My work experience is only from the public sector. We often don´t use the
word customer. We rather talk about citizens or inhabitants. Eventually it is
the citizens that are the customers of public services. Even if not all the
citizens use public service, all should feel some kind of satisfaction with the
service available.
But who the customer is can be a bit fuzzy depending on where in the public
sector you are as an officer. For example I work in an administration that
serves a political body. All the officers produce papers for decision making.
In everyday work that makes the politicians our customers. Based on the
literature I draw the conclusion that the inclusion of citizens in both the
definition of the problems and in the design of solutions for all kind of
public sector is a good start for service innovation.
Accordning to Gustafsson and Johnson (2003) a service strategy is based on
a triangle of maintenance, performance and innovation. If I try to apply
that to my work and public transport the service maintenance is about getting
the bus from A to B according to the timetable. Improve service performance is
about things like the system of payment, information applications like travelplanner
and wifi onboard. When it comes to service innovation it is for example
travelhack for thirdpart developers or a service for combined mobility offered
by the public transport company.
The Venn diagram is used by Gustafsson and Johnson to find a service
advantage. Public transport competes with mainly the car but also with walking
and cycling. For society as a whole walking and cycling are better since there are
zero emissions. It is also better for public health. So if I then compare
public transport with driving a car some interesting things appear.
Most of the time a car is faster except for longer distance trainrides or
in areas with congestions. Public transport is always cheaper if people
calculate with the correct cost of driving a car. Riding with public transport
open up an opportunity to use traveltime for other purposes like working or
reading.
I think it could be a great idea to look at other similar businesses
like airlines and try to learn about service innovation for regional public
transport. I believe it is important to build a culture around the habit of
travelling with public transport. And focus much more on linked activities that
actually solve the problem for the citizen and at the same time be part of
something bigger. Public transport is more about accessibility to workplaces,
attractive areas than it is about busses and trains.
Hi Maria,
SvaraRaderaGood point about knowing who's your customer and of course if you know your target audience, more you can innovate in terms of service to meet the customer's requirements.
I agree that it's important to first define who the customer is. Whether it be in the public or private sector, it's not always as clear as it should be. Perhaps there isn't a single customer? In the example that you have given from your work life, you have several different players who may all be 'customers', with varying degrees of influence. After all, in the public sector, the citizenry is the ultimate customer. But I have also come across situations where the concept of the "customer" becomes fuzzy. For instance, when a lawyer employed by a public body (local Government) is assigned to a specific Department, who do they see as their "client"? Is it the Public Body, The Department or the tax payer?
SvaraRaderaHi Maria!
SvaraRaderaI definitely agree with that we need to look into similar businesses to improve services. But I also think that we need to question the aim of a certain service to be able to improve it. Many times are we just improving the service we provide instead of question if we can do it in a total different way. What are the reason of why I am travelling from A to B and is there an other solution to reach my aim? When you have define who you customer are, I believe you can reach service innovation by doing totally different.