Self-service kiosks that offer customers direct access to various municipal departments will soon be in operation in Knysna.

Knysna Executive Mayor Georlene Wolmarans said that this initiative forms part of their efforts to improve interactions with customers.

Each kiosk will be equipped with a telephone handset and direct numbers for various customer care departments.

These include but are not limited to account enquiries, customer relations, the electrical department, housing, prepaid electricity enquiries, roads and stormwater, and water and sewerage departments.

Customers will also receive a reference number to confirm that their service request or complaint has been logged.

Wolmarans said that making direct contact with customer care officials via the kiosks would speed up turnaround times and save customers the cost and time of travelling into town.

“These kiosks will be placed at specific, pre-determined spots in Knysna and surrounds, the first of which will be located at Masifunde Library and the Khayalethu and Hornlee offices. Roll out to other locations will be made public at a later date.”

“We realise that the only way many of our residents have of communicating with us, is by actually coming down to the customer care centre or the relevant department’s office,” she said.

“But making this process as convenient as possible for the customer is part of ‘customer care’. This initiative is only one of our efforts to make this municipality easier accessible and much more customer friendly.”

“We also encourage our customers to go paperless by requesting that their accounts be received via email,” concluded Wolmarans.