Taking Care of Business

by Charles Vincent and Patrick Zhu

“Taking Care of Business” is the latest in a series of world-class research initiatives designed to give publicsector managers the information and knowledge they need to improve service quality in a way that truly makes a difference to those receiving those services. More than twenty public-sector organizations came together to initiate the project.

In recent years, governments across Canada have spent significant time improving service delivery to businesses. Information and services have been brought together making it less complicated to start a business; forms and processes have been made available electronically making it easier and less costly to access government services; and the vast array of regulations has been reviewed and rationalized lessening the burden on businesses while still protecting the public interest. Most impressively, these initiatives have often been accomplished in a collaborative manner across multiple levels of government through projects such as the network of Canada Business Service Centres.

LISTENING TO THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY
While these initiatives have been undertaken in consultation with the business community, public sector managers have lacked an instrument through which they can hear directly from businesses about their experiences, expectations and priorities for service improvement.

Where Citizens First provided public sector managers with the opportunity to hear “the voice of the citizen,” no such platform existed to understand the service needs of the business community. “Taking Care of Business” meets that need.

DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT SERVICE QUALITY
One of the important findings from “Taking Care of Business” is the revelation that businesses often feel they receive high quality service from governments. The myth that the quality of public services is inherently poor is not supported by the business community. In fact, the pattern of service quality appears similar to the private sector, with some public services (most notably those involving regulation) receiving fairly low scores while others receive much higher ratings.

DRIVERS OF SERVICE QUALITY
Even more important than the ratings themselves, is what public sector managers can do to improve service quality. What are the drivers of satisfaction, and where should scarce resources be focused? “Taking Care of Business” set out to identify the drivers of service satisfaction and found five themes that recur across a broad range of services:
• communication of information
• minimizing burden
• ensuring fair treatment
• achieving the desired outcome when possible
• providing timely service.

While it is important for service managers to confirm the drivers of satisfaction for their own clients, performing well in these five areas can mean the difference between a service quality score of 4 out of 5 versus one of 2.5 out of 5 when performance in all areas is low.

“NO WRONG DOOR”
It will come as no surprise to today’s service manager to learn that businesses are using multiple channels to access government services. While the telephone is the most common way to contact government, and a significant number of businesses are using the Internet to contact government, more traditional channels of communication such as posted mail and the fax machine remain vital links between businesses and governments. In fact, almost 75% of all government-to-business service interactions involve more than one channel of communication. A business may start by going to a website, but then choose to make a phone call to ask a question. Similarly, a business may start by making a phone call, but then go into an office to submit an application. Regardless of the combination of access channels, businesses are using them together, so governments need to coordinate services across them.

INTEGRATED SERVICE
As public sector managers search for ways to meet the demand for multi-channel access, “Taking Care of Business” provides evidence supporting the need for coordination and integration of services across channels. When asked about concepts such as sharing information across organizational boundaries and personalizing services based on previous service interactions, businesses responded in a relatively positive manner.

While privacy and security of information are clearly important, the business community appears to see the value of integrating services across boundaries and across service channels.

CHANGING OPINIONS OF GOVERNMENT
There is no question that service quality is important in its own right. Businesses expect (and should expect) to receive high quality services. As Citizens First discovered, however, service quality is also important because it influences the trust or confidence that citizens have in their democratic institutions.

“Taking Care of Business” further informs our understanding of the influence of service quality, drawing a link between service quality and the underlying attitudes that businesses hold toward government service. Improvements in service quality can lead to direct, tangible improvements in the attitudes and opinions that businesses hold about government services. In fact, the results from “Taking Care of Business” suggest that a 10% increase in service quality can actually improve the perceived value of government service by as much as 7%, and, in turn, improve the underlying attitudes of businesses toward government service by as much as 5%.

CONCLUSION: FROM RESEARCH TO ACTION
“Taking Care of Business” has shown that many government services receive good ratings from businesses, and that good ratings can even be achieved in regulatory services, like workplace regulation, providing that the five important service “themes” are performed well. “Taking Care of Business” also paints a forward path for public sector managers who want to improve services to the business community.

Some of the actions needed can occur within specific programs and organizations (the five themes), while others require collaboration among departments and governments (integrated service delivery). If successful, the public sector will not only raise service satisfaction ratings across the business community, but also change the way the business sector views government. Thus, the challenge now for public sector managers is to put this important new research into action.



Charles Vincent is Program Manager for the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service. Patrick Zhu is Business Systems Consultant for the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service.
For more information the ICCS can be reached at:
Institute for Citizen-Centred Service
1075 Bay Street, Suite 401
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5S 2B1
Internet: www.iccs-isac.org
E-mail: info@iccs-isac.org