Public services are not just a relevant portion of the economic system, above all they are a tool for redistribution policies that may be pursued with the aim of achieving greater social and economic equity. Public services should be used by all citizens on a needs basis, without discrimination or disparity, incorporating by their nature the notion of equity. Public services quality is jeopardized if they are provided in protected or monopolistic market contexts, in the absence of any real political ability to interpret collective needs. In these conditions, public services providers must be “forced” to assume customer orientation. There are different steps to be taken in this direction: 1) The first is to organize a system capable of monitoring and evaluating customer satisfaction and evolving customer needs; the service user becomes personally active in the actual evaluation process, in accordance with the canons of current quality control thinking. This way the customer will no more be an unknown entity and the service providers will have to reflect about the appropriate quality model to use for customer satisfaction surveys and management 2) The second is to use customer knowledge results for detecting the area in which improvements must be made for the growth in service quality. Communication has a special place in these areas 3) The third is to put improvement projects into effects, overcoming the resistance to change in public organizations. However, customer satisfaction studies are certainly not the only compass bearing on the journey towards quality service. They are limited in their innovation horizon because they express the customer awareness of the product; they are not open to unexpected quality, as voluntary letters praising the organization; finally they not consider potential customers. For these reasons, when implementing customer satisfaction studies, the organization must already have drawn up its own strategic development which embraces the community dimension and long term horizon to include in its decision making process. It is in this way that equity makes its decisive return as an end, inspiring higher level choices and conduct, while customer satisfaction returns to an instrumental role.
Public services: between Equity and Customer Satisfaction
TESTA, Federico;UGOLINI, Marta Maria
2007-01-01
Abstract
Public services are not just a relevant portion of the economic system, above all they are a tool for redistribution policies that may be pursued with the aim of achieving greater social and economic equity. Public services should be used by all citizens on a needs basis, without discrimination or disparity, incorporating by their nature the notion of equity. Public services quality is jeopardized if they are provided in protected or monopolistic market contexts, in the absence of any real political ability to interpret collective needs. In these conditions, public services providers must be “forced” to assume customer orientation. There are different steps to be taken in this direction: 1) The first is to organize a system capable of monitoring and evaluating customer satisfaction and evolving customer needs; the service user becomes personally active in the actual evaluation process, in accordance with the canons of current quality control thinking. This way the customer will no more be an unknown entity and the service providers will have to reflect about the appropriate quality model to use for customer satisfaction surveys and management 2) The second is to use customer knowledge results for detecting the area in which improvements must be made for the growth in service quality. Communication has a special place in these areas 3) The third is to put improvement projects into effects, overcoming the resistance to change in public organizations. However, customer satisfaction studies are certainly not the only compass bearing on the journey towards quality service. They are limited in their innovation horizon because they express the customer awareness of the product; they are not open to unexpected quality, as voluntary letters praising the organization; finally they not consider potential customers. For these reasons, when implementing customer satisfaction studies, the organization must already have drawn up its own strategic development which embraces the community dimension and long term horizon to include in its decision making process. It is in this way that equity makes its decisive return as an end, inspiring higher level choices and conduct, while customer satisfaction returns to an instrumental role.
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