At a recent municipal conference in Geraldton, the Western Australian Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, Tom Stephens, urged Councils to improve their complaint handling processes. The Minister’s call follows a statement by the State Ombudsman of the need for a lift in performance by Councils when dealing with the sensitive and sometimes difficult complaint handling process.
“The introduction of customer service standards and processes during the 1990s was intended to put clients or consumers in the box seat when dealing with organisations,” the Minister said. “Complaint handling is a key element.”
He said that there was little doubt issues managed through processes which are open, transparent and capable of delivering remedies can alleviate much of the need for outside scrutiny.
“Some Councils are doing extremely well in this area and you see them setting the standards for others to follow,” said Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) President, Cr Ian Mickel. “We know that there are Councils that are in the cutting edge of customer service and customer complaint handling and this is seen through the WALGA Best Practice Awards, which help promote better practice in customer service and customer complaint handling processes.
“There will always be room for improvement and WALGA has a customer complaints manual and training program to assist Councils in handling these issues.”
