Part of Brisbane City Council’s ‘Smart City’ strategy has been the development of seamless customer service. An underlying principle has been that ‘e’ is in harmony with ‘c’ where ‘e’ equals electronic and ‘c’ the customer.
Systems have been streamlined to make it even easier for residents to get in touch with the right staff member ‘first time’.
One such practical change has been the reduction of contact telephone numbers in telephone directories from 650 to only one. The single telephone number means that most of Council’s telephone traffic passes through the call centre, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Council’s call centre is an award winner, recently taking out the Telstra title of Best Call Centre in Queensland for both the public and private sectors.
Even so, Brisbane City is providing the means for its residents and ratepayers to not even need to pick up the phone to get what they want from Council. An electronic card enables library users to borrow books and access other library services. It is only the early beginnings of the ‘eBrisbane’ card.
Plans are in place for e-services to be expanded to give residents access to other Council services including transport, Council venues and carparks.
Brisbane City Council is ever vigilant that its customer service delivery remains seamless &endash; that is, residents receive the same high level of service they require whether they are communicating with Council in person, on the telephone, online, or using their eBrisbane card.
