Christmas has arrived at the Assay Office!
The Assay Office is committed to permanently hear and take into account the Sector’s signals. That is why, as of today, it will mobilise its team to extend the hours of service till 20 PM daily until Christmas.
In October, there was a clear increase in the number of articles entered into the Assay Office services, which I’m glad to announce. This trend will be sharply felt in the coming weeks until Christmas and will, of course, have greater impact on the Gondomar Delegation, which already accounts for an increase in the number of customers served and an expected increase in the average waiting time:
In order to anticipate this tendency and satisfy its Customers’ needs, starting today and during the next 6 weeks, the Gondomar Delegation will have an extended service schedule by another 3 hours, while Lisbon keeps its current timetable:
In this way, the optimisation of the levels of service and efficiency of the Assay Office will be ensured. Similarly, the Assay Office hopes to contribute to a greater spacing in the service throughout the day, trying to avoid clusters within the facilities, since these constitute additional risks to the spread of Covid-19.
We call for the best collaboration of all, if possible by collecting works between 18:00 and 20:00. In addition, we request the permanence inside the Assay Office to be avoided, by waiting for service to be completed preferably in vehicles or outside.
In the partnership logic that guides the relationship between the Assay Office and the Sector, we emphasise the importance of maintaining an open and direct communication channel with customers, so that we may continue to know their real needs. At this moment, and because so justified, this kind of communication will be increasingly frequent, given the challenging situation we are going through.
THE MARK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
It was with optimism that, in September, the workload entered at the Assay Office was normalised, with values very close to those recorded in the same period of 2019. This trend was confirmed in October, with the number of articles entered at the Assay Office services having reached this week more than 2019. This increase reflects the collective efforts in the recovery of the Jewelry and Goldsmith Sector, which we are pleased to note and that it is important not to slow down.
Coinciding with the increase in workload, it was necessary to implement mirror teams in Gondomar, in order to guarantee the continuity of the Assay Office activity, which is the main priority at the difficult and worrying time we’re going through worldwide. However, the operation with mirror teams necessarily implies a reduction in response capacity, both at reception and in the assaying and marking service. The Assay Office assures its customers and the Sector in general that it is exceeding its efforts to ensure the lowest average waiting time (AWT) in service and to continue guaranteeing the short delivery times that are generally verified in the assaying and marking service. For example, among other measures, we have resorted to additional work, sometimes through the night and even on weekends. While there is certainly enormous satisfaction by all when seeing this fantastic recovery of the Sector, it is also believed that the effort made by the Assay Office to contribute and to do its best is also undeniable. It is important that the Sector and customers have the real perception of the commitment of the teams, not only to convey a message of tranquility and security, but because this will also galvanise the motivation with which the Assay Office embraces its mission daily. We therefore thank the customers who gave this feedback. Together we’ll make the difference.
Now, more specifically…
In order to increase response levels, the teams and customers of the two Assay Offices in the North have met at Goldpark. The initiative proved to be very effective, as shown since the third week on the following chart. However, it is unavoidable that, along with the increase in the number of articles received, the Assay Office is now limited to about 50% of the response capacity at reception, which is aggravated by the fact that one of the teams has 1 clerk less. With all transparency, the Assay Office notes that some variation may therefore occur over the weeks.
It should be noted that, this week, the record of more than 200 clients served in a single day was reached, and there was an average of almost 20 thousand articles a day being admitted to the Assay Office, a much higher number than last year’s.
As a result of the strategy and investment that the Assay Offices have implemented, the following graph clearly shows the significant rise in efficiency occurred in all four levels of service – express rate, very urgent rate, urgent rate and normal rate – globally in the Assay Offices of Lisbon, Porto and Gondomar. Indeed, nowadays, even with an increase in activity and when the Northern region has reached its half capacity as a result of the formation of mirror teams, the average delivery times at the express rate, for example, range only between 0.2 and 1 day.
Our focus at the Assay Office remains: providing the best service to our clients, safeguarding the health of all.
THE MARK THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
A MARCA QUE FAZ A DIFERENÇA
