Hi All,

My name is chiedu, I am currently working on a project that will boost customer service in the public sector in Nigeria. It looks like a long haul, but I am set to redefine the paradigm and will appreciate suggestions to achieve this goal. Pleased to be in the community!!!

Hi Chiedu,
In order to improve customer service in the public sector there are often a number of factors to be considered.
1. There needs to be a firm desire and commitment by the leaders in the public service to embrace the change that is necessary.
2. The communication about what might be changing needs to be managed carefully as public sector workers are often concerned about how change will effect them.
3. The starting point for the programme needs to be a "discovery" phase to understand what your customers really need. Otherwise you are going to try out improvements based on some individual opinions. This is a critical step.
4. It is important to prototype ideas to check if they can work. It is better to fail early and cheaply! It is much easier to improve the idea at an early stage.

Best of luck with your project. The public sector is one with great scope for improvement and some basic service design tools and methodologies can have a big effect here.

Regards,
Aidan
aidan@servitize.com

As public sector organizations move toward providing better service, they must anchor their strategies in the knowledge that government service delivery is more complex than the private sector.

The public service has three related and often overlapping functions:

1. The service/operations component, which sometimes resembles the private sector. It provides benefits to customers by transferring resources or information directly to the public through various facilities such as schools, hospitals, parks, recreation and cultural centres, public health care and welfare services.

2. Regulatory and enforcement responsibilities, which protect the public interest by imposing constraints, duties or obligations on citizens and institutions. These include collection of taxes and fines, detention and imprisonment, surveillance and supervision of citizens.

3. Development of policy proposals and legislation to support ministers, and help achieve the objectives of government. This includes the advice given to decision-makers and the drafting and revision of legislation to facilitate policy decisions.
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http://www.customerservicemanager.com/community/

Thank you Aidan and Gibson.

Your points are well taken and will surely be factors in the drive to achieve this goal. I hope to update you more as it progresses.

Meanwhile you may want to check out my site www.customerserviceview.com and let me have your thoughts.