Governments have always received feedback from customers about the design and delivery of services. 

Having an accurate picture of what really matters to customers provides departments with a clear view of how well their services are operating, whether the services are meeting their objectives, and how to improve upon them.    

This handbook aims to introduce service providers in the NSW public sector to customer feedback and techniques for gathering reliable and useful feedback.

Details on some particular customer feedback techniques are provided and departments are encouraged to use this handbook to develop feedback techniques that suit their particular department, services and customers.

Areas of the public sector that benefit from seeking Customer feedback include:

Planning

• Helps identify and understand the needs, wants and expectations of customers; the quality of experience with public services; and the results that services have delivered for customers and the community.
• Informs departments of where there are gaps are in service delivery.

Service Delivery

Helps services to become:

• Better targeted.
• More relevant.
• Easily accessible.
• User friendly.
• And reduce complaints; re-work and waste.

Service Evaluation and Innovation

• Helps identify ways to improve and redesign services no longer meeting customer needs.
• Helps development of service innovations, including early intervention and prevention programs and new ways of delivering some services (for example, over the internet).

Reporting

• Provides data that can be reported by CEOs in their annual Performance Agreements.
• Helps departments measure and report on how well services are meeting customer needs and delivering on government commitments.

Obtaining customer feedback also demonstrates to the customer that service providers are listening to their views and experiences.

Communication between the customer and the departments also needs to convey that while the feedback is welcomed to better understand customer needs and provide relevant targeted and value added services, the delivery of public sector services also needs to be balanced with public interests such as regulating and protecting the community.