LINZ Customer

Service
Strategy

May 2004
Contents

Contents ........................................................................................................................2

Introduction..................................................................................................................3
Purpose.......................................................................................................................3
Outcomes ...................................................................................................................3
Challenges..................................................................................................................3
LINZ Customer Environment ....................................................................................5

Principles for LINZ Customer Service ......................................................................6

Goals and Strategies ....................................................................................................8

Goal 1. Capable customers ........................................................................................8
Goal 2. Connected customers ..................................................................................10
Goal 3. Committed primary customers ....................................................................12
Goal 4. Mandate fulfilled .........................................................................................14
Achieving this Strategy..............................................................................................16

Appendix A: Glossary................................................................................................17
Introduction
By following the Customer Service Strategy, LINZ will make clear to customers how
they access and use LINZ data, and how they transact business with LINZ. LINZ’s
customer value proposition is: ‘Here is authoritative land information— supported by
clear standards, open channels of communication and ready access.’

Purpose
The customer service strategy provides a high level framework that supports LINZ’s
vision to be “the Government’s Centre of Land Information and Expertise’; and the
Government’s vision for New Zealand to ‘become a world leader in e-government’.

The framework defines three groupings of customers, based on LINZ’s mandate. It

lays down principles for determining customer service policies, structures and
practices. It sets goals that embody these principles, and defines strategies for
achieving them.

This strategy is intended to be a guide to delivering customer services to achieve

departmental and Government objectives. The strategy does not define tactics or
plans for specific customer services or product offerings.

Outcomes
LINZ is seeking the following outcomes from this strategy:
• An outcome focus that promotes self-regulation and the public interest with the
least intervention
1
• LINZ’s primary customers exclusively use electronic channels
• Customers’ needs are understood and responses designed to meet those needs
• An environment that supports easy, cost-effective access to, and use of,
authoritative land information
• Customer service practices that are consistent with government requirements and
LINZ’s mandate
• An integrated approach to providing customer service throughout LINZ
• An enabling culture that facilitates, encourages and rewards customer service
• A common framework from which to develop specific customer service initiatives
• Recognition that there is a shifting customer base and requirements as LINZ
becomes e-LINZ
• Strong, self-sufficient professional sector groups

Challenges
The strategy addresses a range of customer service challenges, including:
• moving LINZ primary customers to exclusive use of electronic channels
• developing a regulatory environment where professional groups have a greater
degree of self-regulation in maintaining professional standards

1
Refer to page 5.

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• making quality the key to success, internally and externally
• ensuring service management policies and processes are consistently applied
• finding ways to work with other government agencies to deliver shared services
• listening to customers, anticipating their needs and responding appropriately
• analysing customer interactions and trends, and prioritising actions
• maintaining regular communication with customers
• delivering seamless, whole of LINZ service for customers
• defining measures and benchmarks to demonstrate service improvements
• putting responsibilities back onto customers for meeting LINZ’s standards

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LINZ Customer Environment
The LINZ customer environment comprises a number of customer groups for which
LINZ has different mandated responsibilities and service levels.

Customer group (alphabetic) Relationship definition

Primary customer groups are: • Tier 1: LINZ’s primary customers are
Cadastral Surveyors those for whom LINZ has responsibilities
Conveyancers mandated by statute or Cabinet decree
Crown lessees • Some of these are large customers who do
Defence forces high volumes of business with LINZ and
Emergency services, including may be managed as ‘Key Accounts’
Civil Defence and Emergency
Management
Local authorities
Mariners
Vendor Agencies
Secondary customer groups are: • Tier 2: organisations that routinely use and
Bulk data extract purchasers rely on LINZ’s mandated products and
Environmental agencies, CRIs services to carry out their business
Real Estate agents
Search agents
Valuers
Accredited Providers
Other customer groups include: • Tier 3: casual or occasional users, who
Developers would otherwise use third party providers
Farm, forestry, horticulture • LINZ provides services for these
industries customers as a by-product of serving its
Finance agents first and second tier customers
Genealogists
Historians/researchers
Landowners
*Māori
Port companies
Public
Recreationalists
Internal customers • The strategy does not specifically address
the needs of internal customers
• Attitudes and behaviours that apply to
external customers also apply to internal
customers
*LINZ recognises the Crown’s Treaty of Waitangi obligations to Māori.

