So far Kate, who began her shift at 8am, has booked multiple customers in for building inspections, she’s requested the Street Cleaning Team respond to a report of a mattress dumped on a footpath, and she’s asked the Roading Team to contact a customer who wants to find out more about the resealing work that is happening on their street.
She has also logged reports of water leaks, a missed recycling collection, tagging outside an animal charity op-shop, and notified the relevant teams to respond.
In one hour, Oscar, another Contact Centre team member, has taken 13 calls.
These include queries about recycling calendars, road closures, an illegally parked motorcycle, paying for coupon parking, and a complaint about an overgrown section neighbouring a customer’s property.
Whether it’s a person reporting graffiti, checking their rates bill, or asking about the weather, there’s always someone listening and ready to find the answer – any hour, every single day of the year.
The Contact Centre is always on.
A dedicated team answer up to 1000 calls a day, with a wide range of queries coming from Wellingtonians. They may be reporting a problem or street lighting outage, calling about noise control, or lodging a complaint.
Senior team member Megan says people call the Contact Centre on matters ranging from parking in the city and building consents, to roaming dogs and fallen trees.
They even receive calls from “some regulars” who just want to have a friendly chat.
“We have a guy who is guaranteed to call in everyday asking about the weather.”
Megan says many of the staff often have MetService’s Wellington weather forecast webpage up and ready, anticipating his call.
“Some people also call for directions when they get lost – they see the phone number on the nearest parking metre and call up to see if we can help find where they are going to.”
And then there’s the “ideas man”.
Everyone in the Contact Centre perks up when he's mentioned.
“He’s a good call,” says Kate.
“He’s been calling since I started two years ago. He just calls up with ideas or for a chat. And he invites us to his exhibitions.”