Assessing Users' Perceptions on how to Improve Public Services Quality

Abstract

In order to address new demands from citizens and companies, public agencies are developing new ways of delivering public services within a multi-channel logic. In this context, Citizen Shops have been designed to increase speed of response, to simplify procedures and, above all, to improve service quality. This article aims to evaluate the perceptions of users of public services in order to improve their quality. The article follows a marketing perspective, paying special attention to citizens' expectations and perceptions and to the role of emotions in the encounter. Given the nature of the research issue, the investigation followed a case-study methodology. The authors present an adaptation of the Critical Incident Technique and analyse extensive qualitative and quantitative data collected in six Portuguese Citizen Shops. The findings show that expectations are extremely dynamic and play a relevant role in users' satisfaction. Satisfying and neutral attributes were identified, and the Critical Incident Technique also revealed the importance of emotions in the encounter.

User involvement in service integration and carers' views of co-locating children's services

“…The main limitation, however, relates to the validity of our self-report measure and the complexity of user satisfaction. As indicated above, recent public management literature also articulates this concern and advocates further research to clarify the link between service experience and service performance perception (Carvalho and Brito, 2012).…”

“…There is consensus in the public management literature that responses in satisfaction surveys may be informed by cognitive as well as emotional contexts. Moreover, the perceived quality of services is a multi-faceted concept relating to expectations and experienced performances creating methodological problems around controlling for incidences of negative or positive experiences and the frequency of service episodes (Carvalho and Brito, 2012).…”

A hybrid fuzzy methodology to evaluate customer satisfaction in a public transportation system for Istanbul

“…Castillo and Benitez (2012) determined a methodology to identify and quantify the relationship between the ratings given to the overall satisfaction and those given to specific aspects of the service or specific ratings to measure the quality of public transport through user surveys by rating different aspects of the service. Carvalho and Brito (2012) presented the evaluation of the perceptions of users of public services in order to improve their quality. They aimed to answer the question about how to assess users' perceptions in order to improve public SERVQUAL.…”

Investigation of the demand of public services of rural areas

“…Frequently researches about demand of public service narrow analysis to one of public services. The authors analyses transport services, delivered in rural areas (Gronau, 2015;Beecroft, 2011;Velaga 2012;Prabhakar, 1997;Marr, 2015), health services (Sheaff, 2002;Tamutienė, 2011) cultural and recreational services match (Reijljan 2012;Spangenberg, 2009;Kublickienė, 2004), local service centers functions and compliance needs (Carvalho, 2012), services for the disabled, senior citizens, families and so on. Analyzing the situation in rural areas, highlighting the services necessary to ensure the quality of the rural population it is often analyzed in the overall package of services without distinction to public and private (Carvalho, 2012;Dax, 2006;Defra, 2006;Atkočiūnienė, 2014).…”