LINZ has close customer service relationships with a number of stakeholder groups,
including:
• Core Government Agencies
• Associated Professional Groups, such as accredited providers, New Zealand
Institute of Surveyors, New Zealand Law Society, New Zealand Property Institute

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Principles for LINZ Customer Service
The principles are the basis by which LINZ will measure how well it implements its
customer service strategy. LINZ aims to keep the following customer promises:
1. You can trust our data and standards—they are authoritative.
2. We make cost-effective improvements that incorporate feedback from
customers.
3. We do our best to help you get our data, but you need to know what you want.
4. If we don’t provide the service you need, we’ll point you in the right direction.
5. We take a proactive approach to help you avoid problems.

Accuracy Customers can trust that information is accurate to a specified standard.

Timeliness Customers know what to expect from LINZ in terms of standards for
timeliness.

Access Customers can access LINZ services, with the internet becoming the
primary channel.

Security Customers can have confidence that LINZ respects and protects the
integrity, confidentiality and privacy of information.

Communication Customers are aware of and understand LINZ’s mandate, and the
services LINZ does and does not provide.

Quality LINZ has a continuous improvement culture for customer service and
actively seeks ways to improve service and/or reduce cost.

Needs LINZ actively listens to its customers and considers their current and
future needs in its information services.

Feedback LINZ regularly seeks formal and informal feedback from customers.

Involvement LINZ involves its customers and other stakeholders in planning and
preparing for future changes that affect them.

Change LINZ actively communicates with customers to raise their awareness of

upcoming changes and the business consequences for them.

Cost LINZ provides its products and services at least long-term cost to the
Crown and customers, while fulfilling the standards of financial probity,
transparency and risk expected of public sector agencies.

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Priority LINZ customer service priorities reflect its higher level of responsibility
to those customers required to deal with it, balancing the differing needs
of all customers to achieve maximum overall satisfaction at least cost.

Compliance LINZ complies with all acts and regulations that govern it.

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Goals and Strategies

Goal 1. Capable customers

Customers understand what to expect of LINZ information services and can use
them in appropriate ways.

This goal implements the accuracy, timeliness, security and change principles.

Objective Strategy and Indicative Tasks

Help customers to work LINZ accepts its obligation to help customers make effective
smarter use of the products it makes available. LINZ should help its
customers to work measurably smarter:

• work with third party providers and stakeholders to develop

and deliver communication, education and training
materials
• develop appropriate channels, such as on-line helpers,
phone or email support, to help customers use our products
• provide on-line access to a database of support materials as
products become more sophisticated
• define the skills needed to use LINZ products effectively
• assist customers to overcome barriers to accessing LINZ
services

Publish regulatory and LINZ should produce standards that are clear, outcome focused
technical standards and and enable efficient and effective receipt, management, supply
guidelines and use of information. LINZ should:

• write in plain language, suitable for the intended audience

• publish to a consistent, easy to understand look and feel
• use the web as the main channel to advise customers and
key stakeholder groups when standards are up for review
and to solicit their comments
• make its authoritative knowledgebase accessible to readers,
in a way that is clear, well-structured, and accurate

Ensure customers are LINZ should help its customers to understand the impact of
aware of change and its LINZ changes on their businesses. LINZ should:
consequences
• communicate proposed timetables and verify that customers
have understood what will be happening
• provide skills and resources to maintain the defined service
levels to customers following major changes
• engage key stakeholder groups in communicating the
change message
• repeat the message through a variety of media, such as
newsletters, industry briefings, web site

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Help customers to help LINZ should encourage customers to become increasingly self-
themselves sufficient and self-reliant. LINZ should:

• ensure support materials help customers learn to make

effective use of LINZ products and services
• encourage stakeholder groups, such as the Law Society and
Institute of Surveyors, to be involved in training their
members
• provide training materials that help users follow LINZ
processes and use LINZ systems

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Goal 2. Connected customers
Customers have appropriate access to all LINZ information services.

This goal implements the access, needs, feedback and involvement principles.

