UMAR Danbatta, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has said that the public service needs to be transformed to meet the expectations of the citizens. He said the public service needs new innovation and responsiveness in service delivery.

At the national conference on public service delivery in Nigeria on Thursday, July 13, in Kaduna, Danbatta said government at all levels needs to recognise the value that can be achieved by quality public service delivery both in terms of desired policy outcomes and increased citizen trust in government. He stated that the quality of service delivery in the public sector plays an increasingly important role in the economy of many countries.

According to him, in today’s global competitive environment, delivering quality service in all sectors is considered as an essential strategy for success and survival. “Public sector organisations have come under increasing pressure in the last few decades to deliver quality services and improve efficiencies.  Customer needs and expectations are changing when it comes to government services and their quality requirements.

“Customer service excellence is about customer satisfaction and this applies to both internal and external customers, as the two are connected in achieving service compact – better known as Servicom – objectives. Putting it simply, customer service excellence is how well an organization is able to constantly and consistently exceed the needs of the customer,” he said.

The NCC boss said excellent customer service is evidenced when an organisation is honest, gives value for money, has a high reputation, meets deadlines, has quality products and services, has user-friendly processes, responds to criticism, encourages complaints and handles them properly as well as demonstrates that it is passionate about the customer. “Evidence shows that there are strong links between service and the trust and confidence that citizens have in government. By the way, governments have often been perceived to lag behind the private sector in quality service delivery,” he said.

—  Jul 24, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT