A Yellow Pages plan to build a restaurant 10 metres up a tree has helped to test a new customer service approach at Rodney District Council.
The unique dining concept is part of a Yellow Pages advertising campaign to demonstrate that almost any mission can be completed by using the Yellow Pages. It posed an unusual range of challenges for the Council that needed addressing before consents could be granted.
The Council’s Resource Consent Team Leader, Ian Dobson, says relatively short timeframes were a major issue, while many safety and regulatory aspects also had to be considered.
"As with all new buildings, the Council had to be satisfied that the proposed building would meet requirements such as structural soundness, fire safety, facilities for the disabled and vehicle access. The novel concept made things more complicated than usual, but we were hopeful that a coordinated approach would mean the necessary consents could be granted promptly."
Mr Dobson led a team of planning and building staff, and traffic engineers, to liaise with Yellow representatives even before resource consent and building applications were lodged.
"The result was that potential issues were resolved without having to resubmit paperwork, so the resource consent could be issued without delay and a building consent followed in just five days," he says.
Yellow treehouse spokesperson and Rodney resident Tracey Collins, who is fronting the campaign, says gaining legal consents was an early hurdle for the special project and she was impressed with the Council’s positive response.
"The Council really helped to make the process as easy as possible. This project isn’t something they see every day and like us, they were excited because it is really outside the square, but we still had to make sure it was completed within all the usual rules and regulations," she says.
Rodney District Council Customer Service Director Lloyd Barton says the team approach was in response to customer satisfaction surveys that have identified a need for improvements in building and resource consent areas.
"This experiment shows what can be achieved when our customers are given a single point of contact who works on their behalf, keeping them informed of processes and creating a team to promptly resolve any issues," says Mr Barton.
"We’re working to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the same great service that the Yellow team experienced and are currently improving our systems to be able to implement quicker, more user-friendly services for everyone from December onwards."
Construction of the treehouse restaurant is now underway in a location that is yet to be publicly announced, though a regularly updated website allows people to check on its progress online at: www.yellowtreehouse.co.nz
More information
Contact: Ian Dobson or Lloyd Barton
Phone: 800 426 5169 Ian.dobson@rodney.govt.nz or Lloyd.barton@rodney.govt.nz