Dear LG Focus.
On July 15, 2014, Australia’s largest civil trial settled.
It was in relation to the 2009 bushfires in Victoria (Black Saturday), where 173 people tragically lost their lives.
The parties being sued were SP AusNet, Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Country Fire Authority and Victoria Police.
The trial concluded with a $495 million settlement being reached between the parties, subject to court approval.
It is my belief that some Victorian local governments were lucky not to be included in this civil court case.
This started me thinking about the inherit risks that many local governments unwittingly expose themselves to each and every day by their misunderstanding and neglect of the importance of a professional, modern, 21st century customer focus culture within their organisations.
Too long has customer service been seen as ‘the girls on the switchboard’.
Recently I was running a training and strategy session for Alexandrina Council’s Library and Customer Information Services.
The main purpose of the day was to get the team ready for the cultural shift to a true first call resolution environment.
As part of the day we invited the CEO Peter Dinning to attend for an hour to show the team members that they had his full backing and support for this important cultural change.
Peter was only due to stay for an hour but he became so inspired and excited by the session he stayed much longer to everyone’s surprise and delight.
As I was giving my presentation about the reasons we need to make this important change, I came to a point where I talked about the risks of not having an accountable culture.
I gave the example an extreme weather event such as a flood or fire where a group of people ring the council to find a safe place to go, a council staff member answers the phone and gives the correct information, but does not make any note of the call or the information given.
The people misunderstand the information or decide to go to another location and unfortunately some ended up losing their lives, then in the aftermath of the event families sue the council for giving out incorrect information.
It was at this point that I asked the group; “What do you think would happen in this circumstance?”
It was Peter the CEO who spoke, looking directly at us and said with a sober and most serious tone “I would end up in jail serving many years”.
His tone and body language affected everyone in the room; they all suddenly realised that what they did for the organization had serious consequences.
The next time a senior person in your organisation thinks customer service is a low priority as it’s just the ‘girls on the switchboard that transfer calls’, remind them it is much more than that.
Unless the organization gets real and understands the situation it’s possible, even likely someone very senior could end up in jail and or cost the organisation millions of dollars.
Rum Charles
Senior consultant at Indigo Training.
