Published: 11 Aug 2020
Investments in council digital services are paying dividends with a big shift to online dog renewals.
By the end of the first month of the registration period, nearly 80% of dogs in the district have been re-registered, and the council has seen a significant increase in those choosing to renew online.
Council Customer Services Manager, Grant Hamel said that more people choosing to do many transactions online meant it gave staff more time to deal with complex requests.
“We’ve been really pushing online renewals over the past few years, the two month dog renewal period is a really busy time in customer services, which means that we have less time to deal with more complex tasks such as service requests,” he said.
“It’s also a great time saver for owners as well, register once for a myTDC account and you can renew your dog licence every year in a few clicks rather than filling in the form and having to bring it in in person.
“We’re mindful that not everyone is confident in going online, but our customer services staff and and service centre teams in Geraldine and Temuka are happy to show people the way, and we’re always at the end of the phone.”
Dog registration renewals is only one of the services that people can undertake online as the council adopts a digital first strategy for doing business.
Current digital services include Snap, Send, Solve for reporting problems and things that need fixed, online Land Information Memorandum ordering and a move to electronic submissions for building and resource consent applications.
Chief Information Officer Justin Bagust said that behind the scenes the council was working hard to build trusted platforms from which they could provide a wider range of services.
“Every year the council is entrusted with data about people’s lives and millions of dollars’ worth of developments and we need to ensure that all that data is safely stored, reliable and dependable,” he said.
“By building a robust information platform it will mean we can build more services, more quickly but still retain the levels of security required to ensure public trust and legal and legislative requirements.
“While it’s a highly complex beast behind the scenes, we need to ensure that we don’t leave anyone behind when developing new services.
“For the end user we’re committed to providing friendly, straightforward and useful tools that are easy to use and make dealing with council quicker and more efficient.”
To register for a myTDC account, visit timaru.govt.nz/mytdc
Last updated: 24 Feb 2021