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October 2016 //
Canadian Government Executive /
19
Business First
Service Reputation Scores
Client Satisfaction Index (CSI)
Service Reputation and
Experience
The overall results of
Taking Care of
Business 5
paint a positive picture of
government-to-business service deliv-
ery in Canada. The reputation scores for
each level of government have increased
significantly since 2010, when the third
wave of the study was implemented. The
current score for provincial/ territorial,
regional and municipal levels is 63 (All
scores quoted in the article are on the 0 to
100 scale) while for the federal level it is
slightly lower at 61.
The scores provided by businesses for
their recent service experience have also
increased by a significant margin. The
national average for overall satisfaction
currently stands at 66, compared to just
60 back in 2007. However, the scores for
the other two components of the CSI, i.e.,
equaling the best service offered any-
where and exceeding expectations, are
substantially lower, at 55 and 52, respec-
tively. This indicates that there is still a
lot of room for improvement. The average
CSI score for Canada is 58.
Service Expectations
Even though the overall satisfaction rat-
ings have increased over the past itera-
tions of the study, there continue to be
gaps between what business clients ex-
pect and what they receive. This is particu-
larly true when it comes to the time spent
accessing government services through
two key channels: online and telephone.
Timeliness remains consistently one of
the top drivers of satisfaction but, while
business clients expect to spend, on aver-
age, just over six minutes online and sev-
en minutes on the telephone to find the
information or start a transaction, they
report spending over 11 and 18 minutes,
respectively.
Canadian businesses would also like to
go through fewer webpages when they
access government services online. This
speaks to the need to enhance navigation,
i.e., enable business clients to easily find
what they are looking for on the website,
which has been identified as one of the
key drivers for the online channel.
Expectations relating to receiving ser-
vice in a timely manner have increased
compared to the previous iterations of
the study, keeping pace with technologi-
cal advances and the changing service
environment in general. Decreasing the
gap between them and the actual service
experience will be key to improving satis-
faction ratings, as the CSI score has been
shown to drop significantly when business
clients are required to spend an extended
amount of time online or on the telephone
finding information or waiting to start a
transaction.
Channel Use: The Changing
Preferences
The CSI scores vary by channel, with in-
person (office or kiosk) and online services
receiving the highest ratings, 61 and 59
respectively. Email is rated slightly lower,
at 57, and telephone, in line with the previ-
ous waves of the study, comes at the bot-
tom with the score of 54.