Christchurch City Council’s Contact Centre has been ranked one of the best in the country – for the fourth year in a row.

The Council’s Customer Services team has come out on top winning the Gold Award in the Supreme Awards category at the CRM/CCNNZ Contact Centre Awards on Friday 15 September.

Additionally, for the fourth year in a row, the team has taken out the Industry Sector Awards for Public Services.

“I’m immensely proud of the team each year we win an award, and winning a Supreme Award this year just shows the exceptional service and dedication our Customer Services team provides residents of Christchurch,” says Christchurch City Council Chief Executive Dawn Baxendale.

Judging for the award involved a series of “mystery contacts” over a 10-week period. A score is assigned to ten specific components of a customer service interaction. Examples of these are:

• Time to answer
• Greeting – how and what is said
• Quality of Listening
• Overall Attitude
• Professionalism
• Value Add (Anticipating future needs)

Head of Customer Services Sarah Numan says “the team have a huge focus on customers and delivering the best service possible to the community. They work tirelessly every day to make the customer experience a great one.

Staff are available 24 hours a day seven days a week, even on Christmas Day, so there’s always someone here to answer calls and respond to emails or social media queries”.

“Residents also appreciate that we’re local, and we’re here to answer the public’s calls promptly. Helping people out is what we do.

The Council’s Customer Services team can be reached by calling 03 941 8999 or emailing info@ccc.govt.nz. Additionally, you can head into one of the service centres around the city during their opening hours.