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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Customer Service


I don't have occassion to call city hall all that often, so I may not have the best read of this. However, on those occassions when I have called city hall or other city services, about 85% of the time, I found the customer service to be good or better than good. Sure, I've had the odd experience where the person on the other end of the phone or counter, was either unhelpful or "cranky", or occasions where I found myself in voice mail hell, but for the most part, I think I've received good service.

What has your experience been? Do you have examples of good or bad customer service when contacting city personnel? Any advice or kudos? Note; may be best to describe circumstances rather than naming people.

2 comments:

  1. Brian Henley +September 23, 2009

    Hi :
    I personally have never had a problem with the call centre personnel - not once. On occasion, I have had an issue which was beyond the call centre's usual compliment of abilities to answer questions, and had to be transferred to public works and or waste management. That is when a delay occurred - and I can only assume it was a volume of calls matter. By-law enforcement can be busy too but connection is made in a reasonable time when required. As a general rule, I think that city staff are very professional - hardworking and service-oriented. It is the politicians that are the problem, not returning calls, answering e-mails etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MAWSeptember 23, 2009

    I haven't called city hall in years, thanks to modern technology such as e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and even snail mail.

    When it comes to city hall staff answering questions, using a telephone is nebulous and relies on verbal responses with no record of accountability on either side, uless callers are warned first that their interaction will be recorded for training purposes.

    For instance, my blue-bin was damaged in the freezing winter due to rough handling, same for the sweet elderly neighbour across the street.

    She came to see me to ask what to do about her broken blue-bin, I told her I would see what I could do.

    I wrote an e-mail to my Councillor outlining the situation we both faced and new blue-bins were delivered in a timely fashion, before the next pick-up.

    Ten guesses who delivered them in person, despite their busy schedule?

    ReplyDelete

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