Lismore City Council has unveiled the findings from its most comprehensive Customer Experience Survey to date, shedding light on community perceptions of the council's performance, areas of strength, and opportunities for improvement.
The survey, conducted over a three-month period, engaged a record-breaking 530 participants through face-to-face interactions at prominent local spots such as the 2023 Back Lismore Show, The Quad, Nimbin, as well as online platforms.
Council's Executive Officer for Customer Strategy, Don Wilson, said the substantial response rate underscores the survey's statistical significance, boasting a confidence level of 95% in terms of accuracy.
"This kind of feedback and data plays a critical role in providing Councillors and senior management with actionable insights to enhance community engagement and service delivery," he said.
"I want to extend my gratitude to all participants who dedicated their time to complete this pivotal survey.
"It provides Council with a baseline that not only shows us where we should focus our efforts but also lets us measure the effectiveness of our actions. It's important we listen to our community and insert their voice in our plans from early in the design phase."
The survey delved into various themes, gauging perceptions on accessibility to assistance, familiarity with Council services, preferred communication channels, perceived value of time, sense of being heard, and levels of trust in Council's commitments.
Encouragingly, 80% said it was easy to connect with Council with 61% saying their issue was resolved during first contact, 65% preferred direct human contact and 34% preferring self-service.
One of the key messages was that Council's communication must be diverse with 63% preferring an email advising of any delays, while 24% preferred a text.
Of the topics people wanted to hear about, 70% nominated community events, followed by roads (54%), environmental initiatives (49%), grants (44%) and recovery (41%).
Slightly more than 70% said they wanted to interact with Council at a time that suited them, 96% wanted simple processes to resolve an issue with 70% saying current processes are too time consuming. 89% said they only wanted to tell their story once, rather than repeat it if they are referred to another staff member.
Showing room for improvement, only 43% said Council resolved issues promptly and 67% saying Council represented all customers across the Local Government Area.
Mr Wilson said the findings reflected a constructive dialogue between Council and the community.
""Listening to our community directly and integrating their feedback into our strategies from the outset is critical," he said.
"Many of the results would not surprise those who have dealt with Council in the past, what's exciting is the commitment from council to make things better.
"While it shows some areas that Council is doing well, it also reveals the areas we can improve. This may be as simple as changing a process or introducing new software and technology to make sure we are fit for the future. That will now form part of the work going forward."
Demographically, the survey achieved balanced representation across gender, age groups, and geographical locations, encompassing feedback from 40 distinct villages.
Council received 60 responses from those aged between 12 and 17 who wanted more activities, improved facilities and fixing flood-affected roads.
About 60% said they would become more involved if given the chance with 42% telling Council they do not feel consulted on matters that affected them.
Of the 156 people who have specific needs, 32% said more should be done to help and wanted better communication, consideration of their needs when designing new infrastructure, enhanced engagement, quiet spaces at events and better promotion of services.
Of the 240 who said they were environmentally engaged, 49% said they wanted to hear about Council's environmental initiatives and 40% said they were interested in koala management but only 3% knew about Council's Environment Team.
Lismore City Council's General Manager Jon Gibbons affirmed the organisation's readiness to translate survey findings into tangible actions.
"We know we have the right team in place to deliver on what our community has told us," he said.
"The past year has been focused on stability and we're excited that our future work will be informed by this extensive community research."
The research findings are being used to inform Council's customer strategies, which set the direction for how council engages with our community and delivers customer service.
