I have a community development problem can any1 help??

Question

Several times a week, staff are asked by members of the local community to book a room or the hall in the main Community Centre building. Staff has to tell these enquirers that bookings are done via the Youth Service Business Manager at another location, and the enquirer should ring this person. It appears that most enquirers give up at this point, as the required hiring’s do not seem to materialise. The result is that the building remains largely unused despite its potential for being a useful community resource. It has also been suggested that the caretaking/cleaning arrangements be changed to save money.

Would you see these frequent requests for hiring’s as a problem and if so how would you tackle it, or support the management committee in tackling it?

Answer 1

The solution to this 'problem' is to 'en-power' your Staff .... instead of the bureaucratic "sorry, we can't do that ... you have to ring another number" (which most people take to mean "You can p*iss off") encourage them to FORWARD the enquiry directly to the person who CAN help them ...

Better would be to remove the Youth Service Business Manager from the "loop" entirely = plainly he/she is NOT DOING THEIR JOB if the centre is empty most of the time (and anyway, why does he/she have to be involved in what is essentially a secretarial task ? is it another "Jobs Worth" issue ??)

Then your staff could be given direct access to the Booking system, thus allowing them (or indeed, anyone) to make the bookings ?

Answer 2

Well in this day and age, I dont see why people give up rather than phone?

But if you want to really deliver customer service you would provide a phone point where enquirers can be told - "you have to call so and so, you can do so from here, here is the number"

If you need help in funding this phone, or any other community development programme, email me.

Good luck!