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Introduction
This report surveys selected foreign jurisdictions on laws and practices regarding feedback on customer satisfaction from users of government services. The jurisdictions selected provide an array of representative approaches to obtaining feedback regarding user satisfaction.
In some countries, laws have been enacted requiring agencies to obtain information on customer satisfaction and incorporate such data into quality improvement efforts. In Italy, a 2000 law requires each government agency to “implement, after listening to the citizens . . . verification processes for the quality of services and user satisfaction.” A Brazilian law enacted this year requires evaluation of the satisfaction of users of public services by means of annual surveys or other methods that guarantee statistical significance. In Sweden, many individual laws and regulations governing government programs require the responsible agencies to conduct customer surveys.
Many of the countries reviewed here have established programs for evaluating customer satisfaction of public services. In Argentina, a program to improve the culture of public administration includes a management instrument that embodies an agreement between each government agency and the Under Secretary of Public Management providing for an implementation plan governing the quality of service delivery; each such agreement includes provisions on user surveys conducted either where the service is rendered or online. In Australia, at the federal level, customers can access multiple government services online in one place, using a single login and password, and each agency provides links to online forms for complaints and feedback. Several Australian states in recent years have participated in the same whole-of-government customer satisfaction survey, allowing comparisons of performance across jurisdictions. Macau has a Quality Charter Program under which participating public agencies are required to conduct a citizen satisfaction survey at least annually; while each agency determines the form in which feedback is collected, there is a set of standardized questions covering five specified metrics. Botswana’s Performance Management System for government agencies includes monitoring standards consisting of customer satisfaction surveys undertaken every two years as well as a system for the collection of immediate feedback.
Some countries surveyed here have provided for large-scale, centralized surveying of customer satisfaction. In the Netherlands, a major national survey was conducted in 2008–2010 by the State Secretary of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to gauge citizens’ satisfaction with government services. In Germany, the Federal Statistical Office was charged with evaluating citizens’ and businesses’ satisfaction with government services through a general survey; the government used the results of the 2015 survey to implement the “Better Regulation Work Program 2016,” which simplifies administrative procedures in areas identified in the survey.
Prepared by Luis Acosta
Chief, Foreign, Comparative, and Internationl Law Division II
October 2017
Jurisdictions Surveyed:
Last Updated: 11/20/2017
