Customer complaints process
Our Commitment
At Frankston City Council, we endeavour to meet the needs of our customers and exceed their service experience. Our Customer Service Promise makes clear commitments to the level of service our customers will receive from us.
One of our main objectives in creating a positive customer experience is to provide a platform for listening to and addressing complaints. Your feedback provides valuable insight to help continuous improvements to the services we deliver.
For more information, please visit Customer Service Promise.
What is the process?
Lodgement
You can make a complaint to Council if you are dissatisfied with an action taken, a decision made or a service provided by Council or its representatives (or a delay or failure in taking action, making a decision or providing a service).
Front line resolution
Wherever possible, Council will aim to resolve a customer’s complaint at the customer’s first point of contact with Council. All complaints received are managed following Council’s Complaint Handling Policy.
If this cannot be resolved at the front line, we will refer your complaint to the Department Manager.
Investigation
The Manager will consider and investigate your complaint, review the matters raised and aim to complete the investigation within 28 working days. If the complaint takes longer to resolve, we will communicate this with you.
What if the complaint has not been resolved and I wish to escalate it?
You can request that your complaint be referred for an Independent Internal Review if you are unsatisfied with the Manager’s response.
The Independent Internal Review Officer can only investigate a complaint at the CEO’s request. Findings are then reported back to the CEO, with a recommendation. The CEO is responsible for deciding what action to take in response to the findings and recommendations.
Further actions
The CEO’s response to a request for an Independent Internal Review is the final step in Council’s complaint process.
If you are not satisfied with the final outcome of your complaint, you have the right to take it to an external agency such as the Victorian Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman will usually require that you have already raised the complaint with the Council.
For more information, please call the Ombudsman’s office on 9613 6222 or visit the Victorian Ombudsman’s website at www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au.
How do I make a complaint?
You can contact our Customer Service team by:
If you need the assistance of an interpreter, please phone 131 450
Complaint’s accessibility
If you are deaf and/or find it hard to hear or speak with people who use a phone, the National Relay Service (NRS) can assist.
Please clearly outline your complaint and the outcome you are seeking and ensure that you provide all relevant facts including dates, times and contact names.
Please also provide an email address, mailing address and mobile phone number.
Anonymous complaints
We welcome anonymous complaints and are committed to conducting thorough investigations using all accessible information. Please note that we cannot offer feedback, respond or disclose the outcome of an anonymous complaint.
Unreasonable Customer Conduct Protocol
Frankston City Council is committed to being accessible and responsive to all members of our community. While Council is committed to enabling our Customers to provide their feedback, sometimes the conduct of our customers is unreasonable, impacting our ability to provide a consistent service to all or threatening the health and safety of officers.
The Unreasonable Customer Conduct Protocol enables better management of unreasonable customer conduct and inappropriate behaviours while ensuring appropriate action is taken to support Officers.
This protocol includes inappropriate behaviour during a telephone call, in person, in writing, online and via social media.
Repeated or excessive inappropriate behaviour
Repeated or excessive inappropriate behaviour will generally be managed by limiting or adapting the way that we interact with and / or deliver services to customers by restricting:
- Restricting who the customer can contact within Council
- Restricting where and how the customer can make contact with Council
Procedure for changing access to services
- After an incident is reported - a letter will be sent to the customer outlining expectations.
- If unreasonable conduct continues - a warning letter will be sent to the customer.
- Further unreasonable conduct will result in changes to how services are delivered and formal notification to the customer.
- Changes to service delivery will remain for a specified time frame.
- Once the time frame has expired - a review will be conducted and the customer will be notified of the outcome/return to normal delivery.
Threats to Officers / Critical incidents
Threats to an Officer’s safety or wellbeing must be immediately reported to the relevant Manager and the Manager of Human Resources. All threats to an Officer’s safety or wellbeing will be treated seriously and will be reported to the Police. We do not tolerate disrespectful, threatening behaviour.
For more information, please read the Unreasonable Customer Conduct Protocol(PDF, 910KB).
Privacy Statement
When submitting complaints or service requests, you may have to divulge some personal information. Frankston City Council respects the privacy concerns of its community members and treats all collection of data with due consideration. We use your information to respond to your complaint and may also analyse the information you have provided for the purpose of improving services that relate to your complaint. Where we publish complaint data, personal information is removed. Council is committed to full compliance with its obligations under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and Health Records Act 2001 (the Acts). For more information visit Privacy.