Quote of the week

“71% of citizens want to be involved in the design of public services.”

— Accenture Report

Editor’s Corner

There are many reasons why governments should move to a citizen “outside-in” approach (as GTEC calls it) to service delivery.

The question, of course, is how to get there. According to an Accenture report, it means changing the service creation paradigm. Typically, using an e-government approach, governments build a product such as a website for all users. What’s needed is a shift in thinking that moves toward what the company calls a “responsive approach” to citizen needs.

The fact is, citizens have different needs: mine are not the same as yours. And the technology exists to identify and differentiate what these needs are across departments and even across governments to create a targeted, personalized service approach. After all, political parties are using this technology to focus in on individual voters and their preferences – why can’t governments do the same?

In other words, we need to shift government service delivery design from the generic to the individual. And this also means moving from web to mobile, because across all demographics mobile is becoming the preferred way of doing business and of accessing government services.

Why does all this matter? First of all, cost: the U.K. reports that an online visit is 2% of a walk-in one and 16% of a telephone call. At a DM Panel I chaired at GTEC last week, participants agreed that the so-called “no wrong door” approach where all forms of service delivery were offered was needed. But they then noted that with over 90% of Canadians using the web – and moving to mobile – investing in this area was both necessary and sensible.

Second, years ago the Citizens First surveys, now at the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service, showed that citizens’ trust in government is based in part on their service experience. Almost 15 years later, the Accenture report confirms this, saying that improved service delivery means “increased satisfaction and approval from their constituents.”