Customer Focus Program Goal Council will be a customer focused organisation that is "Dedicated to Customers: Everyone. Everywhere. Every time" Program Description As an enabling program, Customer Focus contributes to all the "Our Shared Vision: Living in Brisbane 2026" Citywide Outcomes, in particular the 'Connected and engaged communities' outcome. The outcomes and services in this Program enable and support Council to deliver services across all customer service channels. Growth in South East Queensland combined with rapidly changing technologies and increasing service standards have put pressures on Council to continue to deliver services in a cost effective way whilst remaining customer focused. The Customer Focus Program is aligned to Council's Citywide Outcomes for "Our Shared Vision: Living in Brisbane 2026" and Council's Customer Focus Vision 2016. The Vision recognises the need to provide responsive, accessible and convenient customer service. As a result, customers' perspectives are considered in strategy design and implementation, and in product and service development and delivery. The Program's objective is to support the development of an organisation that is: One Council: one team working together to provide seamless service to our customers Customer Council: recognising customers have strong voices and are key partners in the planning, decision making and work we do Dedicated Council: employees in every role and at every level of the organisation are energised and proud to serve customers Personalised Council: valuing customers equally and taking individual circumstances and preferences into account Trusted Council: taking responsibility, resolving requests promptly and delivering on our promises Open Council: being transparent to drive improved services and stronger customer confidence. The Program will continue to monitor and better understand customer satisfaction and actively address customer dissatisfaction by identifying persistent service problems and helping work units to address these. The Program has corporate responsibility for: achieving Customer Focus Vision 2016 setting customer service standards commitments made in the Customer Charter managing and providing guidance to the organisation on how to best meet customers' needs via Council's contact channels guiding community engagement. 135
Program Outcomes and Financial Summary Program Outcomes Anticipated Proposed Anticipated Proposed Anticipated Proposed 201213 201314 201213 201314 201213 201314 Expense Revenue 7.1 Engagement 595 599 7.2 Service Delivery 28,581 28,927 1,984 891 17,496 13,412 A Council Easy To Do Business 7.3 1,037 1,068 With 30,214 30,595 1,984 891 17,496 13,412 201415 201516 201617 Recurrent Operations Contracts 484 490 535 Outcome 7.1 Engagement Outcome description Council will engage with its customers to better understand their needs. Council recognises the importance of engaging with both customers and the community to understand who they are, what they want and how they value Council's products and services. Where we are now Council regularly engages with the community to understand its needs. Through this Program, Brisbane residents have access to opportunities to be informed, consulted and engaged on future directions for the city. Both targeted and general information is provided through a range of channels. Council provides various consultation opportunities for residents through Council's corporate website, digital mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, the Your City Your Say community reference panel and project specific engagement. Through the Council website, consultation opportunities are provided via discussion forums, open surveys, blogs and short videos. Council has adopted a Community Engagement Policy that commits the organisation to meaningful engagement with the community on issues affecting the future of the city and on local issues that significantly impact the community. Where we want to be Engaging the community and customers will be an integral part of how Council does business. W e will be a Customer Council where all areas recognise that our customers are key partners in the planning, decision making and work we do. Information collected through community consultation and research will inform program planning, strategy development, product and service development and customer service delivery across the organisation. Brisbane residents will be informed, consulted and actively involved in issues facing the city. Council will provide more targeted information and community engagement opportunities for residents. More residents will choose to take up the range of opportunities provided by Council for them to be informed and to participate in setting directions for Brisbane's future. Council will provide clear and timely feedback to participants and the community on how their input influences its decision making. 136
