Service Excellence Initiative
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Service Excellence Initiative 598 Management Report Kirsten McCaig June 20, 2003 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... 1 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................2 2.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................8 3.0 GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH ............................................................................ 12 4.0 SERVING THE PUBLIC.................................................................................................. 15 4.1 WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE ....... 17 5.0 THE CANADIAN APPROACH TO SERVICE IMPROVEMENT – A BEST PRACTICES REVIEW..................................................................................................... 21 5.1 SURVEYS: DETERMINING CUSTOMER SERVICE PRIORITIES....................................... 24 5.1.1 Employee Surveys – Uncovering Internal Service Barriers ............................. 27 5.1.2 Mystery Shopper – Alternative Survey Method ................................................ 28 5.2 SERVICE STANDARDS................................................................................................. 29 5.2.1 What are service standards? ............................................................................ 30 5.2.2 Why develop customer service standards?....................................................... 31 5.2.3 What are the benefits of implementing service standards? .............................. 31 5.2.4 Steps for developing service standards. ........................................................... 32 5.2.5 Testing Service Standards – A Pilot Project..................................................... 34 5.3 SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN................................................................................... 35 6.0 BRANCH ASSESSMENT PRIOR TO INITIATION OF THE SERVICE EXCELLENCE INITIATIVIVE...................................................................................... 38 7.0 METHODOLOGY DESIGN ............................................................................................ 41 7.1 SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN................................................................................... 42 7.1.1 Secondary Data................................................................................................ 42 7.1.2 Primary Data.................................................................................................... 43 7.1.2.1 Employee Service Delivery Survey (Employee Survey)..................... 43 7.1.2.2 Identifying Service Improvement Priorities ........................................ 48 7.2 SERVICE STANDARDS................................................................................................. 48 7.2.1 External Sources............................................................................................... 48 7.2.2 Internal Validation ........................................................................................... 49 7.2.2.1 Headquarters Management.................................................................. 49 7.2.2.2 Service Excellence Initiative Steering Committee .............................. 49 7.2.2.3 Government Agents Conference ......................................................... 50 7.2.2.4 Pilot Project......................................................................................... 51 7.2.2.5 Customer Service Representative Focus Group .................................. 53 7.2.2.6 Government Agent Debrief ................................................................. 53 7.2.2.7 Management Team.............................................................................. 54 8.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................................ 55 8.1 SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN................................................................................... 55 8.1.1 Employee Service Delivery Survey - Summary of Findings ............................. 55 8.1.2 Service Improvement Priorities........................................................................ 58 8.2 SERVICE STANDARDS................................................................................................. 59 9.0 SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN................................................................................ 61 9.1 IMPLEMENTATION ...................................................................................................... 62 9.2 SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN PROCESS ................................................................... 62 9.3 MEASUREMENT AND RESULTS................................................................................... 64 9.4 REPORTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY........................................................................... 66 10.0 GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH SERVICE STANDARDS ................................ 67 10.1 RATIONALE: WHY DEVELOP SERVICE STANDARDS FOR THE GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH ..................................................................................................................... 67 10.2 SERVICE STANDARDS OVERVIEW .............................................................................. 69 10.3 MEASURING THE SERVICE STANDARDS..................................................................... 73 11.0 THE SERVICE EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE AND LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE ............................................................................................................................. 74 11.1 ANNUAL RENEWAL OF THE SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN AND THE SERVICE STANDARDS................................................................................................................ 74 11.2 MYSTERY SHOPPER PROGRAM .................................................................................. 75 11.3 CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE BRANCH'S SERVICE CULTURE............................... 76 11.4 RENEWING CLIENT MINISTRY SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS.................................. 77 12.0 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................ 79 APPENDICES APPENDIX A: GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH SERVICES APPENDIX B: GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY 2001 APPENDIX C: INDUSTRY CANADA SERVICE STANDARDS APPENDIX D: SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN TEMPLATES APPENDIX E: EMPLOYEE SERVICE DELIVERY SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX F: CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONNAIRE AND AGENDA APPENDIX G: EMPLOYEE SERVICE DELIVERY SURVEY RESULTS APPENDIX H: GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH SERVICE STANDARDS APPENDIX I: CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE FOCUS GROUP COMMENTS APPENDIX J: GOVERNMENT AGENTS BRANCH SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to say thank you to the following people without whose help, this project would not have been possible. To Guy Cookson and Bette-Jo Hughes from the Governments Agents Branch, thank you for your assistance throughout this project and continued support of the Service Excellence Initiative. I have thoroughly enjoyed working at the GAB and I look forward to working with you both in the future. To Dr. James McDavid, thank you for your patience, support and advice. To my parents and brothers, Corwin and Jonathan, thank you for your love, faith and belief in me. Page 1 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Government Agent offices offer BC citizens a “one-stop shop” to government services. Staff have a strong service culture and are trained to deliver hundreds of services/programs such as driver licenses, MSP, property tax collection etc., on behalf of provincial ministries and agencies. Throughout its history, the Government Agents’ Branch has demonstrated a strong commitment to providing exceptional customer services in communities across BC. In its last customer satisfaction survey, March 2001, 94 percent of customers were satisfied/highly satisfied with Government Agents services. Despite its high satisfaction rating and commitment to customer service, the Branch did not have a process for identifying customer service priorities nor a framework for addressing them. The Branch also lacked a common set of service standards for their staff located in 58 offices dispersed throughout the province. These two factors resulted in an ad hoc approach to improving customer service and potentially inconsistent levels of customer service in Government Agent (GA) offices. Continuing its traditional focus on citizen centred services, the Branch decided it was ready to develop a strategy for continuous service improvement and launched the Service Excellence Initiative (SEI) in May 2001. The overall goal of the SEI is to improve customer satisfaction with Government Agent services. It achieves its goal through two means. First, it establishes a cycle of continuous service improvement whereby customer service priorities are identified and placed in a Service Improvement Plan. Once in the plan, activities are designed to address/resolve Page 2 service issues and measures are established to determine if the plan is achieving its desired results. Results are measured annually and as new customer priorities emerge they are placed in the plan and the cycle