Performance management in the public sector has as much to do with public-private relationships as it does understanding how best to measure customer satisfaction.
How to achieve success in both was the question at the heart of a recent roundtable hosted by Guardian Public, under the Chatham House rule (where comments aren't attributed, in order to encourage frank, open debate).
Measuring customer satisfaction could be greatly improved, our panel said, by moving away from a PR-based approach to more sophisticated methods of data gathering. "On a five-point scale most people say "fairly" on a survey. You don't get any variation of data," one attendee said.
Jean-Dominique Mallet, chief executive, Veolia
While it was agreed that there was no shortage of measuring tools when it came to surveying customer satisfaction, one attendee said many organisations were "measuring the wrong thing" – especially in services that involved behavioural change. A lack of linking customer satisfaction to financial indicators was also discussed.
One attendee suggested that measuring complaint data rather than customer satisfaction might be a way to generate more pertinent results. Another suggested taking better measurements by asking customers how services compared to expectations as well as ideals.
There were some services, such as bin collections, where feedback could be negative despite customers appreciating the service, and one attendee said metrics could be improved by identifying more difficult categories of customer satisfaction.
Derrick Anderson, chief executive, Lambeth borough council
There was also a real discrepancy in the way customers experienced services and the feedback they gave on the overall performance of the public sector organisation. It was agreed that communicating better with customers, though more costly, would help but that recognising customers didn't always know best was a challenge facing local authorities.
One attendee said: "The real quest is reconnecting with the public and asking what is public value?" Another pointed out that satisfaction is more about an emotional attachment than, necessarily, the quality of service. One possible answer to this is to ensure that public sector staff are themselves the best advocates for the services they deliver - not always the case at the moment.
There was still a big difference in the way the public and private sector approached customer satisfaction. While the commercial sector asked questions about customers returning or recommending services to friends, this was not altogether relevant in the public sector where there was no alternative service provider. In addition, the public sector had mandatory obligations not held by private sector organisations.
We want to find a partner who is more expert at providing the services than we are
Partnerships that had "chemistry" were as important as creating ones just to do the job, our roundtable agreed. It was important to find a partner who could match the vision of public sector organisations. "We want to find a partner who is more expert at providing the services than we are, but who has the same end place as us in mind," said one attendee. When it came to longer-term contracts, "it's about how we work together," said another.
The roundtable agreed that, despite bad press, public-private partnerships had vastly improved. Post-election it would be up to the public sectors to grab onto the willingness of the private sector to tailor solutions, said one participant.
Although one attendee believed the public-private sector partnership to be "on the cusp of a new dynamic," another pointed out that there could still be difficulty in aligning different goals, for example where keeping a residential home emptier, rather than full, was the aim.
Richard Perry, director of policy and partnerships, West Sussex county council
It was agreed that best practice should be shared, although one attendee had concerns that using customer satisfaction data to benchmark authorities could be double-edged. Standardising customer satisfaction metrics across different services would be very difficult, many at the roundtable agreed. One answer would be to standardise methodology, but have separate metrics for different places and services. Standardisation on the supplier side, with competing bidders agreeing to be judged by the same set of outcomes, would be useful, it was agreed.
Personalisation in local authorities also addressed the issue of councils "doing too much" and was about letting customers take control, especially in social care. With councils facing big budget cuts, one attendee talked about balancing "the art of the possible and the art of the probable".
Reacting to comparisons of "easyJet" and "John Lewis-style councils" one attendee said: "We're not very good at explaining to people what they can have and we might be the only place you can get a service. But we shouldn't be the easyJet answer for everything. There are real choices to be made."
One attendee suggested building long-term goals that took into account fluctuations in customer satisfaction. "We know some things are going to make people unhappy but we can build that into plans. The idea that customer satisfaction is always going to go up is ridiculous."
This roundtable was produced in association with Kable
From Bubb's Blog
From Whitehall Watch