Engaging with the community will help them understand resource limits, the tough decisions that may need to be made and the mutual obligations of Council and the community. Customer research will provide an understanding of customers' needs in the design and delivery of projects, products and services. The Program will assess both satisfaction with and the importance placed on services. This will assist Council to understand what is most critical to its customers across all segments. Strategy 7.1.1 Listen and Understand Maximise opportunities and choices for people to interact with Council, be informed about issues and engage in directions for the city. Service 7.1.1.1 Engagement in City Directions and Decisions The objective of this service is to provide residents with opportunities for engagement on issues affecting the city. To achieve this we will provide opportunities through Neighbourhood Planning and other projects and decisions that impact our customers. W e will undertake engagement through both online and face to face forums as well other activities to target groups that may be affected by Council projects. Residents will be engaged with Council and the direction of the city through Neighbourhood Planning, public meetings, Your City Your Say and Your Say Online initiatives. These provide opportunities for individuals and groups to have their say. The key activities under this service include: supporting Neighbourhood Planning with community engagement expertise supporting consultation on the new City Plan, Brisbane Vision 2031 and other Council plans and strategies coordinating organisational direction and strategy for community engagement designing and developing additional initiatives and methods for obtaining and understanding community and customer perspectives maintaining and enhancing Council's corporate engagement policy and guidelines. Ongoing training will continue to provide Council with staff skilled in community engagement planning and practices. Operating Anticipated Proposed 201213 201314 Expense 595 599 Revenue Outcome 7.2 Service Delivery Outcome description Provide multiple access points to Council to meet customer requirements and manage these contact points for the benefit of business and resident customers and Council. Where we are now Council currently provides multiple contact channels for customers with the primary contact with customers being through mail, face to face, telephone and online, and an increasing number of customers contacting Council through social media. The phone and online channels provide a 24 hour a day, seven days a week service. Council offers a wide range of payment options, including through third party providers. Customers report that Council responds well to their needs. 137
The Contact Centre combines the operations of the call centre, the regional business centre counters (as well as the Brisbane Square Customer Service Centre), searches and certificates, the correspondence team which manages mail, email and social media enquires; and the Business Hotline team. Extensive research into customer contact preferences has found Council is doing well in providing appropriate ways for customers to make contact with Council. Furthermore, research shows that Council's Call Centre is highly praised and directly contributes to Council's brand and reputation. Our research tells us that customers are increasingly moving to selfservice options. Online use is increasing as customers become more familiar with this channel and as the range of transactions and available information grows. Council provides a range of tailored online information packages through customer and product gateways on the corporate website. Following a number of years of high growth in volumes, online email response processes have been reviewed. Improvements such as an automatic acknowledgement and changes to better manage both simple and complex online contacts continue to be implemented. Customer research continues to show that the telephone is still a preferred method of contacting Council and identifies the increasing complexity of enquiries by telephone. Online usage research has been completed to understand how Council's residential and business customers want to interact online with Council. This will be used to help inform and shape Council's online service offerings. The Business Hotline, 133 BNE provides Brisbane businesses with 24/7 priority hotline as part of Council s Call Centre to receive and manage all business related enquiries to minimise response time and ensure high level client management to Council's business customers. Where we want to be As the external face of Council, the Contact Centre will continue to provide world class service. The implementation of the Customer Experience Transformation (CET) Program capability will see the Contact Centre continue to be recognised as a leader in customer service excellence. Customers will find it easy and convenient to do business with Council. The organisation will deliver the right products and services, to the right customers, through the most appropriate channels. To do this, Council will involve customers in product development, packaging and review wherever possible. The Program's research will continue to assess customers' channel preferences to better understand customer behaviour and how to best manage channel offers. A choice of channels for consistent information, services and facilities will be provided. Customers will be encouraged to use selfhelp options such as online services. This will see Council's residential and business customers accessing Council online through a selfservice portal. Customer Focus Program research indicates that most of the contact with Council via website is for information rather than to request an action or service. This suggests that residential and business customers view Council's website as informational rather than transaction based. The program will work closely with Corporate Communications to enhance the corporate website to increase the role of this lower cost channel in transactions and to further enhance the role of social media in providing customers with another channel for transactional processing. Currently Council is undertaking a significant improvement to the solutions that support customer delivery though the Customer Experience Transformation (CET) Program. We need to transition to the new technology platform to continue to provide a high level of service to both our internal and external customers. Products and services provided to customers will be consistent, reliable and accurate across all channels, and provided in a cost effective way that balances the needs of customers and the city. W e will also maximize the benefits from this solution to improve customer service delivery consistently across channels. 138
