4 Centrelink — Concept Office

Summary

Since the establishment of Centrelink’s Tuggeranong ACT Customer Service Centre as a ‘concept office’ in 2006, it has played a key role in carrying forward Centrelink’s corporate strategy of refocussing its business processes on a more customer driven approach rather than the traditional service delivery paradigm.

The ‘concept office’ provides a standing capability to trial and fully evaluate potential service delivery improvements under actual workplace conditions prior to wider roll-out across the Customer Service Centre network.

Examples of innovations aimed at improving the customer experience that have been developed and which are now applied within the Centrelink Customer Service Centre network include:

• establishing a more welcoming environment via removal of counter barriers, with office layout being based on an open architecture;
• having customers met at the door by a ‘Customer Liaison Officer’ who can make initial inquiries concerning their business and either direct them to self-help facilities or, using an ultra mobile computer, log them into the queue for the relevant service;
• separating the office into red and green zones, with the red or ‘active’ zone providing self-help facilities for ‘mutual obligation’ customers seeking employment and the green or ‘supportive’ zone for people looking for other services; and
• providing access to relevant websites, photocopying and printing services for customers.

An important element in the ‘concept office’ approach is a preparedness to look beyond the linear service delivery approach previously applied. As part of this philosophy, a retail design consultancy was engaged by Centrelink to contribute ideas developed in the retail sector.

Similarly, the role that the Centrelink Customer Service Centres can play in meeting the overall needs of its client base is being reconsidered. Shared services arrangements with Housing ACT (officers available on site two days a week) and Medicare Australia (officers on site for four hours one day a week) have been instituted and a referral service for the Australian Taxation Office are being trialled. A truncated program was run in 2008 but a short lead-time and technical issues hampered the trial and it will be run again in 2009.

The ‘concept office’ innovations have been associated with tangible benefits. The overall result of innovations trialled during the first 12 months operation of the ‘concept office’ were improved customer satisfaction, reduced incidence of aggressive client behaviour and lower levels of staff absenteeism.

Relevant chronology

August 2006 — Brainstorming session for Centrelink senior management about how its service delivery arrangements might be changed to better meet Government and community expectations led to the establishment of the Integrated Service Delivery Network Taskforce. The ‘concept office’ was put forward as an initiative that would provide a focal point for methodically initiating and trialling innovations that might be applied to Centrelink’s network of Customer Service Centres;

December 2006 — The use of the Tuggeranong Customer Service Centre as a ‘concept office’ approved by Centrelink Executive;

2007 onwards — A series of innovations have been trialled in the ‘concept office’, including:

• establishing a more welcoming environment via removal of counter barriers and having customers met at the door by a ‘Customer Liaison Officer’ who can make initial inquiries concerning their business and, if the customer’s enquiry cannot be dealt with on the spot, either direct them to self-help facilities or log them into the queue for the relevant service utilising an ultra mobile computer;
• separating the office into red and green zones; the red or ‘active’ zone providing self help facilities for ‘mutual obligation’ customers seeking employment and the green or ‘supportive’ zone for people looking for other services;
• providing access to relevant websites, photocopying and printing services for customers;
• shared services arrangements with Housing ACT (officers available on site two days a week) and Medicare Australia (officers on site for four hours one day a week);
• a referral service for the Australian Taxation Office (a truncated program was run in 2008 but a short lead-time and technical issues hampered the trial and it will be run again in 2009);
• funding a free corporate wardrobe for office staff;
• providing café facilities; and
• touch screen in window to allow customers to access, not only Centrelink, but also other relevant, community information without entering office.

Key observations from case study

Major innovations

The Centrelink ‘concept office’ forms a key part of Centrelink’s corporate strategy to refocus its business processes on a more customer driven approach rather than the traditional paradigm of service delivery. As part of this approach Centrelink has committed itself to achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction from their interaction with Centrelink through its Customer Service Centre network. The ‘concept office’ provides a capability to trial and evaluate potential service delivery improvements under actual workplace conditions prior to wider roll-out across the Customer Service Centre network.

Observations and lessons learned

• Responding to a need — Improving customer satisfaction with their interaction with Centrelink and delivering better social policy outcomes are key to Centrelink’s corporate strategy;
• Built on previous experience — The success of a prior initiative involving a retail design consultancy in upgrading nearly half of Centrelink’s Customer Services Centres provided a high level of confidence that innovations in the Customer Service Centre experience could deliver major benefits;
• High level organisational support — The Centrelink executive demonstrated a high degree of commitment to ongoing innovation in Centrelink service delivery arrangements and the role that the ‘concept office’ can play in delivering that innovation;
• Experimentation and learning by doing — Willingness to trial new and different approaches in an operational setting, providing a sound basis for assessing what does and does not work; and
• Positive outcomes — The overall results of innovations trialled during the first 12 months operation of the ‘concept office’ were improved customer satisfaction, reduced incidence of aggressive client behaviour and lower levels of staff absenteeism.

 

 

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