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Projex Unlimited has been working with the New Plymouth District Council on its customer service initiative Customer First since 2001. In that time Customer First Manager Guy Bodger has seen a myriad of changes which are slowly but surely transforming the organisation. It's Continuous Process Improvement in action, Guy says. Customer First has about 20 project streams, and Projex Unlimited principal Suzie Patrick has assisted with the management of every one.
"I don't want a consultant to pull the organisation apart and then depart. It's about evolution not revolution most of the time. At every step Suzie is there helping to refine the process to suit our needs. It's a completely different way of working from some consultants who will spend a long time analysing and come up with one perfect solution that no-one will buy into."
Guy tells about the solution Suzie proposed
to streamline customer calls about water issues.
"People would ring up and say: 'There's water running down outside
our house'. The customer service team would check with the water services
people and find out they were doing maintenance in that street. But they
hadn't let the front line staff know. They didn't understand the call
centre world."
Suzie believed the problem was a breakdown in internal communication,
but knew she wouldn't get the co-operation from busy works staff unless
they could see the benefits.
So within a matter of days she mocked up an Intranet system for staff
to try out.
They were sold on it. The system made it easy for maintenance staff to
let their colleagues know what they were doing. And by referring to the
Intranet front-line staff could answer queries about mysterious water
flows on the spot.
"It was a much better professional service straight away."
Guy says the incident demonstrates the collection of talents - knowledge,
flexibility, a practical, 'get things done' attitude, people skills and
passion - that make Projex Unlimited unique among organisational consultancy
services.
Continuous improvement is becoming a way
of life at the New Plymouth District Council.
"We can always do better. Using Suzie's knowledge and skills it's
getting to the stage that we're seeing improvements all the time,"
Guy said.