Vance Kerslake: Public services through the eyes of New Zealanders (GOVIS 2009)

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What do New Zealanders think of public services and the people who provide them? Do New Zealanders think we can be trusted? What are their expectations and how well are we meeting them? What sort of services do New Zealanders want now and in the future How do they want to access them?

Looked around the world to see who was doing a particularly good job at improving service delivery to citizens. Canada world leaders: OECD, UN, Accenture Canadians attribute their success to two main things: Rigorous research based programme focused on what citizens want Single minded focus on the things that drive satisfaction

Compare to the American Customer Satisfaction Index 1999 Federal Govt score 68.7 2008 Federal Govt score 68.9 Repeating Kiwis Count in 2009

The service experience met your expectations Staff were competent Staff kept their promises Your were treated fairly You feel your individual circumstances were taken into account It’s an example of good value for tax dollars spent Not all equal, service experience met your expectations is the No. 1 driver

The research also highlighted the significant overlap between drivers. Met expectations strongly related to Competent staff Competent staff tend to keep their promises, take your individual circumstances into account and treat you fairly. When your individual circumstances are taken into account you are more likely to think you have been treated fairly. When all these things happen you are more likely to feel your expectations have been met. And when all of those things happen the service tends to look like a good example of value for your tax dollars.

NZers expect public services to deliver a higher quality of service than the private sector. NZers don’t think public services are delivering a higher quality of service than the private sector. On balance NZers don’t think public services have a more difficult task than the private sector.

We asked NZers to rate some of the non-government services they might have used over the last 12 months. Non-government total is 58% satisfaction Public services total is 62% satisfaction NB: the public services satisfaction total is 62% not 68%. This is because the figures on this slide refer to any service used in the last 12 months whereas the 68% figure is from the one most recent experience.

When you ask if the last time they dealt with us did they trust us to do what is right? More people gave a 5 out of 5, the highest score, than for any of the other scores. The combined total of the 4 + 5 scores is 67%, which goes up to 87% if you include the neutrals.

Overall perception of how trustworthy public services are shows almost half of people sitting on the fence – they don’t distrust us, but neither do they trust us. Largely perceptions based. Strongly influenced by media, anecdotal accounts, stereotypes. Trust may improve over longer period of time as satisfaction with personal experiences improves. However, other factors at play – improving trust remain a challenge.

Most like: Rule-bound, slow, impersonal Least like: Flexible, quick, fun

Donkey/Turtle – stubborn, inflexible, slow Lion/Elephant – large, powerful but also the elephant represents grey and boring Cow/Guard Dog – pretty useful but you wouldn’t want a cow to step on you or a dog to bite you Hermit Crab/Mole/Octopus – hidden, complex, not big on communication Rabbit – inconsistent, erratic Horse/Family Dog – friendly and helpful

Waitaki, General Public, Female Thinking – What can I do to help. How can we make this work. Saying – How can I help you? Feeling – I have been here. Empathy, feeling good about what they can do. North Shore, Asian, Female Thinking – I would like to complete this job effectively and efficiently. I hope I can really help the customer to solver her problem. Saying – How can I help you. Do you think you are satisfied with my job? Feeling – Helping customer satisfied me and made me proud.

Is this some kind of unattainable service delivery Nirvana? Sounds expensive, complex to deliver, logistically impractical? Well the reality is we already have this model of service delivery in NZ right now and have done since 2002 They’re called Heartlands Service Centres.

Interagency approach to bringing govt services back to rural NZ. Heartlands Service Centres are a one-stop-shop where NZers can access face-to-face a range of govt and other related services. Each has a Heartland Services Coordinator based at the Centre 5 days a week to provide an ongoing link between clients and agencies (who only come to town 1-4 days a month) and to assist clients to find an access govt services. If you go to a Heartlands Service Centre: You’re likely get a warm welcome and made to feel at ease. There is a lot of well organised information about govt and other related services. Where there are kitchen facilities a cup of tea will not be far away. People who come to the Centre don’t know what is available, what they need or what questions to ask. A big part of the Coordinator’s job is helping people organise their thoughts and ideas so they can ask the right questions, and feel less awkward when they meet a service representative. Coordinators are generally part of the community they serve and well connected to local people and organisations – they know how to get things done and who to see.

If there wasn’t a Heartlands Centre what would you do? Call the Local Council, MAF, MfE, DoC, the Ministry of Dead Cattle? What kind of response do you think you’d be likely to get? Wendy Earle, being well connected in the community knew to contact the local Federated Farmers rep who was horrified. He in turn contacted the local farmers who he knew and the problem stopped immediately – no more dead cows on the beach.

Most people prefer the channel they are already using Fair to say a reasonable number of people using paper mail would prefer another channel Office 76%, Phone 7%, Website 7% Phone 66%, Office 16%, Website 4% Mail 52%, Phone 16%, Office 12%, Email 12%, Website 4% Website 55%, Office 15%, Phone 15%. Email 13% There are some differences by age groups, younger people have a stronger preference for using online services but it is still a minority preference, most still want to have their service experiences person-to-person.

