Civil service collectively the largest service provider. Any incremental enhancement in civil services certainly effects millions of people.
Civil servants derive our legitimacy from our ability to act professionally as we serve the public and manage state resources to the benefit of the public and places people and their needs at the centre or putting people first approach.
Putting people first approach need civil service to integrate between all its agencies and leverages on technology and where relevant, private sector expertise to develop new public service delivery models.
These models must be based on meeting customer needs more efficiently and more effectively. This means keeping the customer’s needs at the core of every decision, from strategy formulation and design through to execution.
Process re-engineering also needed to put in place for improved, value-for-money processes that will reduce waste and duplication, producing an effective customer interacting with service providers.
One of the core requirements for any putting people first approach or customer-centric strategy is people/citizen/customer insight.
In-depth knowledge about the people/citizen/customer can be drawn from various sources of data – demographic, behavioural, needs-based and attitudinal.
Once gathered, this data is built into a broad view of customer segments, providing a base for the formation of multiple service delivery channels related with customer interaction/journey needs.
Other core elements include the setting of service standards that reflect customer oriented measures, the formation and empowerment of ‘customer champions’ at different levels in the organisation, and the application of processes which ensure that customer understanding becomes the driver for continual upgrading in service delivery.
This enables the conception of multiple delivery channels, as well as the orientation of service delivery with customer interaction/journey.
