Customer Feedback Information

Anyone can provide feedback, whether it is in person, in writing, online or by phone.
Your valued feedback contributes to our continuous improvement towards the delivery of customer service excellence. Please take the time to provide your feedback through the avenues outlined below:

For complaints, compliments, suggestions or enquiries:

• phone council on (07) 3810 6666 and ask to be put through to the Complaints Management Team (CMT)
• email council via cmt@ipswich.qld.gov.au
• fill out the online Feedback form
  • Feedback Form (PDF, 79.1 KB) (printable)
• postal service - PO Box 191, Ipswich, QLD 4305 or
• visit us in person on the Ground Floor, 1 Nicholas Street, Ipswich (Free parking for the first 3 hours).

Council provides a diverse number of services and programs to our customers and receives complaints daily. Customer complaints when they are first brought to our attention as a reported issue, in the majority of cases the complaint will be managed as a request for service, as the customer will be complaining about an issue such as:

• footpath maintenance
• missed waste bin
• a pothole
• a barking dog
• overgrown parks or allotments
• road maintenance
• or another issue requiring council services.

A request for service is where you want council to take action that will be handled in accordance with internal procedures and processes by the relevant operational staff and will be completed within agreed timeframes. For a request for service (report an issue), please phone council on 07 3810 6666. Alternatively, you can report an issue using Snap Send Solve.

Your feedback is directed to our Complaints Management Team (CMT) and will be managed by a Customer Liaison Officer (CLO).

When a suggestion or enquiry is received and can't be addressed by our helpful contact centre operators, your feedback will be received, acknowledged and responded to by the CMT. When a compliment is received, your feedback will be acknowledged and processed by the CMT, who then forward it to a business area delegate to inform the recipient/s.

During the triage process, if it is identified that your feedback does not fall under the complaint types managed by the CMT as outlined in council's Complaints Management Framework (PDF, 636.0 KB), the matter will be directed on your behalf to the relevant business area for their consideration to be managed under the applicable internal process. If that occurs, the CMT will provide you with advice on who will be your new contact point in council.

When a formal complaint is received your feedback will be acknowledged, a CLO will conduct an investigation with the relevant business area and then respond directly to you in writing. The CLO may contact you to discuss your feedback or to ask for further information.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a request for an internal review of that investigation. You will receive an acknowledgement if your request for a review is accepted. Another CLO will look into the matter with fresh eyes and communicate the findings of this review in a written response.

If your complaint is still not resolved to your satisfaction, you can lodge a request for a third and final internal review by the Complaints Management Team Leader, who, if the request is accepted, will review the matter with fresh eyes and provide you with a written response.

More information on how internal reviews are processed is contained in the Complaints Management Procedure and can be found here: Complaints Management Policy (PDF, 455.7 KB)

To note:
Decisions on Insurance Claims are not subject to the same internal review process as matters managed by the CMT.

Further action:
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the process, you have the right to take your complaint to an external agency, such as the Queensland Ombudsman or Judicial Review.

Council is committed to responding to your feedback and does its best to resolve complaint matters within 20-45 business days. This time frame depends on the nature and complexity of your complaint.

Council reserves the right to not acknowledge or respond to:

• feedback sent for the sole purpose of harassment
• complainants who revisit the same issue without offering any new information for consideration.

Anonymous feedback will be considered and recorded in our feedback management system. However, with no means of contacting the sender, an acknowledgement or response can not be provided.

Council defines a customer as a person who is a customer, complainant, constituent or member of the public using or attending council facilities.

Council recognises that customers have the right to question and/or complain about issues that affect them. This could be about the core issue/s of their matter, how it was handled or its outcome.

Unfortunately, for some customers exercising those rights, their mindset can lead to escalated behaviour including aggressive and abusive conduct towards the organisation and staff handling their matters. We call this Unreasonable Customer Conduct (UCC).

A customer’s behaviour is not necessarily unreasonable just because it is seen as challenging or difficult to manage. Council defines UCC as any behaviour by a current or former customer which, because of its nature or frequency, raises substantial health, safety, resource or equity issues for council, councillors, council officers, other customers or the customer themselves.

UCC is divided into five categories:

• unreasonable persistence
• unreasonable demands
• unreasonable lack of cooperation
• unreasonable arguments
• unreasonable behaviours.

Identifying customer conduct in terms of behaviours assists council, councillors and its officers to avoid labelling customers and subsequently treating them as a label (e.g. serial complainant). Recognising UCC behaviours and separating them from the person makes it easier to step back and consider an approach to the management of both the behaviours and any personal issues that may have contributed to the UCC.

