While call centres are generally associated with offshore operations, Access Canberra continues to keep it as local as you can get, with a team of 60 locals on hand helping Canberrans with their Canberra issues.
Access Canberra Senior Customer Service Officer Ryan Bacon is a part of that team, working the phones at their Dickson call centre.
He said while there are peak times, the calls pour through all day long and keep the team busy.
“The lion’s share of what we do is registration and license renewals, as well as paying rate notices and general advice.
“I’ve recently had a call from someone who was enquiring whether their house was haunted, and whether the ACT Government has an organisation equipped to deal with that.
“Unfortunately, the ACT Government’s ghostbuster protocol hasn’t come in to play yet.”
While more than 330 services and transactions are available at accesscanberra.act.gov.au, Mr Bacon said some people simply prefer to speak to someone over the phone, and that their recent call-back service has been appreciated by those on the other end of the line.
“People have busy lives, so if we can call them back rather than them having wait in the queue they really appreciate it, and the whole interaction is a lot more positive.”
More than 3,000 Canberrans have been helped through the Access Canberra’s new call-back service to date.
Minister for Business and Regulatory Services Gordon Ramsay said the new service, where people can choose to receive a same day call-back rather than wait on the line, is operational.
“The call-back service is just another way Access Canberra is making it simpler and easier for the community to transact with government,” he said.
“This is in addition to the 8,300 calls the team answers each week to help our community to get the information they need.”
Access Canberra also answers questions and provides information through their website’s chat function.
“Each week the team does more than 250 web chats, which is a great way for community members to get information they need quickly,” Minister Ramsay said.
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