Shaping Customer Behavior:

“Please Be Patient”:The Seattle Recycling Program

• Service Management: Citizens as

“Customers” • Co-Production as a Management Tool

Service Management

• Much of what government does involves the delivery of services to citizens – for example:– Educating children– Collecting solid waste– Supplying safe drinking water– Providing public transportation– Delivering health services– Maintaining public order– Staging the Olympic Games in 2008

Characteristics of Services

• Service “quality” is subjectively judged by the recipient, not determined by the producer.

• A “service” is multi-dimensional.

• A service includes the process as well as the product.

• The service worker is a key part of the service product.

Characteristics of Services (2)

• A service is typically manufactured at the instant of delivery.

• Services are delivered in many locations, not just one (geographical dispersion).

• Demand for a service is often unpredict-able but nonetheless must usually be satisfied immediately.

Albrecht on Service Management (1)

• "Moment of truth": a perishable opportunity to shape a customer's subjective perception of service quality.

• “Cycle of service”: Customer-perceived, continuous chain (or flow) of events that the customer goes through to obtain service.

• Implication: Providing good service is not just the role of frontline employees but must be embedded in the basic culture of the organization – at the top as well as at the point of delivery.

Albrecht (2):The Cycle of Service for Schooling

1

5

4

3

2

6

Migrant Family Learns About School Law

Submit Application, Pay Fees, and Enroll

Tracking to Next Grade or School

Get Books and Other Supplies

Do Assignments and Get Instructor Feedback

Attend Class and Get Instruction

The Cycle of Service:Out-of-Sight Production

1

5

4

3

2

6

Albrecht (3)

• Management is in important ways not in charge of service quality, since it can’t be present at all moments of truth to make sure that they are handled appropriately.

• Employees are in charge of these moments of truth and, in this regard, are the managers of service delivery.

• Organizations must devote great care to orchestrating these interactions so that the customer is pleased at each step.

Does the Customer Service Model Make Sense in the Public Sector?

• How important are Albrecht’s ideas for public management?

• Service recipients are citizens, voters, taxpayers. Should they be pleased by the service they receive?

Direct vs. Indirect Service Management

• Direct service management:– Services are produced by the government

agency’s own personnel and other resources.

– Public managers use a range of manage-ment tools to oversee those employees – e.g., personnel incentives, performance review, direct supervision.

Direct vs. Indirect Service Management (2)

• Indirect service management:– Services are produced by personnel or

organizations that are not part of the supervising government unit.

– Management is therefore conducted indirectly:

• By contracting – with private firms or other government units

• By regulation

– The management tools needed are different from the direct management situation.

Does the Customer Service Model Make Sense in the Public Sector? (2)

• As Mark Moore points out … Many public sector operations involve “obligation

encounters” not service encounters

• Should the service cycle logic apply to – Paying taxes– Getting drivers’ licenses– Applying for building permits– Licensing day care facilities– Having elevators inspected– Complying with wage and hour laws– Serving on juries???????

What is “Co-Production”?

• Co-production: the recipient of a service plays a major role in producing it.

• Increasingly used in many service areas, both public and private – e.g.,– Health care: diet, exercise, timely medication– Parks: community group partnerships– Education: case instructional method

• Public is both an “authorizer” and part of the production system.

“Customized” vs. “Mass”Co-production

• Customized co-production requires a distinctive individual response from each participant – e.g., a patient following a physician’s advice about nutrition.

• Mass co-production involves large numbers of people doing essentially the same things.

Co-Production in Seattle Recycling

• To institute a recycling program for solid waste, Seattle had a high degree of dependence on the “customer”: – Sort bottles, metal, paper goods, waste carefully – Put bins and cans out in front of house– Return bins and cans to safe, clean storage

• How can public managers get citizens to perform effectively as mass co-producers?

Communication Issues

• Maintain credibility of the policy in the face of expectable problems in initial implementation.

• Maintain credibility of the agency if difficulties arise.

• Specify how citizens need to behave to make the program work – “wholesale” communication

• Solve individual citizens’ problems – “retail” communication and a key to maintaining credibility of policy and agency.

Seattle Recycling Program: Using the Press to Deal with Co-

Producers

• Explain the goals of the recycling program• Convey information about the new policy and

what alternatives would cost• Elicit tolerance for initial “bumps in the road”• Convey information about sanctions if

cooperation is not forthcoming

Methods of Shaping Press Coverage

• Focus groups to get sense of how citizens would react

• Press relations:– Background briefings– “Extend the story” tactics– Positive contacts– Editorial visits– Take “hits” and don’t complain