Objective Strategy and Indicative Tasks

Provide clear channels to Customer processes increasingly depend on access to LINZ

LINZ held information information. This means there is ever-reducing tolerance for
service down time or delay. LINZ should:

• promote e-delivery to become the exclusive channel for

access to information
• enable alternate service delivery options to cater for those
without internet or on-line access
• develop ways to automatically refresh customer data copies
from the LINZ authoritative source, so that the up-to-date
version is there when the customer needs it
• continually investigate alternate, more cost-effective ways
to supply information
• ensure LINZ data sets are interoperable with those of other
government agencies

Respond to customer LINZ should make it easier for customers to make their needs
needs and feedback known and take customer priorities into account when
determining its own priorities. LINZ should:

• provide opportunities for customers to interact, discuss

issues, learn from each other and consult LINZ experts
• provide easily identifiable contact channels for customers
to make their needs known
• ensure LINZ can respond flexibly in non-standard or
emergency situations
• log all customer issues, provide timely feedback on actions
taken and ensure priorities are reviewed on a formal and
regular basis

Maintain one source for LINZ should record all information about and interactions with
information about customers in a central repository. This repository is:
customers
• pervasive, so that everyone dealing with the customer sees
and tells a consistent story
• authoritative, so that everything about the customer
relationship is recorded
• shared, so that there are no personal databases where access
depends on an individual staff member or group
• open, so that customers can see and update their own
information or raise service requests, via the web

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Consolidate the support LINZ should separate transaction processing work from
service. customer-facing work. LINZ should:

• manage one logical support service, that may be physically

distributed to more than one location
• develop support service staff to reduce hand-offs, while
also providing experts to handle the really hard stuff
• review the need for counter service delivery, in particular,
the need for it to be connected to processing activity

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Goal 3. Committed primary customers
Primary customers are committed to using the e-channel.

This goal complements the “e-Delivery Excellence” strategic goal in the LINZ
Statement of Intent 2004/05, “LINZ’s primary customers exclusively use electronic
channels”.

Objective Strategy and Indicative Tasks

Align service quality LINZ should involve selected customers and stakeholder
standards with customer groups in setting service quality standards and priorities. LINZ
expectations should:

• define agreed service levels with primary customers

• align LINZ hours of business, wherever possible, for
customer service with key customers’ hours of business
• adjust support levels to anticipate and service peaks in
customer demand, such as after a major upgrade
• ensure resource levels avoid bottlenecks and other single
points of failure
• promote regular and easy flow of ideas and actions that
serve the customer across LINZ functional boundaries
• always provide feedback to the customer within the service
promise, using language the customer will understand

Deliver to service quality Sustainable service quality results from replicable processes,
standards independent of the individuals who perform them. LINZ should
adopt a culture of process-based customer service:

• define service performance indicators

• measure performance trends
• identify and implement performance improvements
• identify and eliminate the root causes of recurring problems

Listen to the voice of the LINZ should pass complaints or questions directly to the point
customer they can be resolved—not pass the customer from person to
person. LINZ should listen on 4 communication channels:

• independent surveys of customer satisfaction, to monitor

year-on-year trends
• analysis of support service trends and issues, published on
the web site
• one-on-one discussions with key customers, with one group
accountable for managing the long term relationship
• regular meetings with stakeholder groups

Align incentives with LINZ should ensure front line staff have the knowledge and
desired service outcomes power to make good and timely decisions in serving customers.
LINZ should:

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• incorporate customer service measures in the performance
management system
• look for customer service competencies when recruiting
and provide suitable supplementary training
• establish a personal development programme to increase,
update and maintain desired competencies in staff
• implement processes to promote and reward knowledge
sharing
• ensure all policies and procedures are consistent with
customer services best practices, such as NZ business
excellence foundation

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Goal 4. Mandate fulfilled
Customers and other stakeholders consider that LINZ data meets the specified
standards for that service or product.

This goal implements the communication, cost and compliance principles, and
underpins each of the other customer service principles.

