Consents and inspection services - 2011

	How it Works
Introduction	How it Works	Registration	Project Updates

Available to local councils in New Zealand, each of the studies asks customers to provide feedback about their experience with specific council services during the past 12 months. The studies are conducted using a combination of mail-based and on-line surveys. Each study produces a confidential comprehensive council-specific report for each participating council.

How the studies work:

The study benefits from as wide a customer-participation as possible; hence we invite all councils in New Zealand to encourage their consent and inspection services customers to take part in the on-line survey at no charge.

A mail-based response process is available for individual participating councils should it be required. (A "per-response" fee for mail-based responses is charged to participating councils to cover the cost of return postage and data processing).

A range of report options is available. (For details of these options and report fees please see below).

Invitations to customers:

Participating councils invite their customers to take part in the study by directly sending them an email or a letter, explaining the objectives of the study and containing an Internet link to the on-line questionnaires.

By inviting their own qualifying customers from their internal records, councils are able to ensure that a census of those qualifying customers is contacted whilst also preserving their customers' individual privacy.

On-line survey:

Customers submit their feedback via a web-based questionnaire. Responses are completely confidential and customers are not asked for any personally identifiable information.

Response fee:
There are no fees charged for on-line customer responses.

Mail-based survey:

CTMA produces a set of tailored questionnaires (in .pdf format) for those councils wishing to provide customers with a printed version of the questionnaires for mail-based responses. Mail-based responses are returned directly to CTMA’s FreePost address for codification and data capture.

Response fee:
A "per-response" fee of $6 (for each questionnaire returned by mail) will be charged to councils that wish to use this facility. This fee is to cover costs of FreePost returns and data processing.

Report options and fees:

Upon completion of the survey, CTMA analyses customer responses and reports on the findings at three levels of detail:

Optional Reporting Levels

Fee structure

Study 1: Building Consent and Inspection Services

Study 2: Resource Consent Process

Individual "council-specific" findings report:

(only available to participating councils)

$7,400 (+GST)

$4,800 (+GST)

National-level findings report:
(available for non-council participants)

$3,980 (+GST)

$2,980 (+GST)

Industry working paper

pro bono

These reports, and the terms of their availability, are described in more detail below.

Individual "council-specific" findings report:

Each council participating at this level receives a confidential "council-specific" findings report. In a graphical and tabular format, the reports present relative strengths and improvement opportunities at the individual council.

The reports examine four perspectives of the council's service performance:

Overall customer satisfaction with the services and the impact on strategic outcomes
Problems experienced by customers, identifying specific areas of poor performance and sources of customer dissatisfaction
Customer behaviour (when things go wrong), identifying key aspects of customer complaint and word-of-mouth behaviour amongst the council’s customers
Response effectiveness, providing a measure of the council’s effectiveness responding to its customers when they make contact about problems and concerns

Council-specific findings are treated in confidence and comparisons are presented in contrast to a nation-wide average or as part of a "blind ranking", illustrating the position the council holds in a national ranking of other (unnamed) councils.

(Council-specific reports are only made available to the individual council in question and only to those councils that have actively and effectively encouraged their customers to take part in the study).

National-level findings report:

The National-Level Findings Report is a more general, national-level, graphical and tabular report of the study findings. It summarise the overall national findings under the same four key areas of service performance, without reference to the performance of any specific council.

(National-level findings reports are available to councils, building companies, developers and other selected organisations that have actively and effectively encouraged their customers to take part in the study).

Industry working paper:

This is a brief summary of observations and trends describing the key findings from the study and implications for councils.

(This is available to organisations that have actively and effectively encouraged their customers to take part in the study).

Report briefings and additional support:

Following the study, CTMA can provide further consultative assistance and report briefings to help individual councils interpret the study findings and plan remedial actions. Fees and costs associated with these services are discussed on an individual basis.

How to take part:

To register to take part in the study, please access the registration page by selecting the Registration tab on the menu above.

(If you would like to discuss the study in more detail prior to registration, please contact Paul Linnell at CTMA New Zealand Ltd
by phone at: 021 669 276 or by email: NZconsents@ctmaworld.com)