The fine line tween excellent and pathetic customer service

[stui magpie]

So had a day off today and rather than just chill and enjoy the weather (stupid me) I thought it would be a good opportunity to take mum to Vicroads and transfer her license from NSW to Vic.

I started by checking on the Vicroads website what we had to do. Apparently you need an appointment, so I rang them up.

The girl on the phone was great (after a 6 minute wait), and went out of her way to be helpful. I asked for an appointment at the office nearest to me. Next available sometime in May.
I've got a day off today and won't have another for a few weeks, any chance of getting in somewhere today?
She finds an 11:50 appointment in Carlton which is apparently the only one available in metro Vic today, I take it.

Get the old girl saddled up, drive in is average, Alexandra Ave is a fkn carpark, but we get in there 10 minutes early.

First nice surprise, they have a concierge (they call it triage) who is floating round where people come in to help them out, answer questions and dire3ct them where they need to be. Big tick.

(There's a massive sign when you first walk in the door saying appointments here, everything else go upstairs. The number of dickheads who wandered in looking lost, walked up to someone, were asked if they had an appointment, said no and were then told to go upstairs was fkn unreal. The fkn letters are 20cm tall, how the hell can you not see them? )

Anyway, we fill in the form, the concierge chick comes over, asks if we have an appointment, (yes) checks we have the right form, (tick), all good fill in the form and take a seat, won't be long. (Big tick overall)

Sit down at 11:45. 3 people working the counter, plus a couple more to the left managing the ones coming in to do a P's or L's test and an old bloke dealing with rego's

12:00 comes, 10 minutes after the appointment, the counter staff all get up, go through a door to outside and walk off to get lunch. The concierge chick has already gone.

WTF?

OK, you're entitled to have a lunch break, no issues, but ever heard of staggering them so someone at least stays at the counter? Massive fail.

12:30 comes, no one has been at the counter and I'm getting annoyed. So I walk over to one of the people at the other counter dealing with license tests and ask, nicely, WTF is going on, we had an appointment for 11:50.

massive apologies, do you have an appointment number? Open the text I got and hand over my phone so she can read it herself. Lots of key strokes into the computer and some scribbling on a piece of paper, so sorry she can't help me, the person is on a break and will be back soon.

Sit back down and see the counter staff through the window strolling back from lunch. Soon as the girl sits down at the right counter the girl I spoke to is over to her pointing to the paper she scribbled on.

"Jamie" she calls. No response. "Jamie" she calls again. Looks confused. looks to the girl who wrote on the paper, she points at me, I'm borderline fuming. She calls us up. Janice, Jamie, easy mistake to make when the person writing the name is using hieroglyphics.

Get up to the counter and it's obvious that the girl is feeling stressed by the fact that I'm obviously pissed off. I'm being very conscious of keeping both tone and language measured and pleasant, I'm not raising my voice, swearing, being demonstrative or anything else, the cap is on tight but she's feeling it still and the computer isn't working for her.

The other girl takes over, she's just as nervous ( Do I look like someone important? I've had this reaction before ) but she gets it together, processes everything, starts to relax a bit and makes some small talk which mum is happy to join into (she'd talk to a fkn statue, I swear) and it's all done quickly and professionally. (Tick)

So if I had to rate my experience with dealing with the Vicroads staff at Carlton I'd give them 10/10 for customer service. Unfortunately, $£$%^%%$ up the appointment and all pissing off to lunch leaving us sitting there for 30 minutes mean they go from a 10/10 to an abject fail.

It's a fine line.

[think positive]

Gees, I just about live at VicRoads hoppers crossing and they are awesome, never have to wait. That's a bugger

(Id talk to the statue too!)

[luvdids]

And the lesson learnt?? Always avoid anything to do with Carlton!!

Can't believe they all go to lunch together, but then, government departments aren't known for intelligence.

[Dangles]

[partypie]

They should have staggered breaks. All the mucking around apologising etc is a waste of time and should be prevented in the first place.oh, that's right they are a monoploy

[Bruce Gonsalves]

[ronrat]

They do it in Immigration in Thailand to. Except they are Police, 12,30 down tools and gone. Reopen 30 minutes later. you get used to it and do what I do, turn up after 1.00.

[HAL]

Like who, specifically does?

[think positive]

[David]

I've been to Carlton VicRoads a couple of times now and never had a problem. I guess like anywhere you get your good days and bad days. The thing of everyone going to lunch at once is odd and, I would have thought, more than a little unprofessional (we're talking about a government agency here, not a Spanish family restaurant).

[Pies4shaw]

Odd? It's inexcusable. I'm constantly amazed that this sort of behaviour doesn't provoke more outrage.

[stui magpie]

So this morning had a couple of examples of excellent customer service.

Mum wanted to get the flu shot but when she went to the pharmacy they told her she needed to go to a doctor first and get a script before they could do it, so I took her up to my local GP surgery this morning. She needed to get a new local dr and rather than just ring and make an appointment I drove her there and took her in so she could see how to get there etc so she could do it herself.

So strolled in and introduced mum to the receptionist, said she'd moved down from the country and wanted to transfer her records down here and she also wanted a flu shot.

So got the papers done to register her on their system as a patient, then rather than make an appointment for during the week, the receptionist said, just wait and I'll see if one of the doctors has a moment now. Off she went, 5 minutes later once of the doctors calls mum in, quick G'day, gives her the flu shot and back she comes.

So while mum is sitting down for the 15 minutes you're supposed to rest, the receptionist and I quickly filled in the paperwork to transfer mums records down. Then I asked her what we owed for the visit and she looked at me and said, "We don't normally bulk bill on a Saturday, but I'll just run this through as a bulk billing".

Cool, thank you very much.

While I was there I made an appointment for myself as I'm out of one of my blood pressure meds and down to the last handful of another. All good, dropped mum off home then shot down to the pharmacy.

I'm out of prescriptions and out of one of the tablets, so I asked if I could just get a weeks supply to last me til after my next appointment. The chick behind the counter took my medicare card, checked my history (I've been getting scripts from the same place for 10 years) and the pharmacist rather than giving me a weeks worth as a wedge, just gave me another 3 months packet. Bewdy Newk.

It's customer service like that, that makes your morning.

[think positive]

That is really good. Well done