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Challenge Novemeber 2005 - Last updated 211105

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Superior service: Making a difference

Central Provident Fund Board: Where customers come first

Connecting citizens

Superior service: Making a difference

Four STAR Service Award winners who delivered exceptional service.

As Singapore’s environment becomes more complex and fast-moving, the public has also grown more informed, assertive and used to
things working at Internet speed. Individuals and businesses alike have come to expect faster,
more relevant and complete responses from the
Public Service.

When PS21 was launched in 1995, one of its key goals was to nurture service excellence as a way of life in the Public Service. It was a critical reminder of our core purpose: serving the public with nothing less than the highest standards of Courtesy, Accessibility, Responsiveness and Effectiveness, or CARE. Our goal is to delight customers —
not only to meet expectations but to exceed them. To go the extra mile in serving Singapore.

TRANSFORMING FRONT-LINE SERVICE
Since 1995, we have made a strong commitment to service excellence. Today, the “Excellence in Public Service” pledge — launched in conjunction with PS21 — is displayed in every customer service location. Ministries set and publish their service standards, such as counter waiting times and response times to feedback. Quality Service Managers are appointed in every agency to oversee service delivery, and to respond to public feedback.

DID YOU KNOW...?

•	that we have more than 1,600 government services on the Internet?
•	that we receive an average of 26,000 items of feedback a month?
•	that in the latest Mystery Customer Audit, over 400 standards were audited? Thirty out of the 40 agencies audited complied with their stated service standards over 90% of the time.
•	that the No Wrong Door policy has been in force in the Public Service since 2004?
•	that the number of e-filers for income tax has increased eight-fold from slightly more than 100,000 e-filers in 1998 to more than 800,000 in 2005?
•	that according to Instruction Manual 7C, Quality Service Managers (QSMs) are to be of superscale grade? This requirement is to ensure that QSMs are able to provide the necessary leadership and top management emphasis for improving service quality.
•	that as of end-July 2005, the Public Service provides more than 2,500 types of hardcopy forms, and more than 1,400 types of e-forms for the public?
•	that Central Provident Fund Board was voted the most pro-enterprise regulatory agency in the 2005 Action Community for Enterpreneurship Pro-Enterprise Survey?

Many government counters and offices have become pleasant environments, where help is easily available and services rendered quickly and professionally.

Agencies also visit private companies renowned for their service quality, to pick up good practices. One outcome is the Mystery Customer Audit. Since 2003, public officers have acted as mystery customers to check on the service levels of public agencies.

The need to streamline and step up service
also explains the drive towards government
e-services. In fact, the award-winning eCitizen Portal was launched in 1999 as part of the PS21 effort to make public services more convenient and customer-centric. Business.gov.sg, the
pro-enterprise Internet portal, adopts a similar approach. It provides a one-stop gateway to useful information, government assistance, registrations — anything needed to start or grow a business.

With over 98% of possible public services available online, most mundane front-line tasks, such as form-filling for applications and registrations, are now accessible directly through the Internet, saving customers time, effort
and expense.

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS
Since our customers perceive the Government as a single entity, it is important that the Public Service works well across agencies. At present, this isn’t always the case.

In 2004, the No Wrong Door policy was put in place to address this. It requires all public agencies to put members of the public in
contact with the correct agency that can deal with their queries, so they do not have to run from place
to place.

Parallel efforts by the Public Service to cut red tape have also made government regulations and procedures more responsive to customers’ needs.

Global surveys have shown that we fare well for our business-friendly service.

Initiatives such as the Zero-In-Process and the
Pro-Enterprise Panel gather, study and act on feedback
from the public and businesses. This has helped to improve many areas of Public Service, such as government red tape, outdated rules and inter-agency gaps.

The annual Excellence in Public Suggestions Award recognises members of the public who have contributed ideas that led to significant improvements in the delivery of public services. Not only have these ideas made services faster, cheaper and better for the public, some of them have also helped the Public Service save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually!

ROLE MODELS AND BEST PRACTICES
One way in which the Public Service encourages good service is to recognise it when it appears, and learn from the best role models around. For instance, the Counter Allowance scheme was introduced in 1995 to encourage counter staff to provide quality service. The STAR Service Award, launched in 2003, applauds public officers who have consistently demonstrated outstanding service over time.

To establish a consistent level of quality service across all agencies, the Government Instruction Manual 7 provides guidelines and principles on important service-related areas, such as public relations, service standards, feedback and communication with the public, consultation and e-services.

Other best practices, such as ways to make government forms more user-friendly, have been shared across the Public Service, through circulars, forums and other learning opportunities.

THE EXTRA MILE

Would you go as far as these public officers in rendering superior service to the public?

•	Housing and Development Board Estate Officer Wendy Chua and her colleagues were chased away repeatedly by a hostile, mentally unsound resident, while investigating a leaking problem. The team didn’t give up, and even found him and his disabled mother the medical help they needed, while their home was being repaired.
•	Army Warrant Officer Sarjit Kaur took personal care of a National Serviceman’s (NSman) bedridden mother so that he could take his Individual Physical Proficiency Test. She says: “I am a strong believer in providing service to customers and NSmen are my customers. I want to make sure that when they have a problem and are in a desperate situation, I do my best to provide assistance to them.”
•	Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore’s Customer Service Officer Muli d/o Bhagwan Dass took care of a UK traveller who had lost her credit card and run out of money. She arranged for a funds transfer after closing hours, and helped to book a hotel.
•	Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer Eric Soo designed a special home lecture course for a student who was paralysed from the waist down. He visited the student at home weekly to give lectures so that he could complete his diploma successfully.

More agencies are also pursuing the Singapore Service Class (S-Class), a certification programme by SPRING Singapore, which provides a rigorous framework for achieving service excellence in organisations. With the
S-Class, public agencies can benchmark themselves against the best customer service providers in the private sector. As of end-FY2004, a third of all S-Class certifications in Singapore were given to public agencies.

DELIGHTING OUR CUSTOMERS
The public has noticed the change. Businesses polled in a 2005 survey by Action Community for Entrepreneurship were more than satisfied with the regulatory agencies they had worked with. While there is certainly room for improvement, the Public Service was generally found to be transparent, efficient, and proactive in communicating the rules and minimising paper work. (For more information, visit www.ace.org.sg)

Global surveys such as those conducted by the World Economic Forum have also shown that we compare well internationally for our business-friendly service.

A MINDSET OF SERVICE
Quality service is a mindset and attitude. Everyone is a user of public services at some point and we are all customers ourselves. We want to receive the best possible service and response from those we deal with.

As STAR Service Award winner Kharina Zainal from the Ministry of Finance puts it: “If you can do a good job and make somebody’s day, why not?” So let us give as good as we hope to get!

Next: Central Provident Fund Board: Where customers come first