We will explore new opportunities across new channels and provide better targeted customer services through a greater understanding of our customers. Where appropriate, Council will partner with other spheres of government, South East Queensland Councils and industry advocates to identify and implement initiatives to provide greater customer convenience. Strategy 7.2.1 Develop and Deliver Optimise the design, development and delivery of services to customers through multiple channels. Service 7.2.1.1 Customer Service Delivery The objective of this service is to support the Contact Centre, which includes the Call Centre, Regional Business Centre counters (as well as Brisbane Square Customer Service Centre), searches and certificates, the correspondence team which manages mail, email and social media enquires; and the Business Hotline team. To achieve this we will provide the systems, people, processes and technology to support a world class 24 hours a day, seven days a week call centre that meets the needs of residents, businesses and visitors. This will also support external customer correspondence, Report It by FixOGram, Write to Council Online and SMS/ MMS responses, as well as afterhours emergency calls from other local authorities and utilities. The Contact Centre will also respond to customer contact initiated via social media. Regional Business Centre counters (as well as the Brisbane Square Customer Service Centre) will continue to provide a broad range of face to face transactions and services for businesses and residents. Council will continue to provide a range of ways for customer to pay their Council bills including selfservice options and through external agencies such as Australia Post. This service will uphold the service delivery promises made in Brisbane's Customer Charter. Active Citizen Awards will offer monthly prizes to residents who report maintenance issues in the suburbs. These residents help Council to deliver better suburban amenity by being our 'eyes in the suburbs'. The Business Hotline, 133 BNE provides Brisbane businesses with a 24/7 priority hotline as part of Council's Call Centre to receive and manage all business related enquiries to minimise response time and ensure high level client management to Brisbane business. The Customer Experience Transformation (CET) Program is a people, process and technology program which provides the flexibility and capability to allow customers to deal with Council using different channels and to respond to changing business needs. The project will support the Channel Management Strategy by taking a holistic approach to the operation of Council's customer service channels. Operating Anticipated Proposed 201213 201314 Expense 18,002 16,097 Revenue 1,984 891 Projects 201314 Eyes in the Suburbs Unique Window of Opportunity Business Hotline 110 Revenue 629 Revenue 201415 100 645 201516 100 201617 100 661 691 139
Service 7.2.1.2 Customer Service Solutions Program 7 Customer Focus The Customer Experience Transformation (CET) Program will provide detailed information about Council's customer segments and will provide the basis for further understanding the products or services that could be developed to address customers' needs. The CET Program will enable more responsive services to be developed at a lower cost and will provide Council work units with more flexible solutions to meet their needs. The objective of this service is to maintain and develop cost effective solutions for the delivery of Council products and services delivered to customers. To achieve this we will continue to manage growth in customer contacts to provide a cost effective service whilst offering choice in communication channels and providing consistent, timely and easy to understand information across all channels. The volume of email traffic continues to rise and even though call volumes remain constant, complexity of telephone enquiries continues to rise. Provision of simple information and service requests via the internet is more cost effective for customer service. The Program will continue to respond to customer demand and increase the number of online transactions that can be actioned through the corporate website and online channels. This service will continue to work across Council to deliver customer focused and innovative online solutions to help programs meet their customer and community needs. This service will continue to scrutinise the information, products and services Council offers through its channels to ensure customer needs are reflected, and it will continue to make recommendations for improvements where required. Operating Anticipated Proposed 201213 201314 Expense 9,099 11,158 Revenue Projects 201314 201415 201516 201617 Customer Experience Transformation Program 2,268 934 179 184 Revenue Customer Integration Project Stabilise SDE Environment 10,074 1,000 1,000 1,500 Revenue 1,070 Revenue Outcome 7.3 A Council Easy To Do Business With Outcome description To achieve our Customer Focus Vision by developing across Council customer focused processes and a customer focus culture aligned to customer needs and expectations. Where we are now This Program helps build a customer focused culture across Council to support the achievement of "Our Shared Vision: Living in Brisbane 2026" and the Customer Focus Vision. 140