Council’s primary objectives in managing UCC are to:

• ensure equity and fairness through appropriate allocation of resources based on merits, rather than demands or conduct
• improve efficiency and commitment to appropriate resource allocation by providing awareness of the consequences of failing to deal with UCC
• protect the health and safety of councillors, officers, customers (including members of the public) and other affected persons.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to managing UCC. Council’s responses to UCC will, as far as is practicable, allow the individual or group involved in the UCC to continue to communicate with council in a controlled and appropriate manner which will support council’s zero-tolerance approach to occupational violence.

The following provides general advice on initial actions which may be taken, including but not limited to:

• under a safe working procedure, intervene and de-escalate the customer’s behaviour using the standard de-escalation techniques
• advise that no further assistance can be provided and end the face-to-face interaction
• provide a verbal warning and end a phone call
• escalate the matter to a supervisor
• moving away from the situation to a safe position
• request the customer leave council premises
• have the customer removed from council premises (which may include security/Queensland Police Services involvement)
• escalate if the conduct threatens the immediate well-being of a councillor, council officer or another customer and follow safe working procedures. QPS may need to be called in these circumstances by phoning 000.

If the incident is considered UCC and cannot be managed by councillors or officers using initial actions, the matter is escalated to the Complaints Management Team (CMT).

When responding to referred UCC the CMT will:

• assess whether conduct is reasonable
• categorise conduct
• consider and select strategies to manage the UCC if it can’t be managed initially by the operations or councillors either under a safe working procedure or by issuing a ’warning letter’ to the customer
• conduct a Human Rights Impact Assessment on any considered strategy
• communicate in writing to the customer any implemented strategies
• assess and respond to any objection (appeal) raised by a customer being managed under a UCC strategy
• advise all relevant stakeholders within council of any implemented strategies, including activating caution notes on customer profiles
• conduct reviews on implemented strategies when required
• record and report on all referred UCC cases
• provide ‘learnings’ with recommendations to the relevant operational areas following the resolution of a referred UCC to facilitate continuous improvement in the management of UCC.

More information on how council will manage UCC can be found in the Unreasonable Customer Conduct Management  -  Complaints Management Unit Procedure

Council has a complaints management framework to ensure we deal with all complaints in a fair and transparent manner. If you require further information about the complaint management process, download:

• Complaints Management Framework (PDF, 636.0 KB)
• Complaints Management Policy (PDF, 455.7 KB)
• Unreasonable Customer Conduct Policy
• Unreasonable Customer Conduct Management  -  Complaints Management Unit Procedure
• Public Interest Disclosure Policy (PDF, 481.7 KB)

Yes, however, if you lodge a complaint on behalf of an affected person, we will respond directly to the person affected, not to you as the person acting. If you provide a letter of authority confirming that you are acting on behalf of the affected person, we will respond to you instead.

Any complaints regarding the below issues are not dealt with by council and should be referred to the relevant body for resolution:

• light emissions from freeways and highways, including on-ramps and off-ramps should be referred to the Department of Transport and Main Roads
• environmentally relevant activities regulated by the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) (e.g. chemical manufacturing)
• environmentally relevant activities regulated by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (e.g. poultry farming)
• state or local government premises or activities should be referred to the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI)
• neighbourhood disputes should be referred to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

Council collects non-personal information about you unless you voluntarily choose to participate in an activity through this website that involves the collection of personal information, such as:

• sending electronic mail (email) to this website
• participating in a survey on this website
• submitting a form on this website
• undertaking a payment or other transaction through this website using our Online Self-Service tools or suggesting a link from this website to an external website.

If you choose not to participate in these activities, your choice will in no way affect your ability to use this website.

Council will not disclose your personal information to any other person or organisation unless one of the following reasons applies:

• you have given us consent to do so
• council is required by law or authorised to do so under a law
• there are grounds to believe disclosure will prevent a threat to life or health
• that person or organisation is providing a service to council and is required to maintain the same or similar privacy legislation principles
• council is of the opinion that it is unable to assist with your request and that another government agency or authority is more capable of assisting or has the appropriate jurisdiction to assist with your request.

You can access information held by council about you under the Right to Information Act 2009 or the Information Privacy Act 2009.

If you have questions or concerns regarding council’s treatment of your information, please contact the CMT at (07) 3810 6666 or email cmt@ipswich.qld.gov.au
Please note that some records (e.g. land records, etc.) are open to public inspection* under current legislation.

*In some instance there may be applicable fees and charges.

No, there is no fee or charge.

Council’s Complaints Management Framework is reviewed on a regular basis to guarantee its relevance and effectiveness and to ensure customer complaints are correctly recorded, prioritised and responded to within agreed timeframes.

A statement on council’s Complaints Management is included in our Annual Report as per legislation.

Our Internal Audit Branch will periodically audit the Complaints Management Framework, including the Complaints Management Team, its processes and procedures to ensure legislative compliance is met and for continued efficacy.