In response to its need for a new customer service platform, Baw Baw Shire Council in conjunction with Microsoft has created its own Citizens Service Platform – CouncilRM™ (Council Relationship Management).
Located 100 kilometres east of Melbourne in the West Gippsland region, Baw Baw provides services to around 40,000 residents.
Through the CouncilRM™platform, Council staff can use familiar tools in Microsoft Office Outlook to view customer contact details, manage requests, emails, appointments and associated tasks. This simplifies the way staff work and helps them respond more efficiently to customer requests.
“We wanted a customer relationship and request management solution that would eliminate duplication across systems and provide an integrated view of all the most important information so our people could focus on our customers,” said Council’s Director Planning and Information Phil Stone.
The program’s key benefits include:
- decreased call waiting periods
- the ability to resolve 90 per cent of all queries at first point
of contact - increased channels for residents to contact Council
- a standardised approach to customer service.
The program is localised for Australian councils, providing more choice and a cost effective alternative for smaller councils.
“Usually in Local Government we get handed a product and are told to work our processes around that,” said Baw Baw Shire Council’s IT Manager Michael Mills. “It can mean changing the way people work, which is time and money.
“It was refreshing to work with a product that allowed us to do it the other way around, and the result is a solution that’s ideal for Local Government.”
The CouncilRM™ program is based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and while the intellectual property belongs to Microsoft, it is freely available to any Local Government within Australia.
For more information contact Phil Stone on (03) 5624 2543.
