Is Public the New Private?

Traditionally, the public sector has been renowned for their seeming lack of customer service. They've even been used as a model of what not to do in terms of how to provide good customer service.

You frequently heard private companies talking about customer engagement and return customers, as well as customer satisfaction. It wasn’t often that you heard those words applied by a public sector entity.

It’s been said for years that the public sector had a lot to learn from the private sector about doing business and customer service. As recently as 5 years ago, that may have been true.

That was then. This is now.

Where the private sector was once the group to beat, in some instances those companies customer service is lagging behind. Whether brought on by stagnation based on a poor economy or simply oversight, consumers lost faith. In other cases private companies are being questioned as less than ethical companies who do not serve the customer so much as make use of them.

A lot has changed in customer service lately.

The recent announcement about the East Coast Main line being privatised has people thinking about the achievements attained by the Directly Operated Railways-- a publicly owned facility. They made more money for the service and directed it back into the government. That isn't all that they accomplished by any stretch of the imagination. They boosted consumer trust. By virtue of multiple initiatives, the DOR achieved a result of 91 percent customer satisfaction with their services.

That's nearly unprecedented for a public sector entity. . . or is it?

The latest round of much vaunted public sector wins are impressive, but looking back over the past few years, it seems that a lot was going on while we were not paying attention. The UK’s systems were becoming state of the art, but it’s more than that. It’s a good example of what working on customer care can do. It speaks volumes about how good service can help us to achieve better growth and empower our people at the same time.

The public sector has rapidly become a leader in customer service in some quaters. Just a few examples are these:

Gov.UK

The UK is increasingly web-savvy. Their needs and their expectations for online design are rising. Historically the UK government sites were a rather disjointed group of sites that made a true spider web appear simple when trying to navigate them.

The UK government, seeing the need for something more to provide quality customer service formed a UK Government Digital Service committee within the Cabinet Office. The overall goal was finding a way to meet customer needs and transform the online experience for the average UK customer.

Gov.uk met those goals and in fact exceeded them quite nicely. The web portal offers nearly all of the British Central government in a one-stop-shopping fashion.

The streamlined new site, opened to the public in 2012 was so well received that it won the Best Design of the Year award from the London Design Museum. That's no small feat when you consider that it was competing against buildings, websites, and even cars for the win. Past winners include the London Olympic Torch 2012 and the Barack Obama Poster 2009. The UK website became the first website to win the award.

The Identity & Passport Service (IPS)

It was a scant few years ago that the IPS was listed as the top group to beat in customer service. UK Customer Services Index –based on responses from more than 25 thousand people--in 2010 announced the IPS as the top public sector organization. More, they were rated higher than some very big name private companies such as Lloyd’s TSB, Vodafone, Sky and EDF Energy.

Is the Public Sector Beginning to Lead the Way in Customer Experience?

It appears that after a slow start, the public sector has begun to realize that engaged customers promote services by word of mouth referral and increase the use of public services. Happy customers lower the cost of business. In the public sector, happy customers are also more trusting of their government, which certainly makes customer satisfaction worth striving for.

What defines a positive customer experience? A positive customer experience is one in which the customer walks away feeling they have been fairly treated and achieved their relative value.

It seems that customer satisfaction is becoming more frequent in the public sector. Perhaps even more surprising is that the private sector is (in many cases) losing ground in this area. Many customers believe that the private sector is far less likely to treat them

fairly. Items in the news about the excesses of the private sector appear to support such concerns.

How well does the public sector measure up when it comes to customer experience? If you'd asked that question ten years ago, the answer that you received would have been quite negative in nature.

Today is a different matter entirely.

Good customer service builds a trusting relationship in a time when trust is what businesses seem to be lacking. As the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) quote on their website: “Trust is the most important asset not displayed on a Balance Sheet”. It is also the most easily squandered asset!

Could it be that the private sector has something to learn from the public sector?

Craig Milbourne

Oomph! Recruitment | Chief Executive Oompher

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