Research is conducted to better understand customers' needs, to identify how to deliver services more effectively and efficiently, and to determine how well Council has delivered services and information. Council works towards a clearer understanding of product and service delivery requirements by identifying key customer groups, evaluating the needs of these customers and balancing those needs with Council's own business requirements and capabilities. As an outcome of this customer consultation, the Program develops strategies, guidelines, tools and methodologies to support the organisation. These include learning and development workshops which build customer focus capability within the organisation. The program also provides specialist support to other areas of Council to: assist their understanding of customers address sources of customer dissatisfaction tailor services to achieve a balance between customer needs and best value for Council empower staff to proactively manage customer expectations manage the complexity of our organisation and streamline the underlying processes. The Brisbane Customer Charter documents Council's commitments, values and service standards and communicates clearly what customers can expect from Council. Where we want to be Our Customer Focus Vision for the organisation is to be "Dedicated to Customers: Everyone. Everywhere. Every time". There will be no wrong door to Council. As One Council, all employees will understand that their role is to resolve the issue or refer the customer to someone who can. W e will have strong partnerships, communication and coordination within and between divisions and business units to provide better outcomes for customers. Strategy 7.3.1 Understand and Improve Develop customer focused processes and a customer focus culture within the organisation aligned to customer needs and expectations. Service 7.3.1.1 Understand Customers The objective of this service is to better understand customer needs, preferences and expectations, including drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. W e will be a Council that values customers equally and takes individual circumstances and preferences into account. Our customer research will inform Council's planning, design and delivery of services. Key activities of this service include: undertaking corporate customer research to measure customer satisfaction with service provision and channels and other indicators of program performance analysing results to recommend priorities for improvement using results to inform other work within the Program undertaking research to support specific customer focus improvement initiatives collecting and analysing data to determine customer service trends measuring performance to ensure service delivery targets are met reporting results to the organisation. Key initiatives include undertaking targeted research across channels and services to expand our understanding of customer experience, expectations and needs. The Program will continue to work to develop partnerships to identify, research and address issues impacting customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction and value for money will be improved by addressing customer service problems and dissatisfaction identified through engagement and research initiatives. 141
Operating Expense Revenue Anticipated 201213 198 Proposed 201314 203 Service 7.3.1.2 Customer Focus Culture The objective of this service is to provide assistance to the organisation to be a Council dedicated to serving customers. Employees in every role and at every level of the organisation are energised and proud to serve customers. To achieve this we will promote proactive customer focused behaviours and build capability within Council. This service: will educate and provide tools and methodologies to all of Council to develop a customer focus culture will work with areas of Council to develop strategies that balance Council needs with those of our customers works to review services offered by work units to streamline processes to provide seamless service to our customers assists work units to enhance satisfaction with both internal and external customers. is responsible for developing strategies to achieve the Customer Focus Vision. Key activities under this service include: delivering the customer focused learning and development program identifying, analysing and prioritising areas of customer dissatisfaction and customer focus issues for action and engaging stakeholder groups for improvement facilitating options for improved customer and business solutions facilitating the implementation of customer focus initiatives throughout Council developing, reviewing and refreshing Channel Management strategies delivering initiatives to support channel migration. Operating Anticipated Proposed 201213 201314 Expense 839 865 Revenue 142
Project Total Project Expenditure Combined with Rolling Projects 201314 201415 201516 201617 Customer Experience Transformation Program 3,201 179 184 0 Customer Integration Project 10,074 1,000 1,000 1,500 Eyes in the Suburbs 110 100 100 100 Stabilise SDE Environment 1,070 0 0 0 Unique Window of Opportunity Business Hotline 629 645 661 691 TOTAL 15,084 1,924 1,945 2,291 143