Rave reviews for the inaugural LGMA WA / CSBA Customer Service Forum!
On 23 June 2010, the first LGMA WA/CSBA Customer Service Forum was held in Perth. Working in partnership with the WA division, Customer Service Benchmarking Australia presented a one day forum for Directors, Senior Managers and Customer Service staff focusing on Customer Service and the issues it represents.
With 78 delegates attending from 29 councils across metropolitan and regional WA, the event was extremely well attended.
The key objective of the day was to discuss customer service trends and issues in local government and to workshop solutions. The forum also provided an opportunity for delegates to meet with their counterparts from across WA.
As a pre-cursor to the event, CSBA offered delegates the opportunity to participate in a ‘mystery shopping’ assessment of their frontline phone customer service. Of the 29 councils, 21 took part and received a summary analysis of their customer service performance along with comparison to the local government sector benchmark results.
The overall benchmarking results were used to demonstrate the benefits of customer service measurement to the forum and formed the basis of much of the day’s discussion.
The opening presentation was given by Dr Shayne Silcox, CEO, City of Melville. The focus was on ‘Customer Service Values’ and was accompanied by a wonderful short film which illustrated the improvements which can be achieved by making even simple changes to customer service.
CSBA’s Director of Business Improvement, Robyn Reilly facilitated the day. Along with presenting a high level overview of the Benchmarking results, Robyn talked about ‘Customer Service Trends in Local Government’.
Steve Burgess closed the forum with his lively presentation and open discussion on ‘Working at the frontline of Local Government’. As the Customer Service Coordinator for Wyndham City Council, along with his role as Convenor, LGPro Customer Service Special Interest Group, Steve discussed the challenges faced on the front line as well as sharing his experiences of setting up a Customer Service network within Victoria.
Feedback from the delegates included; ‘As a first timer to a CSO forum, I found it inspiring and the information was very useful to my current position in local government’, ‘I enjoyed the presentations and the opportunity to meet like-minded persons’ and ‘I wish our whole Shire had attended!!!’
As well as working with LGMA WA on future Customer Service Improvement forums, CSBA is partnering with LGMA QLD to run a similar event as part of its two day 2010 Customer Service Forum in September. A one day LGMA NSW / CSBA forum is also scheduled to run in November.
CSBA is looking forward to running many more Customer Service Improvement events in partnership with the LGMA.