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ARCHIVED - Summary Report on Service Standards


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2. The Role of Service Standards

The Government of Canada is committed to modernizing government management in order to respond to Canadians' changing expectations and priorities. To this end in March 2000, the President of the Treasury Board tabled Results for Canadians: A Management Framework for the Government of Canada.[3] The Results for Canadians framework describes the government's four core management commitments to achieve excellence in areas critical to a well-performing public sector, namely, citizen focus, results focus, strong public service values, and responsible spending.

With respect to citizen focus, Results for Canadians stated that government services must respond to the needs of citizens, be easy to find, and be available through the mail, by phone, on the Internet or at walk-in centres. One of the government's key means to support the Results for Canadians citizen focus and to modernize government management is the Service Improvement Initiative. This Initiative, which adopts a citizen's 'outside-in' perspective, is intended to achieve significant, quantifiable improvement (of 10%) in citizen/client satisfaction with services over the next five years.[4]

The essence of the Service Improvement Initiative is that the continuous and measurable increase in client satisfaction is the most reliable indicator of improvement in service quality and service performance.

As illustrated in Figure 1, increased client satisfaction is to be achieved by measuring clients' expectations and priorities for improvement, setting service standards and related service targets linked to these expectations and revising service delivery processes accordingly, monitoring performance against these service standards, and then measuring client satisfaction and expectations again. Establishing and monitoring performance against service standards is a key feature of the Initiative and essential for managing client expectations.[5] In turn, by meeting or exceeding client expectations, government departments and agencies can be assured of being able to increase client satisfaction as suggested by the results of the Citizens First 1998 and the Citizens First 2000 surveys. Accordingly, continuous improvement would then take place by continuously repeating this process.

Figure 1 Increasing Client Satisfaction Through the Use of Service Standards

Figure 1 Increasing Client Satisfaction Through the Use of Service Standards

The Service Improvement Initiative also commits government departments to report within their existing annual Reports on Plans and Priorities/Departmental Performance Reports to Parliament the following: service standards for all key public services; performance against service standards; annual improvements in client satisfaction; and progress toward client satisfaction targets.

The Service Improvement Initiative policy framework commits those departments and agencies, which have significant direct service delivery activities for Canadians, to carry out a number of tasks and steps to improve client satisfaction and to continuously improve. In particular, one such step is to:

  • Adopt and publish core service standards for each service channel (e.g., timeliness standards for telephone service, in-person service, electronic service, and mail service) that are linked to clients' expectations.[6]

As indicated in the Citizens First 2000 report, service standards are used in two main ways:

  • to provide staff with performance targets (e.g., "Phone must be answered within three rings")
  • to inform clients what to expect (e.g., "Waiting time is less than 10 minutes").[7]

The Citizens First 2000 report indicated that many organizations have seen performance improve dramatically as a result of implementing a program of service standards. The report suggested that governments make their services more accessible across many delivery channels, but especially the telephone. As well, the report suggested that the five drivers of citizen satisfaction (i.e., timeliness; knowledgeable, competent staff; 'the extra mile/the extra smile' or courtesy; fair treatment; and outcome) be incorporated into every line of government business, and that the drivers for specific programs be determined. Finally, the report also suggested that regular measurement of service drivers and service standards be integrated and staff be given feedback on their performance.[8]