPG in 2007 when it identified a need to maintain a service delivery edge.
“We recognised that not all customer interactions were being recorded and customer enquiry types were often largely unknown,” he said. “In addition, current reporting tools could not capture how many interactions were resolved at the first point of contact.”
To improve this, QPG worked with Council to design an interim method of capturing customer interactions at the first point of contact.
Council wanted any improvements made to be measurable and quantifiable, but with variable data available to reflect current service standards the challenge was twofold.
As such, Council and QPG created an entirely new operating model called ‘Services Queensland’, which involved a baseline review to establish key ‘pain’ points, such as wait times and call abandonments.
UCMS designed the operating solution for the Services Queensland business model and also designed and delivered the content of a baselining review.
As part of the review, Council’s frontline service delivery staff were consulted with and current service standards investigated to establish realistic operational targets based on reliable data, current performance and stakeholder expectations.
Jim Lindsay said UCMS’s approach was rolled out to all customer service teams and within three months, these teams were capturing approximately 80 per cent more meaningful data about customer interactions with Council.
“This is enormously powerful information that is shared with the customer service teams to drive a range of performance enhancements,” Jim Lindsay said.
The review was finalised in September, and the project has now moved into the formal ‘operational stage’.
Jim Lindsay said the partnership with QPG is based on a ten year period and is valued at $110 million.
“QPG is helping us to transform Council’s culture by creating an environment of openness and trust among the staff,” he said. “Our staff have access to all reports and are actively encouraged to monitor their own teams performance.”
For further information contact Steve Crowe from the UCMS Group on (03) 9256 5000.
