Societal impact of public service reforms

Abstract

This chapter critically reviews literature concerning several ideas, methodologies and instruments that have been used to understand the societal impact of public services and Public Service reform; or that can be associated with related potential. These are namely the Net Promoter Score (NPS), Service Quality (SERVQUAL), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and trust in Public Services. A plethora of studies document the relevance of these societal impact metrics to private enterprise; whilst there is evidence of a growing support for deployment in the public sector and in gauging users’ experience of private and public e-services. A headline finding of the literature review is that conceptual complexities ought not to be ignored; for example, the many possible interpretations of ‘satisfaction’ and the empirically ambiguous association between trust in public services and trust in government. The use of the term ‘customer’ for users of public services emerged as debatable. Another main finding is that attention is due to methodological limitations of societal impact metrics. Thus, whilst CSAT measures customer satisfaction with a product or service at the moment of consumption, the more sophisticated NPS has the added value of capturing customer loyalty; whilst SERVQUAL illuminates different and versatile dimensions of the service-user experience. Whilst no metric alone is likely to be enough to gauge societal impact, hybrid tools should factor-in context. Ultimately, societal impact concepts and metrics should not be seen as an end, but only as an initial informant on Public Service reform.