MEDIA RELEASE

November 21, 2013

Consent applicants rate ORC service highly

Customer satisfaction among resource consent applicants dealing with ORC was considerably higher in 2012-13 than the previous two financial years, a council survey has found.

Ninety-four percent of respondents to ORC’s annual consent customer satisfaction questionnaire rated the service they received as either excellent or good, compared to 78 percent and 73 percent respectively.

ORC carries out the survey to identify which parts of the consent applications process people are happy with and areas where improvement may be required.

Forty-nine questionnaires were returned out of 257 sent, which is above the recognised average return rate for postal surveys.

There were noticeable increases in the percentage of people who rated the assistance they received from staff before filing their application as excellent, with 48 percent of the 44 respondents to this question doing so, compared to 39 percent in 2012 and 38 percent in 2011.

Respondents rating staff assistance during the consent process as excellent rose similarly from 37 percent in 2011 and 34 percent in 2012 to 49 percent.

The clarity of information in letters applicants received from staff received an excellent rating from 51 percent of the 41 respondents to the question, up from 30 percent and 33 percent respectively.

Satisfaction about the time taken to improve consent applications also improved markedly from 45 percent in 2011 and 41 percent in 2012 to 58 percent in 2013 (25 out of 43 respondents).

ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said the improvements in customer satisfaction were pleasing.

“The survey results accurately reflect the continuous improvements we are making to consent processing so we provide a faster and more efficient service to applicants, in line with public feedback and Government guidelines.”

“However, this doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. We will be looking at areas where improvements are needed and also striving to further improve customer satisfaction in areas where we’ve been rated highly.”

ENDS