Governments ‘must improve' citizen engagement

US-- Governments around the world “must improve engagement with citizens” to better the quality of services for constituents, according to a report by management consultancy Accenture.

The report, Leadership in Customer Service: Creating Shared Responsibility for Better Outcomes, used desk research from 21 countries, interviews with 42 senior government officials and feedback from 8,600 citizens to gain insight into the actual or perceived performance of government services.

Improving levels of citizen engagement was one of four strategies the report suggested would help build a better relationship between governments and their people.

Accenture said that leading government organisations “proactively engage” citizens to define a service and provide input into its design. Less than a third of respondents in 15 of the countries surveyed felt that their government “did a good job” of seeking citizen input.

Another key strategy for governments was to “leverage customer insight to meet people's specific needs” in service delivery. Accenture pointed to leaders in customer service that conduct detailed studies to better understand clients as an example for governments to follow.

Author: James Verrinder