Customer focus

What is Customer Focus?

"Customer Focus" in the public sector is about refocusing services around the needs of the citizen as a customer of public services, rather than the problems of those who provide the services. It signifies an organisational culture that aims to address the needs, expectations and behaviours of the public, and then adjusts every aspect of the organisation to align with customer values. This includes the entire delivery chain from policy-making through to front-line services - including strategy, organisational design, business processes, performance measures, information systems and support processes.

The requirements of Customer Focus are set out in the Cabinet Office's Nine Principles of Public Service Delivery:

Every public service should:

• Set Standards of Service
• Be Open and Provide Full Information
• Consult and Involve
• Encourage Access and the Promotion of Choice
• Treat All Fairly
• Put Things Right When They Go Wrong
• Use Resources Effectively
• Innovate and Improve
• Work with Other Providers

Why is it important?

Achieving a Customer Focus across the public sector is one of the fundamental requirements of the Modernising Government agenda. "Modernising Government means making sure that citizens and businesses come first . We want public services that respond to users' needs and are not arranged for the provider's convenience."

More recently, OPSR published the Prime Minister's Principles of public services reform, aimed at delivering public services designed around the needs of their customers:

• Standards and Accountability: a national framework of standards and accountability;
• Devolution: to the front line, allowing greater freedom and innovation so that local services develop as users want;
• Flexibility: so that local organisations and their staff are better able to provide modern public services;
• Choice: more choice for the pupil, patient or customer, and ability if provision is poor, to have an alternative provider.

The supporting document "Principles into Practice" describes how public sector bodies should focus on "Putting the Customer First" in order to meet the reasonable expectations of the public.

In summary, Customer Focus is important because it will lead to major changes in:

• the way in which most public sector organisations are structured, organise their activities, deploy their staff, and cooperate in the delivery of services;
• the ways in which the general public perceive, access and benefit from the delivery of public services.

Some of these changes are already in hand as a result of the development and progression of departmental e-business strategies, and many of the requirements of Customer Focus will be realised through the potential of Information and Communications Technology to support new modes of service delivery.

Success Factors

Customer-focused organisations should demonstrate four critical strengths:

• Understand the customer
• Build operations around the customer
• Manage stakeholder relationships
• Use customer understanding to deliver target outcomes

A customer-focused government looks like this:

Overall:

• Clearer, outward focus and vision for public servants and their Ministers
• Deeper, shared understanding of main customers
• Information is organised by customer groups, across government where required
• Higher stakeholder satisfaction
• What is measured and rewarded is driven by what customers value
• Better alignment of resources to objectives
• Different staff motivation and improved morale

Policy:

• Proactive, outward driven policy processes with high stakeholder and public engagement
• Clear approach to defining the 'public interest' in terms of customer needs
• Ministers are involved in structured process of customer identification and management
• Ministers and officials at all levels seek to foster a team approach to understanding and meeting customer needs
• Staff have particular relationship management and/or customer representative roles
• Promotion is based on new values and skills
• Risk management focused on customer values and concerns
• Closely managed partnerships and exchanges with external organisations
• Policies that are more likely to be workable and achieve their objective
  

Service delivery:

• Services are designed and delivered around customer needs and interests
• Common definition and information about customer segments is shared across organisations from policy to delivery
• Effective channel strategy (management of different methods of communicating and transacting with customers, e.g. telephone, web, paper, face-to-face)
• Policy teams use abstracted operational data from delivery systems
• IT and e-government projects are embedded in wider transformational projects which address people, processes and performance management
• Large IT projects achieve measurable gains in effectiveness

Who is involved?

The move to a customer-focused organisation involves all levels of staff.

Departments and agencies responsible for delivering services to the public will need to put in place a programme to ensure that these services meet the needs of consumers, and:

• designate an official at senior board level to take responsibility for the design and implementation of the programme: a "consumer champion" (it may be sensible to appoint consumer champions at other levels too);
• take account of consumer views at every level in the organisation in the design and delivery of services, and reporting on improvements made.

Consumer champions:

• are senior members of the management team with the authority to drive through change;
• have responsibility for ensuring the consumers' views are translated into practical improvements to public services;
• ensure that the changes made to public services have real meaning and impact and that they are part of a long-term strategy of improvement.

Details of the Consumer Focus initiative are at:  http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/opsr/public_service_reform/customer_focus/index.asp

Principles and Process

The diagram shows the main questions to be addressed, and activities involved in developing and operating a Customer Focus in the organisation.

