Government Business

The public sector has a poor reputation for its treatment of customers. Problems with the handling of complaints and the length of time it takes for issues to be resolved have traditionally left customers such as me wondering where the Government’s priorities lie.
    
At last, though, there is some good news. The latest national measure of customer satisfaction by the ICS indicates that government departments and agencies and local government are beginning to step up their service game.

Satisfaction Index
Promising signs of things to come appear in the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which reflects the online opinions of 12,000 people who have rated how well companies and organisations are performing in customer priority areas across 12 major public and private sectors.
    
The satisfaction rating for government departments and agencies now stands at 67 out of 100, an improvement of two points on the previous index. It is now fourth from bottom, just ahead of telecommunications. Local government has increased by a commendable six points bringing its own rating to 64; however it is still bottom, though only marginally behind utilities.
    
Government departments, agencies and local government can take comfort from some significant improvements in customer priority areas, particularly complaint handling, professionalism, quality, competence and friendliness of staff.
    
I’m often asked if it is fair to gauge the service performance of local authorities and government agencies on the same basis as other sectors. The argument is that their customers’ opinions will always be determined, and usually tainted, by financial issues – council tax, for instance – in force at the time.
    
You could also argue that most of these customers have no choice of service provider while others are reluctant clients – housing benefit claimants, for example, who hardly enjoy the experience of being told ‘No’!
    
ICS research into the service priorities of UK consumers shows that local authority and government department and agency customers feel as strongly about specific aspects of customer service and organisational performance as customers in every other public and private sector.
    
There were some differences across sectors in the actual weightings attached to each of the priorities and it is these that are used in the UKCSI calculations.
    
Consequently, the public sector is measured on the same level playing field as other sectors. Its position at the foot of some customer priority league tables underlines the improvements still needed.

Wake-up call
All the same, the UKCSI results in January this year obviously hit home. The early indications are that, having seen where it was in terms of customer satisfaction through the UKCSI, the public sector had the wake-up call it needed and is redoubling efforts to improve service across all areas.
    
Looking in further detail at the separate customer priority area scores, local government came bottom in 19 of the 20 priority categories in the previous index. That figure was down to 12 this time, still not good but a considerable improvement nonetheless.
    
Overall the highest scoring service providers across the public sector this time are the Fire Service and the Ambulance Service. Both achieved over 85 index ratings, well above the all-sector average of 71.
    
Some areas are still performing poorly, however. Organisations such as HMRC (Inland Revenue) and some local councils bring down the sector average.

Customer loyalty
As for the relationship between loyalty and satisfaction, government departments and agencies score reasonably well with an index rating of 71, however, local government still has bridges to build with a disappointing 62 score.
    
The components of the loyalty index are retention, recommendation and an intention to buy more products where the UKCSI asks how likely – if they had a choice – customers would stay with that organisation, buy more from it and recommend it to others.
    
Because of the reduced opportunities within the public sector to choose service providers, high retention is not an accurate reflection of customer loyalty. This view is supported by a low level of recommendation which, in the services, automotive and finance sectors, carries more weight in terms of loyalty where wider choice is easily available.
    
Some people might feel they are tied-in to government departments and agencies and local government, and are therefore ‘reluctant customers’ but, irrespective of that, they are still customers. Just because people don’t like paying taxes, doesn’t mean they will dislike the taxman.
    
People want to believe that central and local government organisations are spending their money wisely. Only then will customers fully value, trust and respect these organisations.
    
The UKCSI results clearly show us which of the drivers of satisfaction are responsible for the success of companies and organisations in particular sectors.

Top of the league
Take, for example, the automotive sector - one of the top three performers. With a satisfaction rating of 76 and four of its individual organisations reaching the ‘world class’ level of 81, much can be learned from them. Automotive came top in all aspects of professionalism including treating the customer in a way to make them feel valued and helpfulness, friendliness and competence of staff.
    
So how can the public sector improve?
The first signs of recovery are there. Now organisations and their staff need to focus their efforts on taking service improvements to a higher level. That may involve recruiting and retaining staff of the right calibre, finding new ways to handle complaints swiftly and more efficiently, communicating better with customers and being more approachable and responsive to others needs. After all, as Henry Ford said: “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”