Study 2:

Resource consent process

In parallel to this year's Building Consent and Inspection Services study CTMA is again conducting a customer experience baseline study of the Resource Consent Process.

Available independently, or in conjunction with the study of building consent and inspection services, the Resource Consent study is being directed towards:

• customers who have experienced a resource consent process and have been issued with a resource consent since 1^st January 2010.

How it works:

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

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

A range of report options is available for local authorities and other interested parties.  (For details of these options and report fees please see below).

Invitations to customers:

Depending on the availability of customer contact data, participating councils invite their resource consent 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 questionnaire.

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 privacy.

On-line survey:

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

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

Paper-based survey:

A tailored questionnaire (in .pdf format) is provided to those councils wishing to provide customers with a printed version of the questionnaire 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 $5 (for each questionnaire returned by mail) will be charged to councils that wish to use this facility.  The fee is to cover costs of FreePost returns and data processing.

Analysis and reporting:

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

• Individual "council-specific" findings report (for councils only)

• National-level findings report (for non-council participants)

• Local government working paper

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

Each council participating at this level receives a council-specific report in a graphical and tabular format.  The report presents relative strengths and improvement opportunities in the council's own resource consent process and examines four perspectives of service performance:

• Overall customer satisfaction with the resource consent process and the impact of satisfaction 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 resource consent 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).

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

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

This brief summary describes the key findings from the study, implications for councils, observations and trends.

(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 can be discussed on an individual basis.

To register to take part in the Resource Consent study, please click on the Registration Button on the side panel of this page.

If you'd like to discuss the study in more detail prior to registration, please contact Paul Linnell at CTMA New Zealand Ltd.  Phone:  021 669 276
email: NZconsents@ctmaworld.com

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