National award for Council Customer Service Officer

A Fraser Coast Regional Council officer has received a national customer service award.

Customer Service Officer Michelle Sturgiss-Love received the ‘Individual of the Year Award’ at the National Local Government Customer Service Awards earlier this month.

CEO Ken Diehm said Michelle started with the then-Maryborough City Council in 1989 and had assisted thousands of customers and seen countless changes to customer service processes and procedures during her 34 years with Council.

“Fraser Coast Regional Council delivers a broad range of services to the community, and our Customer Service team are on the front line serving customers at the counter, taking hundreds of calls daily and managing thousands of emails,” he said.

“It can be a very challenging and demanding job, but Michelle always has a smile on her face, is always patient with customers, and is willing to go above and beyond to get the job done.

“Council staff follow the TRAITS values (Trust, Respect, Accountability, Initiative, Teamwork and Service) to guide their behaviour, and Michelle is a shining example of our TRAITS in action.”

Mr Diehm said Michelle had also recently volunteered to be part of the Livepro Project, which involves the rollout of ‘knowledge management software’ internally to staff to help provide information to customers as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“Michelle has seen a lot of changes during her time with Council, but it is a great credit to her that she is always looking at how we can simplify and improve processes to deliver the best possible customer service,” he said.

“On behalf of everyone at Council, I congratulate Michelle on her well-deserved award and thank her for her tireless service to the Fraser Coast community.”

Mrs Sturgiss-Love said she was honoured to receive the award and it was a pleasure serving the Fraser Coast community.

“I love doing my job and work with such supportive people in our team. I still have the same passion for serving the community as I did when I first started with Council,” she said.

“I really enjoy helping people and I’ve always found that if you treat your customers with respect, they will give you respect back.”

In addition to Mrs/Ms Sturgiss-Love winning the individual award, Council’s Customer Service team was a finalist in the ‘Team of the Year’ category.

The awards are an initiative of the National Local Government Customer Service Network, which is the peak industry body for customer service professionals within the Australian Local Government sector.