Residents contacted Brisbane City Council more than a million times in 2019 asking questions on everything from runaway guinea pigs and reality TV shows to mundane bin replacements.

Community, Arts and Lifestyle Chair Peter Matic said Council’s award-winning contact centres on average received about 108 calls every hour, while also responding to enquiries made via social media, mail, online and face to face.

Council has contact centres at Chermside and Yeerongpilly.

“Queries always vary, especially throughout the different seasons, but bin replacements and repairs took the crown for the number one enquiry made this year, with more than 78,000 bin enquiries in 2019,” Cr Matic said.

“We have the most amazing contact centre staff who are so dedicated, knowledgeable, patient and caring. No matter how random, they are always there to help 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

“They are dedicated to responding to the needs of the community and work with residents every single day to answer the questions they may have, whatever the topic.

“While most of the calls about common enquiries are about bins, parking, animals and lost property, enquiries do sometimes cross into the weird and wonderful.

“The call centre has dealt with calls on wandering guinea pigs, rampaging peacocks and even one from a man in Germany requesting help to find host from his favourite Australian show.

“We are always working to ensure customers get the best possible experience dealing with Council and this does sometime include putting people in touch with external organisations when the query is outside of Council’s domain.”

Cr Matic said Council’s first contact centre opened in 1996 and the centres have since handled almost 29 million calls.

“Our contact centres continue to be a popular point of contact for residents and this year the centres also helped resolve more than 52,000 face to face enquiries, 63,000 social media requests and more than 200,000 online enquiries,” he said.

“Council works hard to ensure Brisbane is a great place to live, work and relax, and offering 24-hour assistance to residents is an important part of helping to make our city the safe, vibrant and the friendly place it is.”

The Contact Centre will remain open as normal to assist residents over the Christmas and New Year period.

For more information visit www.brisbane.qld.gov.au or call Council on (07) 3403 8888.

TOP 10 ENQUIRIES IN 2019
CLASSIFICATION  Volume
Bin replacements and repairs        78,409
Parking         74,898
Property searches         71,624
Animal permits and registration         66,014
Rates         55,551
Plumbing inspections, plans, approvals         49,235
Building permits         47,913
Lost property         40,490
General waste, Green waste and recycling       35,809
Development approval and compliance         27,122