Customer Experience Strategy

What are our services?

We provide a wide range of services to our community, residents, businesses, and visitors. As our city continues to grow, the demand for these and new services will also increase.

• Waste and resource recovery services, including kerbside collection for waste, recycling, and green waste.
• City Planning – permits, subdivisions, strategic planning, heritage advisory services, preliminary planning advice.
• Parks, playgrounds, sportsgrounds, and natural areas.
• Road and footpath construction and maintenance.
• Health and wellbeing initiatives for all ages and abilities.
• Civil design and capital construction programs.
• Age-friendly programs and initiatives.
• Pet registration.
• Building and plumbing permits.
• Arts and events, culture, history, festivals, and community events.
• Rates.
• Stormwater management.
• Fire and bushland conservation.
• Tracks and trails, nature trails, bikeways, active travel.
• Publications – Clarence News, Dog News, Arts News, Arts eNews, council website.
• Graffiti reduction and educational programs.
• Community volunteer services.
• Community transport.
• Development engineering – approving subdivisions and developments.
• Community halls, sports pavilions, and facilities management.
• Customer contact for enquiries and requests.
• Community grants program.
• Project planning and management.
• Sponsorships.
• Multicultural and indigenous initiatives.
• Environmental and public health.
• Local law enforcement (by-laws).
• Children’s services – early learning centre, family day care, outside school care and holiday care.
• Youth services and programs.
• Immunisation programs.
• Food and health business registrations, regulation, education, and training.
• Justice of the Peace service.
• Asset planning and management.
• Building and property maintenance.
• Economic development.
• City maintenance and cleaning.
• Event permits and licences.
• Procurement and tendering.
• Environmental management.
• Emergency management –disaster planning and readiness, disaster response, disaster recovery.
• Parking.
• Abandoned vehicles.
• Noise complaints.

Customer experience guiding principles

Initiatives

Accountable

We will be accountable to our customers ensuring the highest level of service is provided at each Interaction.

Initiatives	Examples of what this may look like
Launch updated Customer Service Charter.	Developing clear timeframes and guidance on how customers will hear back from council and detail how customers can provide feedback.
Undertake a review of customer service opening hours.	Review usage of in-person customer service attendance to determine if opening hours are appropriate.
Review of customer complaints and reporting on performance.	Use data and customer feedback to identify areas that can improve customer experiences. Review customer challenges and develop ways to improve the customer experience where possible.

Collaborative

We acknowledge the importance of customer service both externally and internally. We will work collaboratively with all customers.

Initiatives	Examples of what this may look like
Embed customer focus culture into our organisation.	Develop and implement a ‘customer driven experience’ training module for all staff in the organisation. Develop and implement an induction program promoting customer focus culture. Council to be a single entity when delivering customer service.
Regular customer engagement and analysis of feedback.	Undertake the annual Living in Clarence survey of our residents to understand what is most important to them and their needs. Undertake the annual business survey to understand what is most important to them and the opportunities and challenges they are facing. Ensure any learnings and knowledge is easily accessible for use across the organisation for successful implementation of any future frameworks.

Authentic

We are committed to authenticity in our interactions with customers, fostering genuine connections built on trust and sincerity.

Our communication is honest, transparent, and reflective of our values, ensuring that every interaction has an aim to help the customer.

Initiatives	Examples of what this may look like
Develop a deeper understanding of our customer.	Better understand who our customers are and what services they utilise to provide a more tailored and proactive customer experience.
Training all staff on how to handle complaints.	There will always be times when something goes wrong for a customer. Ensuring all staff are trained in how to handle these situations, not just our Customer Contact team, will provide an authentic, consistent experience.
Build and emphasise the council brand for all employees to provide a positive experience.	Through the Communications Media and Marketing Strategy, develop a strong brand that employees can champion through each interaction.
Encourage curiosity and learning.	Promote a mindset of exploration and questioning. Encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing among team members and across departments to improve our services.

Seamless

Provide simple and seamless experiences that ensure a smooth and hassle-free experience with
straight forward processes focused on good customer outcomes.

Initiatives	Examples of what this may look like
Straight-forward processes.	Each department to review their relevant processes to see where steps can be streamlined to create an easier pathway for our customers. Where appropriate create frequently asked question sheets or guideline documents to help step through required process for the customer.
Clear forms.	Each department to review their relevant forms to ensure their wording is clear and easy to understand.
Limited wait times and quick responses.	Review our Customer Service Charter to ensure these times are realistic and achievable.
Clear points of contact.	Each department to review their forms and ensure there is a clear point of contact for the customer to gain fast and accurate responses to their enquiries.
Proactive service.	Look at how we can proactively make experiences with council seamless and easy. Review council chambers customer service areas with a focus on streamlining the customer service experience.
Ability to connect with council via customers’ preferred channels.	Continue to work on multiple channels of connectivity to council with a focus on digital first, to meet the needs of all customers and to stay up to date with technological advances where appropriate.

Consistent

Consistency is key to delivering exceptional customer experiences. We strive to maintain consistency in
the quality of our services, communication, and interactions across all touchpoints and channels.

Initiatives	Examples of what this may look like
Provide consistent, friendly service and processes across council.	Training of staff in both customer service and complaint handling. Working to our Customer Service Charter.
Use every interaction as an opportunity to create a positive image of council.	Maintaining a customer focus workplace. Work with individual teams to understand what customer interactions look like for them. Develop customer journey maps for each team. Ensure the quality of public information is on brand to provide a consistent message to our community.
Provide customer service training to all staff.	Increase awareness and expectations of everyone’s role in supporting our customers. Include in the training modules active listening and putting yourself in the customers shoes to help understand their enquiry.
Investigate ways to provide a single source of truth for information.	Having internal systems that talk to each other so customers can update their information once and it is recorded across all relevant internal systems/platforms.