By GHD Design
Completed in late 2014, Creative Spaces worked with Auckland Council on an innovative new customer focussed retail experience within the ground floor of the refurbished Bledisloe House.
After resolution of an extensive customer-centred service brief, the most important instruction to the project team was that the new Customer Service Centre was to be the ‘Toyota Corolla' of retail experience i.e. it must be attractive, perform well over a long period with relatively little capital outlaid, and have low operating costs.
The team had to think carefully including re-consideration of size and design approaches to achieve the low budgets required by council. The result is a clever, colourful fitout intended to fascinate, entertain and educate while being particularly focussed on service delivery to ratepayers and council customers.
The Customer Service Centre is approximately 10% smaller than the previous centre housed in the Civic building, but also has a dual purpose as the primary Bledisloe Building arrival point.
The space has been designed as a ‘found space experience' - a retail approach, where the focus is on the needs of the customer, rather than the traditional ‘service centre' approach. Architecturally the space is simple but activated with applied graphics, colour and technology. Key transactional and record sharing zones provide many options for customers to select an interaction which suits them best.