Leadership in Customer Service: Building the Trust—Accenture's Seventh Global Report on Government Service Delivery

Governments that lead the public sector in customer service are focused on developing sophisticated, interactive and transactional capabilities on par with the best of the private sector, according to this new global research report by Accenture.

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Read the May 17, 2006 Press Release: Governments That Deliver Outstanding Customer Service Provide an Experience That Rivals the Private Sector, Accenture Report Finds

"Leadership in Customer Service: Building the Trust" is Accenture's seventh global report on government service delivery. The report showcases insights from in-depth interviews with 45 high-ranking government executives from the 11 countries that consistently top Accenture's annual survey of governments' use of technology in customer service: Canada, the United States, Denmark, Singapore, Australia, France, Japan, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

In the report, Accenture finds a new trend whereby governments are reinventing their customer service delivery programs in order to help build greater trust—and this is redefining the relationship between citizens and their governments. From allowing drivers to pay for street parking using their mobile phones to using text messaging for "Amber alerts" on missing children to installing interactive kiosks that provide information about city events, dining, shopping and entertainment, governments around the world are adopting innovative new approaches to deliver greater value to citizens.

Several key findings emerged from the interviews:

• Governments that are considered customer service leaders are:
  (1) introducing services on a par with the best of the private sector, using a range of technologies—from text messaging and mobile applications to kiosks and interactive voice response—to provide unique and interesting services;
  (2) advancing by putting in place new modes of operation that vary dramatically from the past, including strong new organizational designs, relentless simplification, business reengineering, consolidation, and forays into shared services; and
  (3) using a combination of four proactive tactics to drive implementation and adoption of their service strategies—the "stick," the "carrot," marketing pull and high-touch push.
  
  
• Governments are at a critical juncture for service success because they have "reached the limit" with their current approaches to customer service and are re-assessing and re-crafting their customer service strategies to create lasting value.
  
  
• Today's customer service leaders won't necessarily be tomorrow's customer service leaders because of the dynamic and constantly changing nature of leading service practices. Remaining in a leadership position in the future will depend upon governments' ability to adapt to change and address new challenges.