By Nangamso Mabindla
22 August 2005

ITS citizens have given Buffalo City the thumbs up when it comes to good customer service. This is according to the results of the Customer Care Survey undertaken by the City in May.

Supported by the national Treasury, the survey aimed to assist the municipality in its drive to be result-oriented in the delivery of services. A total of 2 000 households were canvassed on municipal services, ranging from traffic and grass cutting to water, electricity, roads and others.

Senior Communication Officer Mamnkeli Ngam said 2 000 questionnaires were administered, 500 for commercial and industrial properties and 1 500 for residential properties.

"This sample was based on the municipal billing list and selected randomly," he explained.

The results of the survey, conducted on behalf of the city by a service provider, were officially presented to City Manager Mxolisi Tsika and his directors on Monday, August 22.

It found a Buffalo City Municipality satisfaction index of 59 percent. This involved weighing up the answers, with five points for every satisfied customer and a minus point for every dissatisfied customer, with proportional weighing in-between.

"The 59 percent index is better than a pass mark but it leaves room for improvement," Ngam said.

On top of the list was the friendliness and competence of the City's staff and its clean and well-maintained facilities. Water services and refuse collection got a 77 percent rating. Fire and traffic control received a 67 percent satisfaction rating, while 70 percent of respondents called on the City to do more about job creation and the development of the local economy.

According to the latest Integrated Development Plan, 53 percent of the city's 880 000 citizens were unemployed.

"Citizens from place like Ginsberg, Duncan Village and East London said the city needed to be more creative when it came to job creation. They suggested that chicken projects should be encouraged for economic development," Ngam explained.

The survey results would be forwarded to all the municipality's directorates for discussion and incorporation into their plans for the future.

"We also hope that from the survey we are able to come up with a Customer Service Charter and Customer Care Strategy," Ngam said.

The City hoped to make the exercise an annual means of keeping in touch with its citizens, to listen to what they had to say about service delivery and where the City needed to make improvements.