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It’s true that most councils can get by without a customer request management system (CRMS).

But at what cost? 

Time spent chasing updates, inconsistent follow-through, and limited visibility when workloads shift.

In many councils, requests arrive through emails, phone calls, and counter conversations, then are tracked in spreadsheets, notebooks, and informal handovers. 

When teams are small and roles are clear, this can feel workable. 

But as demand grows or responsibilities change, it becomes harder to see what’s happening, manage follow-up, or maintain a consistent experience for the community.

What often gets missed is what becomes possible when requests are captured once, owned clearly, and tracked through to an outcome. 

When request handling is structured and visible, councils gain the clarity to prioritise work, follow through consistently, and use what they learn from requests to improve services over time. 

This also matters for councils that already have a CRMS in place, but are not using it in a way that delivers the full benefit.

What a good CRMS should do

Councils often start looking at request systems when the volume of calls and follow-ups begins to wear teams down. At that point, the value is practical. 

As a rule of thumb, a good CRMS helps councils: 

• keep requests in one place; 

• keep work moving;

• and support clear updates without relying on staff chasing information across emails and spreadsheets.

It does this through a small set of everyday capabilities:

Intake and access

Requests need to be captured from the channels people use, including online forms, phone calls, emails, and the front counter. 

They also need to be captured in the same way each time, so staff are not filling gaps later or relying on personal notes to understand what’s needed.

When intake is consistent, councils can process requests more quickly, avoid duplicates, and maintain a clearer picture of demand. It also makes reporting simpler because information is already in a usable format.

Visibility and ownership

Staff need to be able to see:

• what’s still open

• what’s being worked on,

• what requires a follow-up 

• and what’s finished. 

Each request also needs a clear owner, so it does not sit in a shared inbox or drift between teams without a next step.

A short history of notes and updates on each request is just as important. It allows someone else to pick up the work when staff change roles or are away, and it reduces the time spent chasing context. 

It also helps supervisors see where work is building up early, while there is still time to rebalance effort and follow through.

Workflow and accountability

Requests need to reach the right team early, based on the type of issue and the details provided. 

Clear timeframes also matter, whether they are formal targets or council expectations, because they help teams work consistently and communicate more clearly with residents.

Some CRMS platforms, including CouncilFirst, can help by categorising requests as they come in, based on the information provided, so they are routed to the right area faster. 

That reduces avoidable back-and-forth and helps teams start with a clearer picture of what is being asked. Staff still need to confirm the details, but early categorisation can reduce manual sorting.

Councils also need a simple record of what was done and what the outcome was. When actions and outcomes are captured as part of the work, councils can answer follow-up questions quickly and demonstrate how decisions were made when they are reviewed.

Data, trends, and improvement

A CRMS should make it easy to see repeat issues, busy periods, and where requests are coming from most often. This makes reporting clearer for managers and councillors, and provides councils with a better basis for decisions on staffing and resourcing. 

Over time, it also helps councils fix recurring problems earlier and reduce the need to respond to the same issues repeatedly.

Location awareness

Most service requests relate to a specific place or property. Capturing location consistently allows councils to see where issues are occurring, identify recurring hotspots, and connect demand to the assets or areas driving it. This makes reporting more meaningful and supports smarter planning and resource allocation.

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Translating CRMS capability into real council outcomes

Without an effective CRMS:

• Over time, councils lose a single view of what the community has raised and where each request is up to.

• Staff then spend more time searching for information, answering repeat calls for updates, and filling gaps left by handovers.

• Managers are left piecing together the picture from what they hear day to day, rather than from a clear view of demand and workload.

• When something does not get done, it can be difficult to explain why, because there is no complete record showing what happened, what was picked up, and what other work took priority.

This also affects how resources are used, because work is allocated based on assumptions and urgency is often guessed, creating avoidable inefficiencies across teams.

With an effective CRMS:

• Requests are captured centrally, with clear ownership and a visible status that staff can check across the organisation.

• Customer service teams can give consistent answers, and operational staff are interrupted less often to confirm what is happening.

• Managers can see workload and delays early and allocate effort with a clearer view of what is actually in the queue.

