Efficiency has always been a hallmark of Singapore’s governance. Complains of long queues and paper shuffling have largely disappeared. Public service delivery is now world class, well, almost…
What about the quality of service then? Efficiency is about the consumption of resources in order to produce a product or service. Quality is the value in the product and serice received by the customer. In public governance, they are sometimes seen as a trade-off. This implies that it is really hard to have both at the same time.
A case in point. Efficiency works well when most are applying for a common service. However, as the economy develops, needs also evolve and change. The application for passports in Singapore is extremely efficient. Go online, punch in some information and less than a week later, the passport is ready for collection. It works great for most. However, what happens when your family is overseas and needs the passport renewed. Same procedures. Punch some information online and the passport will appear at the nearest embassy. Great! Fanstastic! Awesome public service. However, things slowly get complex. That can be done only if you are an adult overseas. If a Singaporean child needs to have a passport renewed, things gets a bit more complex. The online function only allows a child’s passport to be collected at the Singapore immigration office. How then?
That was my dilemma. I applied for my son’s passport online. By default, it had to be collected at the immigration office in Singapore. However, my son was studying in Australia at that time. First, finding a number to call was a challenge. It was assumed that most services can be done online. Or was it a strategy to divert traffic to online transactions? Second, the call centre was only available during office hours. This assumes all countries are on the same time zone. I can immagine Singaporeans on the other side of the planet having to wake up in the middle of the night to get a call through. Third, getting through to a caller takes time and lots of paitence. I tried for days without success. I can immagine the call center’s limited staff overwhlemed with calls. By then, I received an email stating that my son’s passport was ready for collection in Singapore (…amazing efficiency!). Now I was getting frustrated and desperate. I tried again on a Thursday morning using the speaker phone function on my iPhone and a cup of hot latte on hand, determined, calling and calling continuously. Sometimes it rang through…only to be cancelled after a certain number of rings. False hopes. After 57 minutes, I finally reached a person, a human being. Hallelujah! The consolation…the person who picked up my call was awesome. She explained the rationale (which should have been on the website in the first place) and quickly arranged for the passport to be transferred to the embassy in Canberra after some verifications. It ended on a positive note.
The challenge for governments? How much resources are they willing to put into the customer experience. Customers today are unique, diverse and yet expect good service. I acknowledge that we can’t be running large call centers or throwing moneys into expensive investments. There are no easy answers. Perhaps, it can take a leaf out of German’s persuit for quality and service. In its philosophy in attaining quality, they are painfully aware of the resources that need to be devoted towards it. In fact, the Germans often will insist that progress needs to move at a “healthy pace”, i.e. it cannot be rushed…neither would they sacrifice the quality of the experience at the expense of efficiency or cost. It comes with a price.
Our public service in Singapore moves at a blistering pace. Should we begin to evaluate what citizens and customers really want? Are Singaporeans willing to perhaps, just slow down a little, be a little more patient, lower expectations on efficiency in order to enjoy a better quality of service? Realistically, a shorter queue at the hospital but at the expense of less consultation time with the doctor or a higher consultation fee (or a higher government subsidy) but having better service delivery from the doctor? It is time to do some serious thinking.