Case Study: Georges River Council achieves renewed community trust and sustained services with HappyOrNot

Georges River Council on Managing CX in the “Next Normal”

Georges River Council (GRC), a local government authority in Sydney focused on community services, faced major customer experience disruption during COVID-19 after 136 families (about 35% of its business) withdrew from its children’s services. GRC, which had been using HappyOrNot’s Smiley Touch since 2018 as part of its CX transformation, needed real‑time feedback to rebuild trust, adapt services (hygiene, communication, e‑learning, payment plans) and quickly respond to shifting family needs in the “next normal.”

GRC used HappyOrNot’s Smiley Touch terminals to collect live feedback across customer‑facing points, surfacing issues (for example concerns about casual staff levels), sharing positive comments to boost staff morale, and informing targeted changes such as outreach to families, new e‑learning supports and engagement of a child psychologist. Those insights helped GRC recover 108 of the 136 families who initially withdrew, improve communication and trust, and drive service changes that increased utilisation and financial resilience — outcomes enabled by HappyOrNot’s real‑time feedback.

Georges River Council