Who are our customers and stakeholders?
Public sector bodies typically serve a variety of customers, including staff and business functions within the organisation, other public sector bodies, the general public, businesses and a range of other organisations. The PSPP report "Customer-Focused Government" identifies two categories of customers:

• Target customers, the intended ultimate beneficiaries, consumers or users of the service/s provided, e.g. patients of healthcare services, recipients of benefits. The objective of the public service will be to provide something of use to target customer segments or intended to have an impact on them. This could include reluctant customers (such as prisoners as recipients of rehabilitative services), unaware customers (such as children as future generators of income) and unformed customer groups (such as the public as protectors of human rights);
• Indirect customers (not targeted but affected): are impacted, or potentially impacted, by the services to target customers, intentionally or unintentionally. The organisation's objectives will not specifically include services to these groups, but the organisation will have working objectives that ensure their interests are considered, e.g. that the approach is 'inclusive', considers the impact on partners in service delivery, the environment etc. This category will include a long and changing list of segments, probably always including the public as taxpayers, internal staff, other government departments, agencies, local authorities and other organisations in the delivery 'chain', underrepresented socio-economic groups, the public of other countries. This list could be long - it should be prioritised and tailored for each service function.

There will also be other stakeholders who could not be considered customers, but who have some stake in the process of providing the customer service. These will include:

• Customer representatives in an "intelligent customer" role as advisors to government;
• Intermediaries and partners in the provision of government services;
• Independent experts who are consulted because of what they know.

Categories of target customers can not be regarded as homogeneous wholes, and consideration must be given to customer segmentation. As described in the NAO report "Better public services through e-government":

Customer segmentation is the process of analysing and categorising customers by similar characteristics, such as life stage events (for example business start-ups); customer behaviour; and customers' characteristics. Once the needs of different customer segments are understood, the organisation can then consider how to develop its services so that they meet their needs and can decide how to market them so that targeted customers use them.

The PSPP report "Customer-Focused Government" includes a number of hints and tips for segmenting customers.

What services must/should we deliver, and how?
Every public sector organisation will typically be obliged to undertake some specified business functions, to produce defined outputs or deliver services to the public. These can be regarded as the "business mandate" of the organisation - such as the issue of licences, delivery of health or educational services, payment of benefits, or collection of taxes. In addition, there will be opportunities for delivery of services which are not regarded as obligatory, but which could add value to the department's offerings and help to meet the government's aspirations for public service delivery - for example, the provision of additional information services, the development of on-line and internet-based services, the implementation of help lines and call centres, and the development of "joined-up" services in collaboration with other bodies.

Public sector bodies should assess the opportunities for extending their business mandate into areas which would widen the scope of their service delivery and make it more convenient for their customers to do business with government. Many departments are already undertaking fundamental reviews of their service delivery arrangements as part of their e-business strategies. A summary of the main failings of departments in service delivery to the public, as reported by members of the People's Panel is at:  http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/servicefirst/index/perform/expects.htm

A review of this list may identify areas where service delivery could be improved.

What do our customers need/want?
Services should be developed to meet the obligations of the department efficiently and effectively, while at the same time improving the acceptability of service delivery to customers. All public sector bodies will at some stage wish to find out the views of their customers about requirements for changes and developments in service delivery, and about customer satisfaction with existing services.

See also the Requirements Management workbook for a step-by-step approach relevant to this topic.

The Cabinet Office Consultation Web Site provides access to a range of documents with guidance on consultation techniques and dissemination of best practice:  http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/opsr/public_service_reform/customer_focus/index.asp

The Cabinet Office document "How to Consult your Users" gives guidance on the use of consultation techniques covering:

• complaints, suggestions and testing
• meetings and discussions
• surveys
• written comments
• visuals and presentations.

The Consultation Web Site provides the "Top Ten Tips" on consultation:

1. Build consultation into your regular planning cycle and consult early. Don't wait until too late to change your plans, and do give people enough time to comment.
2. Don't ask for views if you can't or won't do anything with them - make clear what you can change and what you can't.
3. Learn from others - use experts if necessary, but don't just do something because 'everyone else does'. Work out what's right for your own situation.
4. Use more than one method of consultation.
5. Be flexible - think how to reach all your users (people with disabilities, people from ethnic minority groups etc.).
6. Don't just consult your users - ask others, too, including your front-line staff.
7. Be sensitive to those you want to consult - encourage them to give honest views, e.g. by assuring confidentiality.
8. Publicise your consultation so that all who want to can feed in views, and so that people realise you are committed to listening to them
9. Report back on what views you received and what you have done as a result.
10. Evaluate carefully after consulting, and learn lessons for next time.

 What resources do/could we possess or have access to?
Opportunities for developing and delivering new or improved services may be constrained (in the short term) by the resources available within the department, including funds, staff resources and skills, and technology. However, planning for step changes in service delivery should include consideration of access to external resources which could contribute to major changes and improvements.

What changes can/should we make in service quality and delivery?
Based on the answers to the previous questions, the department can now consider what changes and improvements to make in current service delivery, and what new types of service it may wish to implement. The implementation of Customer Focus should be tackled as an organisation-wide Management of Change exercise. Where a programme of change is to be implemented through a number of linked projects, the principles of Programme Management should be followed for the implementation.

