Key findings:
- Regional citizens want service delivery that reflected their needs: ‘vanilla’ is fine for simple transactional interactions, but ‘bespoke’ personal contact and understanding (empathy) was needed for more complex cases.
- Regional citizens want choice and flexibility in the way services are delivered (online, telephone, face-to-face) according to their needs.
- Regional citizens want transparency on the progress of service delivery: they do not expect miracles, but regular feedback on the progress of their applications was seen as important to recognise their situation and that the service was actually being delivered.
- Regional citizens would like a one-stop-shop: while they do not differentiate between departments or agencies unless prompted, and would like public service delivery to be a one-stop-shop which provides proactive service delivery options and information based on their eligibility.
- Public service users expect staff to be knowledgeable and empathetic, and would like to see more training on both fronts to improve consistency across interactions.
- User-centric service design is critical. More citizen and frontline staff involvement in policy development was seen to be a way to make services more relevant and recognise local imperatives, and mitigate the ‘Canberra bubble’.
Regional citizens provided a number of insights on how service delivery could be improved from their perspective. Their conclusions predominantly centred around the four trust components: integrity, empathy, loyalty, delivery, and were focussed particularly on accessibility through flexible delivery methods, accountability, transparency, and the simplification of service offers.
User-centric design
The expressed demand for personalised services relevant to the individual citizen identified the need for collaborative user-designed services that best suit the citizens to whom the services are being delivered, and which may change from one community to the next.
“...it’s not what the community needs. They deliver a blanket approach that doesn’t suit everyone, that doesn’t suit communities, the areas that they’re delivered in, and there’s no room for adjusting.” [FG29]
Some participants noted the top-down approach for policy and service delivery and the need for more bottom-up approaches.
“I don’t think that we’ve been given the opportunity. At the moment they’re starting to look at the NGOs to develop programs, but it’s still a policy made by government. It’s still run by them and you still have to work it their way basically. You can’t come and develop your own policies and procedures because you still have to meet your KPIs, and it’s all about KPIs and money, and it’s not about quality of the job; it’s about quantity of people accessing the services and it’s crap!” [FG25]
“Realistically, through community consultation reassessing and redefining what communities need, what services need to be delivered and work to that accordingly.” [FG29]
“And they’re making these programs and policies for that, and that’s why I’m saying come, experience it, then have a comment.” [FG35]
It was common for participants to be sympathetic towards frontline staff who, they believed, were often doing the best job they could often under trying circumstances.
“I’d say talk to the people in your frontline and take them seriously because I talk to a lot of people who find their jobs frustrating because they know and because they talk to us every day, they know the issues and they get slammed against the wall too because of this, but they don’t generally have anywhere to take it. I don’t think it goes back up the ranks to understand that something needs to change when it needs to change.” [FG30]
“My experience has been quite good, I’ve found them to be very helpful when I’ve gone in there. But I notice the staff levels are getting lower and lower all the time, so the wait to get there is longer, but that’s okay, I’ve got the time to do that. But I think the stress factor that they’re under, because they are dealing with a lot of people in a delicate situation. And, unfortunately those people can turn on the [Financial Support Service] employee, not realising if they get heated or whatever the case may be. So I can understand they’re in a hard situation to start with. I don’t think there’s, the backup is not there for these people. They’re only young, inexperienced people that I’ve dealt with, they don’t know the answer to the questions, so they’ve got to get on and find out anyway.“ [FG19]
Accessibility
The need for a mix of service delivery mechanisms, rather than focusing too much online, was noted by many, as was the need to take such reforms slowly to enable the users time to adapt:
“I think they need more people on the ground, rather than taking so much of it online. Because as I said once, it’s online and it doesn’t work. It really doesn’t work. And they need more collaboration between departments, as everyone said. And they really need to listen.” [FG16]
“I think one of the issues with completely going online, is we have people here who, number one, English is not their first language. And who don’t understand the system… They need help…to expect these people to get services online is unthinkable, it would never work. They need people who can go to the community, and who can help them do what they need to do. …” [FG23]
