City of Ballarat Council has taken out the national and state Customer Service Award in the Snap Send Solve 2023 Solver of the Year Awards.
Snap Send Solve is a mobile app that allows residents to report issues to relevant authorities.
The Snap Send Solve Solver of the Year Awards highlight top performing organisations across several categories on the Snap Send Solve app, which is widely used across Australia and New Zealand.
The Customer Service Award recognises the organisation with the highest star rating by users and the highest percentage of updates provided to users who have made reports.
Throughout 2023, 2,015 people made 6,434 reports to the Council, which is nearly three times the number of reports handled in 2022.
Mayor, Des Hudson said the announcement of the national customer service award follows extensive efforts by Council to improve customer service across the organisation, particularly in the digital space.
“We heard from the community that improving communication with residents who contact the City of Ballarat — particularly via our digital channels, such as Snap Send Solve — was a priority,” he said.
“This national Customer Service award is a testament to the hard work of our Customer Service staff during 2023 to provide the best possible service to our community.”
Council’s efforts have included trialing new systems to increase communication and improve feedback to residents who report issues via the Snap Send Solve app by creating a new Digital and Emerging Customer Experience Officer position. A significant element of this role is to monitor Snap Send Solve reports and to communicate updates to app users, and to close the loop with them when their report is completed, the Mayor said.
Council has also created its first Customer Charter — a document outlining what residents can expect when interacting with the City of Ballarat which includes a series of Customer Response Standards.
