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Customer
centres a success
By PTE John Wellfare
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Customer
Service representative Adriano Scalzo serves FLTSGT Caroline
Godfrey in Defence HQ’s CSC.
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Photo
by PTE John Wellfare
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CSIG’s
roles can be split into six functions, each
of which offer a number of services to units
and individual members.
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Base
support: meals, accommodation, access, cleaning,
pest control, petrol, fire fighting and rescue.
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Infrastructure:
maintaining buildings and equipment, property
acquisition, leasing, water, electricity, gas,
computers and communication.
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Personnel
services: laundry, sport, relocations, personnel
administration, education and training, special
financial claims and alternative dispute resolution.
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Corporate
support: insurance, legal and environment services.
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Financial
and business services: printing, publishing,
multimedia, libraries, accounts receivable,
debt management, mail, travel, records and accounts
payment.
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ABOUT
55 CSIG customer service centres will be opened throughout Australia
during the next year after a three-month trial of the new system
has deemed it a success.
The customer service centres, which can be approached for access
to all CSIG-related products and services, from on-base support
to travel and administration, have been introduced in conjunction
with a telephone and web-based service.
The new service centres will replace shopfronts and other customer
service access points, offering the same services as well as access
to all other CSIG products.
Change Manager for CSIG’s Customer Service Delivery Improvement
Project, Louise Burgess, said the service centre staff initially
had to overcome the hurdle of informing members of the services
they could offer.
“One of the key responses [from the trial] was that our customers
recognised that we had the three ways of accessing CSIG services,
but they didn’t know what those services were; they didn’t
know why they’d come to us,” she said.
“What we’re focusing on for the next part is getting
that connection with the customers.”
Ms Burgess said one of the key aims of the improvement project
had been to ensure a degree of continuity between all the service
centres and the three methods of accessing CSIG’s services.
“When you’re posted to Darwin and then get posted to
Adelaide, you want to know that you’ll get the same type
of service,” she said.
“You’ll recognise the location of these customer service
centres because they have the same look and feel, and you’ll
know what you can get from them because it will be exactly the
same as what you could get in any of the Customer Service Centres.
And if you want, you could call 1800 DEFENCE and you’d get
the same experience as well.”
Employing the right staff has been an important part of the transition
to customer service centres, Ms Burgess said, with the project
team taking a different approach to the recruitment process.
“It’s a customer service-based job, so we’re not
necessarily looking for people who know CSIG’s products and
services inside out – we’ve got an awesome training
program that we put these people through and we’re comfortable
that we can teach them the information – it’s the service
delivery skills, which are very intrinsic skills, that we’re
really making sure that we’re getting.
“We’ve been using assessment centres, which traditionally
haven’t been used for more junior-level staff – they’re
typically for more senior positions.
“It’s important that the same types of people deliver
the services that we offer.
We can support [service centre staff] information-wise through
our systems and through our training, but if they’re not
the right people to start with then we’re never going to
get what we need and, more importantly, nor will our customers.”
A concern for the project team in developing the telephone service
had been ensuring members wouldn’t be bogged down in pre-recorded
menus and on-hold messages while negotiating the broad range of
services offered by CSIG.
“The more products and services you take on, you really need
to think about what the customers are expecting to get and ...
that the customer experience is a clean one and an easy one.”
National Operations Division change management and communications
officer Paula Sear, who supported the evaluation of the service
centre trial, said initial responses to the phone service had
been positive.
“Most [callers] have had to navigate one or two menus and
90 per cent have said that the instructions are easy to follow,”
she said.
“Sixty-one per cent say that they received the answer to
their query from the initial operator.”
The 55 new service centres will begin to be established from August
and are expected to all be operating by June next year.
How to contact CSIG
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The
three ways to access CSIG’s products and services are:
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