Government Service Quality Continues to Improve

by Wendy Paquette

The latest findings from the Citizens First research offer great news for public sector managers. For the fourth time in a row, Canadians say that service quality continues to improve for each level of government. In addition to the improvement of the public sector’s general reputation, ratings for many specific services have also improved. Clearly efforts to date are paying off in a very important way – citizens are significantly more satisfied now than when this research began in 1998. Moreover, there is new evidence to show that many public sector services are now outperforming private sector services such as banks, supermarkets and department stores in the eyes of Canadians.

Understanding Citizens’ Expectations
There is no doubt that one of the key reasons for this success is the growing understanding of what customers expect when they experience a service, what is important to them, and what improvements they want to see. Citizens First 4 (CF4) continues the tradition of building a common understanding from the citizen’s perspective, helping to shape public sector service improvement strategies by offering managers ideas on what service improvements will yield the best returns that customers will see and value.

In this round, the five drivers of service satisfaction are confirmed once more (i.e., timeliness, outcome, fairness, knowledge and going the extra mile). In addition, a deeper understanding of drivers of satisfaction for different types of services and channels is revealed. For example when a service involves a fee, an additional driver called value applies where citizen’s look at what they are getting and how it is delivered relative to what they pay for it. However, for indirect services such as snow removal and garbage collection, outcome, value and timeliness continue to be important, but two new drivers emerge: dependability (the garbage was picked up on the right day at the expected time); and effectiveness (the snow was removed). Interestingly for these types of indirect services, outcome (the garbage was collected) is seen to be most important followed by value. This is a different order than expectations for direct services such as a registration, where outcome is generally preceded by timeliness.

Telephone and Internet Drivers
Citizens First 4 also looked at how to improve performance of the internet and telephone channels, revealing interesting variations related to the different roles they play. Citizens expect more when using the telephone, still their preferred channel. They use it for a variety of tasks, however it is primarily used to resolve complex problems. Generally, people no longer have trouble finding a phone number or placing a call. Rather, problems that impact their satisfaction come after the phone is answered. Service outcome is the primary driver, and people expect to reach a live person and get to the right person with minimal wait times, without being bounced around, getting a busy signal, or being put on hold.

In the case of the internet, perceived speed and convenience makes it a popular channel to find information, and its use as a complement to other channels is high. Like the telephone, outcome is the primary driver, and users are satisfied when they can navigate and find the information easily, when there is sufficient information, and when the site is visually appealing.

Drivers of Trust and Confidence in the Public Sector
It stands to reason that providing good quality services is important in its own right. But as Citizens First 3 showed, quality service is also linked to confidence in government. Given the perception that trust and confidence in public institutions has declined in western nations over recent years, Citizens First 4 sought to understand this relationship more clearly.

The current study undertook a sophisticated modelling exercise to identify the range of factors that influence confidence in the public service. The results indicate that strong services make significant and positive contributions to confidence at all levels of the public sector. Each time an individual seeks service from the public sector, they have a moment of truth where their satisfaction with that experience has a downstream effect on their overall perception of the public sector and their confidence in it. In addition to opinions about services, other factors influence confidence in the public service. As the model shows, confidence is higher when people see a benefit from the service to themselves and their community, when they believe they have been treated ethically, and most importantly, when they see strong public sector leaders and managers that demonstrate competency and transparency.

One of the values of Citizens First research is that it identifies where citizens would like to see improvement. This study reveals two areas needing attention: access to services, and the privacy and security of personal information.

Drivers of Access
Citizens still perceive that access is one of the biggest barriers to getting government services. Citizens First 4 reveals that for simple transactions such as seeking information, access is perceived to be easy. However, for more complicated transactions that may involve more than one call or email and more time to find a solution to a problem, access is seen as being more difficult. For simple services, citizens want to know where to start and how to get the service. For more complex services, they want to be able to contact staff when it is convenient for them.

Privacy and Security Issues for Online Transactions
Just as the survey results suggest access needs special attention, there are also important issues regarding the privacy and security of personal information. Despite the steady migration of Canadians to the internet, not everyone is comfortable transacting online with government. The levels of concern touch all citizens, including users and non-users of the internet. Security issues focus on information storage, transmission, access and identity verification. Privacy issues, which are the stronger of the two, relate to consolidation of information, unauthorized access, and sharing without permission. Citizen’s have a greater rate of concern for private sector online services, which is most pronounced for privacy of personal information, particularly sharing information without permission.

To understand what strategies would be effective in mitigating these concerns, citizens considered the appeal of several possible remedies. The top priorities for improvement in online security and privacy of personal information include having access to a government official while doing transactions and having information at the time the transaction is made. People need to be re-assured that their interests are protected. For example, they want to know how their information is being protected and used, and they want to be asked for permission to share data under specific circumstances.

Where to from here
The results of Citizens First 4 show that public sector service quality matters. It influences how satisfied Canadians are and how much confidence they have in the public service. It also provides rich information and practical insights into what drives satisfaction, how to improve access and what privacy and security concerns are related to online transactions. By focusing this research on practical results, tracking trends over time, and offering findings that are directly applicable to the delivery of all public services, managers are well positioned to concentrate the efforts of their organizations on the right things, from the perspective of the users of their services.


Wendy Paquette is program manager for the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service, an inter-governmental project supported by members of the Public Sector Service Delivery Council (PSSDC) and the Public Sector CIO Council (PSCIOC). Its mission is to promote high levels of citizen satisfaction with public-sector service delivery by undertaking research to identify citizens' service needs and expectations, and by assisting the public sector in applying innovative solutions that support service quality. For more information, see www.iccs-isac.org or email info@iccs-isac.org.