Government on the Web in 1999 Services delivered via Internet offer significant benefits 24:7 availability Convenient Fast Offer efficiencies and free up funds to be used elsewhere 2005 they concluded agencies made good progress towards meeting the PM’s ambitious target.

National Audit Office report 2007, Government on the Internet: progress in delivering information and services online “ It is obviously confusing to have over 3,000 government sites ” e-Envoy Andrew Pinder Overall quality improved only slightly since 2001: George W Bush took over from Bill Clinton as President September 11 attacks Microsoft launched an exciting new operating system called Windows XP

National Audit Office report 2007, Government on the Internet: progress in delivering information and services online

Improving delivery of public services by designing them around the needs of the citizen customer, not the provider. “ Getting citizens and businesses to accomplish transactions with govt online offers great scope for achieving efficiency savings, by reducing the numbers of local offices needed, the amount of mail and paper-handling involved or the number of call centres needed”

In Canada 2007, Internet use is nearly as prevalent as visits to govt offices or phone. However, use of most channels remained consistent over the last 5 years. The clear implication is that Canadians see the Internet as a complement to not a replacement for other channels. Most Canadians now use more than one channel to access a govt service. In 2007 59% used more than one channel to address their needs up from 50% in 2002. The increase in multi-channel service delivery parallels the increase in Internet use. The majority who use multiple channels switch to a person-to-person channel: They feel the need to discuss their situation, Obtain information about an unusual situation Resolve a problem

Service managers had hoped the Internet would largely replace more expensive traditional channels. The results in Canada show that while Internet use is growing, use of other channels is relatively stable. Investment in the Internet has generally been easier were it is justified by cost savings. The Internet is not replacing other channels. Service managers now need to focus more on channel integration rather than channel migration as it appears that multi-channel usage is here to stay. Talking to NZ service delivery managers they talk about people calling contact centres while looking at the agencies website or other people surfing the web from their mobile phones. In a multi-channel service environment, service managers need to strengthen services across all channels.

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Vance Kerslake: Public services through the eyes of New Zealanders (GOVIS 2009) - Presentation Transcript

Public services through the eyes of New Zealanders Vance Kerslake
Three key learnings
- Get an ‘outside-in’ view of public services.
- Find out what NZers’ expectations are.
- Learn what improvements NZers want made to their public services.
‘ Outside-in’ view
Service quality
NZ drivers of satisfaction
Performance on drivers % Neutral % Total disagree % Total agree
Links between the drivers Competent Staff Met Expectations Listen Solution focused Knowledge Empathy Understand Friendly Clear Communication Polite Value for Tax dollars Individual circumstances Kept promises Treated Fairly
Expectations - Public vs. Private sector -5 30 35 35 Public services have a more difficult task than the private sector -34 12 42 46 I find the quality of service provided by public services to be higher than the private sector +28 47 35 19 I expect public services to provide a higher level of service quality than the private sector Net score Agree (total) Neutral Disagree (total)
Satisfaction with non-government services
Trust in most recent service Strongly disagree Strongly agree
Trust in public services Do not trust them at all Trust them completely
Impressions of public services
Impressions of public servants
Staff
Future service delivery
- Treated like a person not a number.
- Personalised service.
- Flexibility.
- Plain English.
- A one-stop-shop.
Heartlands
One-stop shop
- One of my most interesting queries concerned dead cows floating down the river and landing up on the beach – what could I do to help?
- Wendy Earle – Heartland Services Golden Bay
Channel use & preferences
e-Services UK style
- “ The most radical extension of access to public services for several decades”.
- PM’s target: all services online by 2005.
- ₤ 6 billion investment e-services 2000-05.
- “ Agencies made good progress towards meeting the PM’s ambitious target ”
If we build it, they will come
- “ The size and complexity of the Govts web-estate makes it hard for citizens to find the information they want”.
- “ It is obviously confusing to have over 3,000 Government sites ”.
- Overall quality has improved only slightly since 2001.
The problems
- Websites complex.
- Information hard to find.
- Poor performing search engines.
- Lack features of good quality private sector sites.
- Most depts do not have sufficient info on who is using their sites and why.
If you build what, who will come?
- 40% popn no home Internet access.
- Many people don’t benefit from online services:
The solution
- “ Govt sees the next logical step as rationalising its current sprawling web-estate ”.
- 951 sites deemed surplus.
- Command paper: “ services enabled by IT must be designed around citizen or business, not around the provider” .
Glimpse into the future? Canada
- The Internet has “come of age”.
- Internet use is up…
- … but no change in other channels.
- Most services now involve multiple channels.
- Most multi-channel users switch to a person-to-person channel.
Implications for service delivery
- Planned for Internet to replace other more expensive channels.
- Internet is not replacing other channels.
- Multi-channel usage is here to stay.
- In multi-channel environ important to strengthen services across all channels.
Consider
- NZ already has 500+ .govt sites.
- e-Services are one channel.
- Multi-channel usage is here to stay.
- User-centred Govt…
- … means knowing what users want.