Customer Service Charter
On this page:
Service commitment
Merri-bek’s Customer Service Strategy ensures we put customer service first. We set out to consistently provide customer-centric service by skilled staff.
Download our strategy:
How you can help us
- Know your options - You can get in contact with us in many ways including online, phone, in person and mail.
- Keep us up to date - Your personal details are important, let us know when you move or your contact details change.
- Talk to us - We need your feedback to ensure we improve our level of service.
- Tell us what you need - Give us detailed information relating to your query. If you need a specific expert, let us know.
- Respect - Treat our staff with the courtesy that we strive to show you every day. We value safety in the workplace and do not tolerate any form of sexual harassment whilst working for our community.
Future focus
We will continue our commitment to:
- Being equitable - Remaining open and accessible to the whole community.
- Taking ownership - Responding to all issues about our services and service providers.
- Investing in our people - Recruiting and training quality staff. Empowering staff with the right tools to meet your needs.
- Working smarter - Choosing the right systems to help our staff improve our services.
- Protecting your rights - Keeping your personal information private, in line with legislative requirements.
Service standards
- Online - our website will provide accurate and relevant information for our residents, businesses and visitors. We aim to provide updates via social media and respond to enquiries made via social media within 24 hours.
- Email and online requests - For general enquiries we will acknowledge or resolve your enquiry within three working days. If an enquiry cannot be resolved in this time, we will send you an email to tell you which department is managing your enquiry and when we expect to resolve it.
- Phone - We will answer calls promptly and try to resolve enquiries immediately. When your enquiry needs specialist attention, we will endeavour not to transfer you more than once. We will provide you with timeframes for requests that cannot be resolved instantly.
- In person - We aim to resolve face-to-face enquiries immediately. When this is not possible, we may phone or write to you with a response.
- Mail - For general enquiries we will acknowledge or resolve your enquiry within 10 working days. For enquiries that cannot be resolved in 10 working days, we will send you a letter or email to tell you which area is looking after your enquiry and when we expect to resolve it.
Our values
Our corporate values support our Customer Service Strategy and Customer Service Charter.
We deliver important services to a great community, through people who enjoy their work and are proud to work for Merri-bek.
- Customers and Community First - We acknowledge our main purpose is to work with our community and customers
- Respect - We will support and value others
- Personal accountability - We take pride in our work and are responsible for doing it well
- Integrity - We will do what we say
- One team - We will work within and across the organisation to achieve community outcomes.
Connecting with our community
We endeavour to engage and respect our customers when making decisions on our customer service delivery.
- We put customer service first
- We respect and cater for the diversity of our community
- We keep you up to date on current events and information that may affect you
- We try to refer you to relevant organisations for non-council matters
- We value our customers and community
Complaint process
We will investigate your complaint and attempt to resolve it within 28 days where possible. If we cannot resolve your complaint within 28 days we will contact you to let you know that we need extra time to investigate.
See more information on our complaint process.
Evaluating our performance
Your feedback helps us monitor and improve our services. To evaluate our performance, we use:
- Customer satisfaction surveys
- Community engagement feedback
- Third-party audits