The PSPP report "Customer-Focused Government" summarises the key requirements for delivery of results:

• Process redesign to link functions which share customer segments (e.g. cross-functional teams);
• Link policy making to the front line
• Minimise tasks of low added value to customers
• Tailor customer interfaces and exploit available data and customer contacts
• New front line systems or services
• Adjust policy-making processes to incorporate customer-focused principles, e.g. customer segmentation, outcome-based performance measures.

Planning for Customer Focus must include some quantitative assessment of the benefits expected, and the impact on service quality and customer satisfaction. Departments will already have targets for service delivery set as part of their Public Service Agreements and Service Delivery Agreements, and these will be updated to take into account any new service arrangements to be introduced. Guidance on setting targets, and access to best practice in performance measurement, is to be found at  http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/opsr/public_service_reform/customer_focus/index.asp

Some organisations will wish to introduce a National Charter for service standards, or update an existing Charter. Guidance on this topic is available at  http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/servicefirst/index/list.htm

In planning the implementation of Customer Focus, particular attention should be paid to the likely reaction of customers to new or changed services, and how customer resistance to any new service delivery could be overcome. The NAO report "Better Public Services Through e-Government" identifies the main risks in this area; the list relates to electronic service delivery but can apply to any new service.

Barriers to the take-up of electronic services (NAO)

1. Social exclusion - groups in society such as the elderly, unemployed, those on low income and those with learning difficulties may not have easy access to the Internet.
2. Familiarity - it can take time for developments such as IT which have yet to become a normal established part of every day life to be accepted by some people.
3. Expectancy - some citizens have low expectations about IT and what it can deliver; this innate scepticism has to be overcome and it is important that departments test new systems before going live as initial problems or failure can reinforce peoples' low expectations.
4. Ease of use - unless new services are easy to use and not complex take up will be low for example, websites that are conservatively designed, use bureaucratic language and contain no incentives to explore the site will remain largely unused.
5. Benefits - the benefits for the public of interacting with departments on-line must be self evident or else demand and subsequent take up will remain low.
6. Costs - if the cost of accessing services on-line is expensive or time consuming because the service has been badly designed people will not want to use it.
7. Solemnity - while the subject matter is serious government web sites that are conservatively designed, use bureaucratic language and contain no incentives other than strict functionality for users to explore the site are likely to be significantly under used. 

A major consideration for the delivery of customer-focused services will be the means of access by the customer to those services. For electronic service delivery, the government envisages that a range of "channels" will be used, to provide choice and competition in service delivery. For further information on other topics relevant to electronic service delivery, such as standards for the design of government web sites. Further details are at:  http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-government/policy_guidance/ and in the  Service Design and Delivery Guide.

The introduction and marketing of new services should emphasise and demonstrate benefits for the customer. It may also be necessary to consider the introduction of incentives for customers to stimulate take-up of the new services. Examples of incentives and benefits include:

• lower fees and charges for public services
• improved speed of deliveryimproved quality of service, e.g. through personalised services
• free access

Departments will also need to consider how to change the culture in the organisation, and motivate staff to adopt a Customer Focus where this may not have been prevalent in the past. The PSPP report "Making a Difference - Motivating People to Improve Performance" addresses this issue.

Monitoring, review, measurement and feedback.
Departments will need to put in place a variety of mechanisms for reviewing the operation of their customer services, measuring service performance, and obtaining feedback from customers on their satisfaction with the services. The general topic of Performance Management is covered in [ref: SDTK Performance Management]; an extensive library of information on performance, and access to links and resources, is also available at:  http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/opsr/public_service_reform/customer_focus/

Obtaining feedback from customers will be an important aspect of performance monitoring and review. The Cabinet Office Consultation Web Site (see earlier) gives extensive guidance on the conduct of consultation exercises. It will be important to ensure that the results of any such consultation are fed back into the processes of strategy formation, service planning and service design.

A common objective of consultation exercises is to measure "customer satisfaction" with services. The report from the Performance and Innovation Unit "Satisfaction with Public Services" notes that satisfaction data can be very useful in determining customers' priorities for improvement. A recommended approach is to design a matrix where satisfaction with different aspects of a service is directly compared to the importance the user attaches to each. The areas of a service that are most in need of improvement can be identified by mapping satisfaction against importance (those in the bottom right quadrant - see diagram).

For each service being assessed, it will be necessary to identify the service characteristics which are of most importance to customers - the service quality "dimensions", each of which can be broken down into a number of service quality factors. One group of researchers has identified the most widely reported set of service quality dimensions - the SERVQUAL list. This is made up of:

The PIU report contains an extensive discussion on the measurement of customer satisfaction with service delivery, as does the OPSR report "Public Service Reform: Measuring and Understanding Customer Satisfaction". The ServiceFirst website also contains guidance on how to handle customer complaints (see references).

Departments may wish to measure themselves against a formal Quality Scheme for their service delivery. Information on such schemes is contained in the Cabinet Office guide "Getting It Together: A Guide to Quality Schemes and the Delivery of Public Services", available at  http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/servicefirst/2001/taskforce/gettingittogether/default.htm

Further information and references