BackThe Australian and New Zealand Ombudsman Association (ANZOA) has just released the latest edition of its newsletter ‘The Ombudsman’. This newsletter includes different examples of the work that Ombudsman offices across Australia and New Zealand are doing.
The current edition of ‘The Ombudsman’ shall demonstrate the importance of the work of Ombudsmen in delivering improved outcomes — not just by dealing with individual complaints, but also addressing the broader context to improve systems, outcomes and complaint handling itself. The included articles show that Australian and New Zealand Ombudsman institutions are doing this through important own motion investigations, seeking and allowing data-driven insights, working with agencies and providers to improve their internal complaint handling, improving accessibility for consumers, and using robots to improve the complaint handling and dispute resolution processes of our offices.
One of the article highlights the Ombudsman New South Wales´ attempt to improve NSW government agencies to handle complaints. Ombudsman Michael Barnes states that an essential ingredient of a premier complaints handling system for public service agencies is training for frontline staff that demonstrates the importance of complaints and efficient complaint handling. Last year, the Ombudsman has therefore tabled a report in Parliament on the implementation of the Government Commitments to Effective Complaint Handling.
Another article highlights the work of the institution “Utilities Disputes” which welcomes that the New Zealand Government has now focussed on strengthening the consumer voice in their final paper on the “Electricity Price Review” (EPR).
An article on the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman shows that they have been developing process automation technology to help reduce wait times for consumers and telco providers. Their robot 'Rodney' started work in October this year and is already an active member of their Triage team. Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman ist putting the final touches on 'Lydia' before they roll her out in late November to help in Dispute Resolution.
See the full ANZOA newsletter here.
Source: Australian and New Zealand Ombudsman Association (ANZOA)
