Understanding the Drivers - 'Service experience met your expectations' fact sheet

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Published:

1 July 2009

Last updated:

1 July 2009

Copyright:

Crown copyright

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State Services Commission, July 2009. To print or download this fact sheet, use the PDF version attached above.

Introduction

Understanding the Drivers is a research project that helps us to understand what the drivers of satisfaction and trust mean to New Zealanders.

Forty focus groups were held across the country in 2008 with the general public, Māori, Asian, Pacific and young people (aged 15 - 30 years). Groups were held in main centres and provincial areas. The views of these New Zealanders have provided us with a wealth of information to assist public service agencies to become more user-focused and accessible, and ultimately improve service delivery for New Zealanders.

This fact sheet provides a summary of one of the six drivers of satisfaction (see the For more information section at the end of the fact sheet for further details about the programme).

What does the driver 'service experience met your expectations' mean?

This was the most important driver for the general public, Asian and young people groups. The 'service experience' included a wide range of interactions such as: requesting information about tax matters, renewing a passport, applying for a student loan, getting treatment at a hospital, calling the police for help and unblocking a roadside drain.

Participants' statements of what 'meeting their expectations' would look like often mentioned (unprompted) other satisfaction drivers such as: being treated fairly, staff keeping their promises and providing services that are value for money. Much of the discussion focused on staff attitude and behaviour, demonstrating the strong link between meeting expectations and having well trained, competent staff.

While customers wanted to achieve an outcome, what was more important was the actual process and how the customer had been treated during the course of the service experience.

"Having your best interests at heart. They actually really do care about what your problem is ... Treated as a human being and not a client or a number"

Participants reported that a service had met their expectations when staff:

  • Listened to and understood their circumstances and treated them like an individual
  • Knew about the services their organisation offered and could help
  • Communicated in a manner that was clear and simple
  • Treated them with respect
  • Were customer focused, that is, were friendly, polite and approachable
  • Followed through or did what they said they would do

Participants were forgiving of public servants and accepted that sometimes mistakes do happen. The key to maintaining satisfaction in these circumstances was for staff to take ownership of the mistake by admitting one had occurred and apologising for it, explaining what had happened and fixing it, all while ensuring minimal impact on the customer.

Providing a consistent service also helped, that is, the advice is the same no matter who you approach. The ideal scenario for many participants was to be able to have a single point of contact to avoid re-explaining their situation.

"My son had an accident and had to have an operation ... they gave me a name of a person I needed to ring and each time I rung I spoke to him and he couldn't have done more for us, he was brilliant. That is what made the difference, you knew who you were going to talk to and you didn't have to go back through the whole bloody thing."

Unique interpretations from different population groups

In addition to the factors that have already been discussed, Asian and young people placed a higher level of expectation on the speed and efficiency of services. Both groups were sensitive to discrimination and expected staff to treat them with respect and act in a non judgemental manner. Asian participants for whom English was a second language expected staff to help them understand things.

How can managers improve satisfaction for this driver?

  • Select the right people for the job, that is, front line staff who want to help, have good people skills and are solutions focused.
  • Set and monitor service standards so that staff know what is expected of them and the public are aware of the standards they can expect to receive.
  • Ensure staff are adequately trained in how to deal with customers. This would cover how to greet customers, politeness and respect. It would also include training on how to find out what people's needs are, how to deal with difficult customers and how to treat each customer as new irrespective of how demanding the previous one has been.
  • Ensure staff have the knowledge and experience to meet customer needs. This would require that staff are well trained across the range of inquiries they are likely to receive and that adequate support systems (such as access to a knowledge base or to more experienced staff) are in place to cover other contingencies that may arise.
  • Improve access to services through ensuring all communications (written or otherwise) are clear and easy to understand.
  • Where a mistake has occurred, ensure staff apologise, explain why it occurred and how the problem will be fixed in the future.
  • In complex situations where customers are dealing with several agencies, ensure staff are trained to handle basic enquiries about other government agencies their customers will most likely need to interact with (for example social welfare and housing services).

For more information