• Work can be prioritised using agreed rules and clear information, and councils can identify repeat issues sooner and act before they keep returning.

This doesn’t mean councils are doing more work, but that the work is easier to manage and easier to explain.

Accountability improves, delays are clearer, and communities feel heard, even when issues take time to resolve.

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Where CouncilFirst CRMS fits

Integrated with the ERP

Once councils have a clearer way to capture and manage requests, the next issue is how request information connects to the rest of council work. 

If requests are handled in a separate system, staff often end up switching between tools to find details, confirm costs, check related assets, or locate supporting records. Over time, that creates double handling and makes it harder to keep a single, consistent view.

CouncilFirst includes CRMS within the same environment used for broader council operations, which allows requests to link through to areas such as:

• assets, 

• finance, 

• works, 

• records, 

• rates, 

• and animal management.

This reduces the need to re-enter information and helps teams work from the same underlying data as requests move from intake through to action and follow-up.

It also strengthens reporting across departments. 

When request information and operational records are connected, councils can see demand alongside the work and resources used to address it. 

That supports clearer decision-making and planning, particularly for councils that want request management to be part of core operations rather than another separate tool staff must maintain.

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Designed for real council environments

It’s true to say that most councils don’t have dedicated customer service teams or extra capacity to run complex systems. 

In smaller and regional organisations, the same staff often manage front counter enquiries, records, finance tasks, and day-to-day operational follow-up. 

In that context, a request system only works if:

• it’s simple to use, 

• fits into existing routines, 

• and does not depend on one or two people holding all the knowledge.

This became clear in work with a regional Western Australian shire that decided to move away from manual request tracking and chose to partner with CouncilFirst to support the change.

Requests and follow-up were being handled through spreadsheets, shared drives, paper files, and informal notes. Staff could keep things moving, but visibility depended on who was in the office and who remembered the history.

When workloads increased or someone was away, it was harder to see what was still open and harder to keep updates consistent.

What made the change stick was keeping the system practical. That meant getting the setup and workflow right, so request handling could run consistently without relying on local workarounds or one person holding the process together.

In practice, staff needed:

• clear screens; 

• straightforward steps; 

• workflows that matched how council work moves between teams;

• support that recognised the reality of a small organisation, where there is no in-house IT function to manage setup, resolve issues, or retrain staff when roles change.

For councils in similar environments, the goal is not a feature-heavy platform. The goal is a system that makes request handling easier to maintain, even with limited staff, shifting priorities, and the everyday pressures of local government.

Spatial and GIS-enabled service delivery

For many councils, the most useful shift occurs when requests stop being viewed as a list and become place-based demand. 

A large share of customer requests relates to a street, a park, a drain, a light, or a facility, and location is often the missing piece that helps councils see what’s really happening.

When requests can be viewed on a map, patterns become easier to spot. 

Councils can see where issues are building up, and the same problem keeps returning, and whether requests are spread evenly or concentrated in specific areas. 

This helps move conversations away from individual complaints and toward a clearer view of where service pressure sits.

Location also helps connect customer requests to assets. 

When a request is linked to a road segment, a lighting point, or a park asset for example, staff can see related history, identify repeat faults, and make better choices about what needs a quick fix or deeper work. 

Over time, this supports stronger planning and helps councils direct effort to the places where it will have the most impact.

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Final thoughts

A CRMS is often treated as a customer service tool or as a way to keep up with day-to-day requests. 

In reality, however, it plays a much bigger role in how a council operates. When request management is visible, consistent, and connected to the way work is carried out, it becomes part of how councils build maturity over time. 

It supports clearer follow-through, steadier handover between staff, and a more reliable way to learn from what the community is reporting.

In that sense, a CRMS is not a compliance checkbox, but rather a practical foundation that helps councils improve how they run services, strengthen trust through consistency, and make progress even when teams are small and pressures are constant.

Take the next step

If your council is still relying on informal tracking, or if you have a request system that is not being used in a way that supports real follow-through, it may be time to review what “good” looks like in practice. 

Explore CouncilFirst CRMS through a short demo to see how structured request management can work for you.