Tauranga City Council extended its call centre hours to 24/7 this week in a move city council customer services manager Margaret Batchelar says marks the ongoing development of Tauranga as a city.

Call centre night crew Tamihana Hamiora-Reweti, Salla Saarinen, Rosy Kumari and Aifai Esera.

And unlike many other businesses, the city council's after hours call centre is located in the same place as the business hours call centre – the city council building in Willow Street.

'When you call Tauranga City Council the call is answered in the building, even when the calls come in after hours,” says Margaret.

'We are doing it because I think our staff are the best people to answer the Tauranga City Council calls. We know the subject matter best and we can provide the best response to our customers. That's really what it is about.

'Eight to five is no longer a business day for some people, and we want to give the same service regardless whether callers use day time or night time.”

It means emails to the council can be answered the same night, says Margaret. At the moment the centre is focussing on phone calls and emails, but it is expecting to broaden the available responses in future to include texts, video conferencing and web chat.

Because most of the after hours calls to the council are coming in between 5.30pm and 7.30-8pm, the night shift starts with two operators and drops to one operator overnight.

'And if it gets busy in the small hours there are processes in place so back-up can be quickly called in,” says Margaret.