Page 3217 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 November 1992
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the number has been changed, but luckily there is a redirection service. You ring the redirect number. A person answers the phone and you inquire about accommodation. You are given another number to ring and this time it is a 008 number. So, you ring the 008 number. A recorded message tells you that the service is not available. So, you ring the original redirect number and no-one answers.
Finally, you ring one of your members of parliament. Apparently, this person rang my office and got one of my staff members who took the constituent's number and promised to ring back. My office rang the Visitors Centre's number and asked for the accommodation section. We got put through to a reservation centre and asked for their number. We rang the constituent back and told him to ring the number we had been given. We hoped that the problem had been solved; but not on your nelly. The constituent rang back to add the final chapter. He rang the number we gave and was told that it was the wrong number and was given a new number to ring. He rang the new number and was told that it was the wrong place; that they would transfer him to the right place. He went through to the right place, where the receptionist said that she could not help him and put him through to reservations, which did finally book his accommodation for his granny. He said, "When I told the lady who finally helped me that it would be easier to get through to ASIO, she answered that this was because Canberra was Australia's best kept secret". Luckily, all concerned had a sense of humour.
Mr Lamont: Who said that we did not have a sense of humour?
MR DE DOMENICO: As I said, luckily, all concerned had a sense of humour, Mr Lamont, and there was no ill feeling. I hope that there is not now. But how many visitors would be prepared to go through this rigmarole to book accommodation? Just to be fair and to check, we tried ringing the number in the White Pages, then rang the redirection and were transferred directly to reservations. We did not complete making the reservation, saying that we would call back and asked which number to call. We were given a 008 number. We also asked who we should ask for; and the officer gave the name, but refused to give a surname. The 008 number, of course, is a service not available to Canberra residents, yet again the officer helping did not inquire where we were from and whether we could access the 008 number.
That all proves one thing to me. It is all well and good to say that this is a fantastic industry, and it is; but perhaps we have to start from the grassroots and start training people working in the tourism industry, to make sure that they can compete with other businesses by making them all receptive to the fact that in tourism and public relations visitor satisfaction and client satisfaction is one of the most important things.
That was perhaps a bad example, but it happened in one of the most well-funded departments of government, where image, efficiency and performance are the only indicators, which converts $8m a week, as I said before, into the ACT economy. It may be one bad example, Madam Speaker, but it is a very important pointer. I do not want to focus on the negative, however. I just want to look at the story and think, "What opportunities for improvement does this offer?". What a grand question that is, because this example offers so many opportunities for improvement.
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