Yarra Ranges Council would like to inform the community that from 28 January until mid-March, households in the region may receive survey calls from National Field Services, an independent market research agency.
The agency has been commissioned to conduct community satisfaction surveys on behalf of Council. Similar surveys will be undertaken across other local government areas.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Cr Jim Child said the surveys will be asking about Council’s performance, and how to improve services.
“These community satisfaction surveys are run annually, to determine the areas that people are happy with and, very importantly, where we should be focusing our attention in the near future,” Cr Child said.
“These surveys are taken very seriously at Council, and the feedback we receive is anonymised and circulated to teams, so we can work to improve our services and, in turn, the community’s satisfaction.”
As the phone calls are for research purposes, people on the Do Not Call register may still be contacted. If someone has indicated in the past that they do not wish to take part in research purposes, they may be excluded from the call list.
Cr Child said that phone surveys can seem suspicious, but that National Field Services will only call to talk about Council services.
“We understand the hesitancy a lot of the community will have for phone surveys, considering the extreme amount of scamsbeing conducted over phones.
“The fact is that phone surveys are still an excellent way to get feedback from a representative sample of our community, so we encourage community members to take part, as long as they feel comfortable to do so.
“In these calls you will never be asked for by name; the staff will identify themselves as a member of National Field Services, and calls will come from a number beginning in (03) 9977 – never a mobile number.
“You will never be asked to provide card details, bank details or any login details for anywhere – if you’re ever asked these details on an unprompted call, from anyone, you should contact the institution they are calling from, to check if the call is legitimate.”
Community members with questions about the survey are welcome to call Council’s Customer Experience team to chat on 1300 368 333.
