CUSTOMER Award Award Booklet
PROUD SPONSOR
IMPACT Award
Proudly supported by CSBA
All councils strive to provide a high-quality, consistent customer experience across all departments and interactions. For over 16 years, CSBA has been working with LGPro and over 100 local governments across Australia to help understand, measure and improve the customer experience. CSBA provides Customer Service Quality Assurance programs, Voice of Customer research and benchmarking, Customer Service Training and CX Strategy Plans for local governments across Australia.
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IMPACT Award
ABOUT THIS AWARD
The LGPro Customer Impact Award recognises the outstanding achievements of people working in Local Government customer service and on the customer experience. It is open to individuals and teams working across all Council departments that interact with customers and play a role in delivering customer experiences.
This award recognises an individual or a team that has developed and implemented an innovative approach, project or program which has assisted in delivering more engaging, meaningful and relevant customer experiences.
The purpose of this award is to:
• Recognise the contribution of individuals and teams to improving customer experiences
• Promote innovation and leadership in the provision of customer experiences
• Encourage end-to-end thinking of service design and delivery from the customer lens
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IMPACT Award
WINNER
Bass Coast Shire Council Customer at Centre Program
Bass Coast Shire Council transformed a culture of passivity and avoidance into one of proactive service delivery by providing every one of their employees with the systems, skills, and support to make customers their priority. Through this overhaul – spearheaded by a transformation team of two - overdue customer request numbers reduced by 98 per cent and overall processing times dropped by more than 70 per cent.
To effect genuine, significant, and long-lasting cultural change, a multifaceted approach was required. The Customer at Centre Program was an education and process improvement initiative that saw every employee being trained in customer service excellence, participating in team workshops to develop customer improvement actions, supported with monthly toolbox meetings to
embed learnings in their service environment, and further supported through achievement tracking.
Effectiveness is measured and monitored through a CX dashboard that integrates a variety of metrics, ‘Employee Pulse’ surveys, action trackers, and open communication lines. The dashboard’s data is an enabler of good decision-making around team resourcing and prioritisation while serving as an early indicator of issues.
Like any cultural change, time is required to fully realise the benefits. The program regularly serves reminders to ensure it stays front of mind through its ongoing, sustainable activities and a regular revisiting of the program’s various components.
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IMPACT Award
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Mildura Rural City Council 2022/23 Flood Emergency Response
When Mildura was struck by flooding between September 2022 and March 2023, a purpose-built communications campaign was required to ensure the community was kept informed and supported through the phases of preparation, response, and recovery.
The multi-faceted campaign saw residents armed with the information they needed to be prepared and resilient. Before the flooding peaked, the council established a project control group that identified the need for a strong focus on public communications to minimise the impacts of the flooding on the community and local businesses.
The council created an easily accessible, central online portal for flood-related information. Picked up and promoted by state-based agencies involved in the response, the portal became the trusted, primary ‘source of truth’ for all flood-relief information.
Daily communications with the Customer Service Team ensured any concerns around accuracy of information, access, or currency were quickly addressed and relayed on the portal and across social media in a flexible, dynamic system that was responsive to the rapidly changing circumstances of the flood.
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IMPACT Award
FINALISTS
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY COUNCIL)
Boroondara City Council Transforming Customer Experience
With a vision to transform its customer experience into one that places all customers at the centre of each interaction, Boroondara saw the need for a radical change.
In the way of their goal was a low first contact resolution rate for the 3,500 calls, 2,000 emails, and 350 permit applications coming in weekly. This prompted an organisational redesign where inbound customer interactions were centralised to a single customer service function: Customer Connect.
The Customer Connect team was equipped with the requisite skills and information to completely own the customer relationship.
This newly designed team has since been empowered to deliver first contact resolution, creating a seamless experience for customers regardless of the channel they choose. Centralising the feedback too allows dynamic, continuous improvement as the team matures.
The team is now responsible for more than 400 service enquiry types and permit applications. Consistency is maintained through a quality assurance audit and feedback process, adoption of a searchable knowledge bank for staff, and the introduction of a case management model that provides a central contact point for complex enquiries and complaints.
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IMPACT Award
FINALISTS
Darebin City Council Your Street Your Say
Local knowledge is crucial for understanding local challenges. But not everyone has the confidence, will, or wherewithal to contact their council. Your Street Your Say was Darebin’s way of providing all people living in the area with a safe and accessible means of having their say.
With an increasing number of transport-related customer enquiries reaching the council but with a lacking capacity to effectively respond and no systematic process for engaging with all corners of the community around safety and access, they needed a new solution.
Your Street Your Say was introduced with a strong emphasis on inclusive engagement to ensure that all customers were given an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process and were encouraged to do so. Darebin used diverse engagement methods that were inclusive, interactive, and transparent, from a web-based spatial mapping tool to face-to-face engagement with specific community groups.
Demographic data went on to confirm that a community representative level of engagement was achieved with a large cross-section of the community, from the culturally and linguistically diverse to First Nations residents.
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