Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
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ONE STOP SHOPS A NEW ERA IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

                                                      By Premier of NSW Barry O’Farrell

The State’s first “one stop shop” NSW Government Service Centres have opened, delivering on an election promise I made to make it easier for people to carry out government transactions.

The NSW Government is one of the biggest customer service organisations in our State with 394 separate agencies, authorities and trading enterprises delivering services to the public through 30 call centres and shopfronts that until now, failed to talk to each other or share information.

Around 40 million customer transactions a year were handled by the NSW Government through nearly 400 shopfronts, 30 call centres, 800 websites and more than 8,000 phone numbers. It was easy to understand why these isolated systems led to customer confusion, and a raft of inefficiencies.

People came to us saying they wanted easier access to government services at times that suited them, including Saturdays, and I’m proud to say we have addressed those concerns.

Now, customers will be able to undertake a range of transactions in one place. They can, for example, register their car or boat, obtain a fishing licence, make a complaint about a business that tried to cheat you, or record the birth of a baby or a new marriage.

More services will follow, over time building into complete one-stop access to NSW Government services.

As part of the first phase, 18 service centres will open their doors around the state. Two have already opened - at Haymarket in the Sydney CBD and at Kiama on the South Coast.

Many customers are from different backgrounds and we’re trying to make it easier for those of you whose first language isn’t English by offering assistance in a variety of languages.

Our service centres will have a network of staff to call on who can speak languages other than English to provide assistance when required. Among the 20 staff working at the Haymarket branch at least eight languages are spoken including Mandarin, Greek, Italian, Arabic and Cantonese.

Additionally, customers are able to access free Wi-Fi while they wait and are also able to use self-service kiosks to carry out a range of online transactions.

The service centres are open during extended hours (7am-7pm weekdays and
9am-3pm Saturdays) and customers also have the option of making appointments so they can be served at times convenient to them.

The initial rollout of the Service Centres includes the following locations:

 Tweed Heads

·         Orange

·         Parramatta

·         Tamworth

·         Dubbo

·         Wynyard

·         Liverpool

·         Newcastle

·         Lismore

·         Gosford

·         Wagga Wagga

·         Port Macquarie

·         Chatswood

·         Wollongong

·         Queanbeyan

·         Penrith

 Customers using the new 24 hour, 7 day a week telephone service – 13 77 88 – will also be able to communicate using their language of choice. Our staff members will have access to the National Relay Service and the Telephone Interpreter Service.

Transactions can also be made on the web portal www.service.nsw.gov.au which can be accessed day or night, all year round. We’re also helping many of you to navigate this website by providing the information in a variety of languages.

 Customers rightly expect the same quality of service from government as they receive from their favourite airline or retailer, and I’m confident our new Service Centres will help you conduct your business with government as quickly and efficiently as possible.