Objective Strategy and Indicative Tasks

Involve customers in LINZ should encourage customers to take early ownership of

developing products and new LINZ products and services. LINZ should:
services
• consult widely on customer needs and service
specifications
• consider customer priorities as part of the wider priority-
setting process
• involve stakeholder representatives as active participants in
major project teams
• facilitate the set up of user groups and user contacts

Benchmark against other LINZ should benchmark its customer service performance
agencies against that of comparable agencies in New Zealand and
overseas. Where possible, the benchmarks will consider factors
such as:

• service levels provided

• delivery channels
• cost effectiveness
• customer satisfaction
• performance trends
• organisation design

Manage variances LINZ should establish SLAs that balance customers’

between mandate and expectations with what LINZ can realistically deliver. LINZ
expectation should:

• communicate clearly what customers can expect—the

service promise
• review SLAs on a regular basis
• define indicators that will identify any variances between
mandate and expectation
• track the trends in these indicators over time
• advise government of options should significant variances
start to emerge

Maintain cost-effective LINZ should:

services • investigate opportunities for shared service delivery where
this enhances the cost-effectiveness of services
• provide bulk data to third parties so that they can provide

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 value-added products
• work with third party providers to enable delivery to non-
core customers
• constantly reevaluate services, and where it decides not to
continue a service, develop exit strategies or hand-over
strategies

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Achieving this Strategy
All LINZ people involved in customer service need to think about, debate and adopt a
common approach to three key messages:
• Listen to the customer’s voice; ensure our systems and processes let us hear
and respond; separate back office processing from front office service.
• Take a holistic approach to customer service; integrate across our web, phone,
print and face-to-face channels; align the performance management system.
• The e-Government and virtual agency strategies mean we have to change; they
present an opportunity to re-evaluate everything we do and how we do it.

Achieving the goals identified in this strategy requires that:

• LINZ actively manages change

Implementing this strategy will change the way people work and interact with
each other and with customers. LINZ has benefited from active change
management through the Landonline programme, and can apply the same
principles to the implementation of this strategy.
• Chief Executive provides overall leadership
The General Manager Customer Services is the steward of this strategy. Business
managers provide a leadership role in implementation, by facilitating development
of business cases and co-ordinating cross-functional work activities. For this
strategy to succeed, each business group will need to provide leadership in their
areas of specialisation.
• The business fully supports the strategy
This strategy can only be successful with the full backing of LINZ. Supporting
this strategy will recognise that each business group and office will have at least
an implementation role, and at times a project management role for some of the
strategy components.
• LINZ constantly looks for improvement opportunities
This document presents the overall customer service strategy for LINZ. The
strategy outlines a future environment that is likely to change shape as we
approach it. LINZ must review this strategy at regular intervals, check it is aligned
to the business needs, and adjust it as appropriate.
• Governance ensures ongoing strategic alignment
The customer service strategy is related to the virtual agency strategy, LINZ
capability strategy, Māori responsiveness strategy, knowledge strategy and other
strategic initiatives. As these strategies are implemented, their linkages need to be
preserved and strengthened, to ensure LINZ continues to meet customer needs.
• LINZ forges strong relationships with stakeholders
The e-government strategy sees increased collaboration as critical to achieving its
goals. LINZ’s key stakeholders, such as representatives of professional groups,
need to be enlisted as active partners in realising the customer service strategy.
They provide a vital two-way channel to represent their members’ views to LINZ
and to communicate the LINZ customer service messages to their members.

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Appendix A: Glossary

Wholesale The business of selling goods to retailers in larger quantities than they
are sold to final consumers, but in smaller quantities than they are
purchased from manufacturers.

Retail The sale of goods individually or in small quantities at retail prices to

consumers.

Committed Morally and emotionally dedicated.

Core information Authoritative information collected and held by LINZ for the Crown’s
interest in land information, products and services.

Value-added Information has a value-added component if any of the following

information conditions apply:

• enhancements to core land information

• where third parties can or do provide a comparable product or
service
• search services
• interpretation or advisory services
• information customised for a particular application
• where LINZ can’t recover the cost of dissemination
• information of a non-authorittive nature.

Customer An organisation or individual that uses LINZ products or services to

carry out their business.

Stakeholder A group or individual that represents a customer interest area and

takes a longer term view of LINZ products and services.

Interoperable Data based on open, non-proprietary standards that describe similar

land information features in interconnected ways.

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