By Nangamso Mabindla

Since it launch, Buffalo City's Customer Care Centre in East London has made huge strides in smoothing communications between the municipality and its residents, says Alderman John Badenhorst.

Councillor Badenhorst was speaking at an Institute of Municipal Finance Officers seminar attended by delegates from different municipalities and businesses.

The municipality started the Customer Care Centre last November in an effort to improve relations with customers, the councillor told the delegates. The municipality also wanted to encourage customers to pay on time for services.

"For the Customer Care Centre to succeed it was imperative we put the people we represent high on our list of priorities," Badenhorst said. "We needed to assure them of our commitment to our core responsibility of service delivery."

The Customer Care Centre has streamlined communication links between the various municipal departments and Buffalo City's residents. "People have called me saying that since the centre opened, they have found that the municipality had reacted swiftly to their complaints," Badenhorst said.

Customers used the centre to get advice on municipal services, lodge complaints and report faults. Another aspect of the Customer Care Centre, according to Badenhorst, was that it had improved the municipality's revenue collection and had played an important role in communicating the Credit Control Policy to residents. "In December we exceeded our targets of revenue collection," said Badenhorst, "and we were also able to simplify the credit control policy to the customers."

The Pay-and-Win Competition, held over December to encourage customers to pay their bills, had also proved to be a success. "We were a bit sceptical of this competition initially, but its success has surprised most of us here at the municipality."

The success of the Customer Care Centre also led to good relations between the municipality and its business partners. "When we succeed in our revenue collection businesses, and indeed the citizens, are all happy. We are able to deliver on our services to our partners."

The Customer Care Centre at the Trust Bank Building on the corner of North and Oxford streets, East London, operates daily from 7am to 8am with extended office hours at month-end.