Can't get no satisfaction at the post office

If anything indicates the need for better customer service in the public sector, it is this week's report by consumer champion Consumer Focus on the programme to close 2,500 local post offices. Post Office Ltd is a limited company owned by the government and the report, Seen and Heard? Consumer Engagement in the Post Office Closure Programme, says the national consultation on the closure programme, which was overseen by the Department for Business, Innovation and SKills, was deeply flawed and regarded by many consumers as "a sham ". This news will come as little surprise to those who want to see the public sector focus far more effectively on customer service, including the Institute of Customer Service, whose most recent survey of customer satisfaction indicates that the public sector, although getting better at customer service, still has a long way to go. National public services, including the NHS and the Post Office, achieved the second lowest score of 13 sectors measured by the institute, which carries out this survey every six months. Only utilities rate less well with the public, while retail and tourism come top of the tree. The figures should be treated with caution and may indicate little more than that as a nation we prefer going on holiday and buying things to paying our gas bills, being ill, paying our taxes or being unemployed. It's perhaps little surprise if Jobcentre Plus and HM Revenue and Customs feature low in the scale of organisations people like dealing with, while John Lewis and its supermarket subsidiary Waitrose, top the poll. But this would be to miss the point, according to Jo Causon, the chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service. She points out that in fact, since the institute started this survey, in 2007, rating of overall public sector customer service has risen. That, she says, is worth celebrating. "There are a number of organisations in the public sector that understand customer services and the interesting thing is that where those organisation are genuinely bringing together their people and processes to focus on the customer experience, that is now starting to pay back rewards," she comments. Focusing on customer service will, according to Causon, drive down complaints and enable public organisations to focus their resources in being efficient in the right areas - more important than ever against the backdrop of economic downturn. "Of course we accept that the public sector is hugely complex. It's not like the retail sector,"acknowledges Causon. "But some [public sector] organisations are leading lights and some need to do more," she adds. The institute's survey reveals that public bodies scored particularly poorly on treating those they deal with "like a valued customer". Complaint handling is another area of poor performance, with the way complaints are handled and the outcome of complaints scoring very poorly. But the news is not all bad. Public sector bodies that score well in the latest figures include local ambulance services and GP surgeries, while among national public organisations, the list is headed by the Identity and Passport Service - something of a turnaround from the difficulties faced by the service some years ago. The survey also records a rise in customer satisfaction with the NHS. Causon says that since public sector funding is likely to become much more difficult in the years ahead, now is not the time to cut back on customer focus, but rather to ensure that a "service culture" is embedded in the public sector.