“But you see as more technology comes in it creates issues in other areas so I think it’s really a matter of doing it gradually and making sure the customer or consumer is familiar and confident with that product before you move completely to a different platform and there are certain sectors of the community that are never going to want to go online, they are going to want to speak to a person face to face, not even over the phone and that’s where I think that’s really hard particularly in regional areas, because you don’t have that access to a person to speak to and that’s what some people still want.” [FG32]
Several focus group participants talked about the challenges of accessing some services due to them only being open during business hours, with several suggestions to improve this including initiating a call back service to reduce wait time on the phone, improving communications on the progress of applications (eg an online dashboard) to reduce follow-up phone queries, and simply providing longer hours of services both call centres and shopfronts:
“I would suggest something like a 24 hour services so there’s always a number you could call or there’s always a chat room that you can talk to someone at like 11pm instead having to come back on Monday or having to wait over the weekend or having to skip your lunchbreak to have to go to [Financial Support Service] to wait in line because when you finish work, it’s after 5pm. Just to provide services that will be available to everyone more often. It would show that they care and have responsibility for you and that would heighten my trust in them – it would like wow –they’re doing that for us. They’re trying to help us.” [FG3]
“I would like to see more flexible opening hours because even – okay, I work all the daylight hours and sometimes I don’t get in until after dark but even if you could just say, for the people who are in regional areas and it takes them a while to get in, just add that travelling and to time it with when all this might be going on, you know? Maybe someone from [regional centre] works in [regional town] and they can get a visit in like that. And possibly, even a touring[mobile service].” [FG8]
When asked to identify what they would change to improve service delivery, many participants wanted simplification, to reduce the bureaucracy and make things easier to deliver the services promised to people:
“Maybe what we need is like a government Choosy. … So, like you have a one stop shop and they do all the mucking around looking for you and they bring all the information together and say here you go.” [FG32]
“There’s too many ands, ifs or buts. Too many rules. They need to narrow everything down. You’re either eligible for this or you’re not eligible.” [FG16]
“I’d like to see the way they’ve done the thing with services New South Wales; do that with other branches where you go in and just talk to someone and its sub-branches for all them.” [FG8]
This may include, for example, specific counters for low-complexity queries as directed by the shopfront concierge to enable fast service delivery where possible:
“Well, I only use it once or twice. Like it’s very minimal usage. And minimal contact. So, when I just need somebody for one thing, it would be great if I could just go in, say what I’ve got to say, help fill out the actual form or whatever it is, and then be done with it.” [FG28]
“They’ve got a counter there. They’ve got a counter there with people sitting there. You should be able to, like the old way they used to do it, you could go to the counter, say I’ve got this form I’ve got to hand in, it’s got to be in by a certain – and hand it in. … Now, you take the form in, you’ve got to go sit over in the corner like an hour or two just to go and hand a form to somebody to say okay, that’s all in order and off you go.” [FG33]
“I remember back in the olden days we’d walk in and you’d be – able to do it at the desk, simple problem; done. Walk in there now – no matter how simple the problem is, they would send you to sit down. You could sit there half hour, hour before you see somebody about something that’s so simple and can be done over the counter. They will send you to sit down for half an hour or an hour. I think that’s what they really need to fix up.” [FG35]
Communication
Citizens believed that better feedback and information delivery was essential to them feeling respected, to empowering them with the right information to solve their issues efficiently, and to their sense that their issue was actually progressing:
“If they’re busy, to have the opportunity to leave a message and get called back when they’re not busy, instead of just getting hung up on and told to try again.” [FG8]
“And transparency and perhaps even on their websites, just making those policy statements just so much more visible. Okay, I want to find out about that and that would go a long way in that if you want to find out whether you are eligible for something and the statement, duty says that we will look after the people who require the service, well there’s your line that you can push ahead with it. So just having those statements.” [FG12]
Participants wanted to be informed of their service delivery progress and outcomes. They wanted better service delivery communications, including getting responses to enquiries/applications (within set timeframes), and being kept up to date as to where the application is at (whether it be via an online, app, email, text or personal telephone call):
“In a certain timeframe, not ‘eventually’. Give a timeframe.” [FG28].
“I’d like a service which can help me find the right information something which is complete and I can help myself, get the right answers but be able to speak to a human or something similar like a bot or something if I can't get the right answers. So, I would like to have all the resources there to be able to find out what exactly the department offers but having someone a human there would be great.” [FG32]
Staff skills development
With respect to the impact of frontline staff (both by telephone and face-to-face) on trust and experience, regional citizens expressed a desire for more staff (to reduce waiting times), more training for staff (both to expand their capability to deal with issues and to deal with them more empathetically):
“I know [Financial Support Service] do provide that service here. Because I’ve got a friend that’s husband [sic] works there, and he’s always out bush in communities teaching them, you know, and explaining things to them. But there’s not enough staff on the ground.” [FG23]
“It gets back down to training, training of staff, but give staff motivation to respect their positions and the people they’re dealing with.” [FG11]
“I’ve got a lot to do with [Financial Support Service] face-to-face issues. I think that some of their staff are not trained well enough. Some of them are very, very good and some of them are hopeless and there’s a lot in between and I don’t know anything about their training and how they do it, but I get the impression that a lot of their staff are not trained.” [FG34]
“But I think when it comes to things like the [Financial Support Service] and those sort of intricate dealings and things, and I guess [Financial Support Service] that - I think there has to be a certain level of training and understanding that as a consumer they should know more than us. I think there’s an expectation that you actually should know more than what I know on this subject, that’s why I’m ringing you.” [FG30]
Additionally, there is potential to move away from the traditional staffing models of government services, and work more closely with local communities to empower local community members to provide ongoing support to their community, thus enable bespoke and culturally appropriate service delivery:
“Yeah, pretty much the same, empowering people. Giving them the tools to help themselves. … They don’t need to have a [Financial Support Service] agent doing that, there’s people that could be working better amongst their own people within the schools or within the community services, should be able to help, because then you’ve got someone who cares too. Maybe in some communities there’s people within those communities that could help deliver and help the people… [FG21]
Advocacy
A key observation was the reported extensive use of both formal and informal advocacy to achieve outcomes when dealing with public services.
“I notice with my mum being a pensioner, she can’t use a computer that well, I have to go in and bat for her a lot. Like, ring up and rip to get anything done. And I think if someone hasn’t got someone that can do that, with all of these departments, then they’re in trouble.” [FG11]
“So then I’m asking questions along those lines and one of the first things [Health Service Agency] said to me, “Right, you need your mother here, you need your father here, they need to authorise over the phone that you are connected and can go in and have a look at all their data, you can make decisions, you can be the contact person.” And if you didn’t have a support or an advocate I don’t think – there’s a lot of elderly people out there that need services, would qualify for services, but are not getting them because there’s not somebody there [for them].” [FG15]
“I don’t know how many times she walked out of [Financial Support Service], just absolutely bawling her eyes out because they would tell her a different story, and she would have to start back at square one. And it made me angry. And I think they should have a designated person, “Okay, you’re applying for the pension. Sit down with me, we’ll go through what you want, do you have a computer?”. [FG19]
In sum, the lessons we can learn from these citizen insights are:
- Improve the service experience – cut the complexity, reduce the silos, make services easier to access, increase the knowledge of front-line staff;
- Increase the transparency of the service process (e.g. “like the ATO”), including clear lines of accountability between government and citizen;
- Embed a service culture – address issues of poor customer service through reforms that recognise and respect citizens. Improved training and resourcing of front-line staff is essential;
- Deliver for citizens – deliver services that suit citizens not government. Make them accessible by reducing wait times, hold office hours outside normal business hours to improve access, use a variety of delivery platforms that are designed to suit the environmental context;
- Ensure that the right information is in the right place at the right time. Improve clarity of, and access to, information and thereby increase awareness of services. Use a variety of channels to target a range of audiences.