Construction on One-Stop-Shop to Start Soon

After months of work behind the scenes on the Hastings District Council Customer Service Project, construction will soon begin on the Customer Service Centre on Lyndon Road.

Tenders for the project, which will assist the local building industry at a time it really needs it, were invited earlier this month from to six Hastings District-based companies.

The tender will be let in the next week or so and work is due to start a few weeks after that on a single-point-of-contact “one-stop-shop” on the ground floor of the existing Civic Buildings. Currently customers visit six reception areas throughout Council buildings, so the centre represents a major change in how Council interacts with customers.
The construction of the new centre will begin a two stage process that results in; HDC engineers currently housed two blocks away moving home to Lyndon Rd, staff who speak to customers more moving closer to the one-stop-shop in the Civic Building and a phone contact centre established at Heretaunga House on Lyndon Rd.

Manager in charge of the Customer Service Project, Mike Maguire says the physical changes of the project are just the tip of the iceberg.

Months of work have gone into Council’s knowledge-base, a system that centralises council information so it’s easily accessible to customer service staff, and therefore customers. Another complimentary system will track customer enquiries from inception to completion.

“We’ve been gathering information about the thousands of enquiries Council receives every week. The knowledge base covers every activity council undertakes and provides a streamlined way to see those enquires satisfied.

“This is about putting the customer at the front edge of everything we do. Customer service is not about buildings, it’s about attitudes. It’s about providing first-class service to all our customers,” Mr Maguire says.

The one-stop-shop is due to be completed in September and the phone contact centre is due to be launched at the same time.