1
overview
the problem
Concept 2 – The Right Start Policy
what’s next?
DesignGov’s Lost in Translation report found
that a serious problem in business/government
interactions is that the preconditions for high
standard service provision in the APS are not
consistently available across the Service.
The Right Start Policy is a service policy
framework and accompanying policy toolkit. It
helps public servants ensure their crucial ‘first
contact’ service to businesses is successful –
whether first contact is online, on the phone or
face to face. Better first contacts lay the
foundation for more productive businessgovernment interactions.
The Department of Human Services will be
further investigating the Service by Design
concepts to test their soundness in addressing
the problem and to refine them. In addition,
the concepts are not mutually exclusive: all or
some may be picked up and adapted by
individual departments as a first step to an
integrated approach.
Concept 3 – The APS Service
Knowledge Café (ASK-C)
more detail inside:
the idea
To solve the problem, the report recommended
Service by Design – an idea to facilitate
development of a service-enabling
infrastructure, built on common design
principles and frameworks, to allow the APS to
consistently provide better service.
co-designing the solution
On 8 November 2013, DesignGov facilitated a
workshop with public servants from across the
APS to co-design solutions to the problem and
make the idea of Service by Design real.
the solutions
The co-design workshop developed four
Service by Design concepts (tangible
initiatives) to solve the problem.
Concept 1 - MyProfile
Like the MyGov login for individuals, MyProfile
is a personalised automated service that
businesses obtain for use on Australian
Government digital services. Fully integrated
with MyGov, MyProfile is a personalised yet
automated service that allows seamless and
low-effort business interactions with
government.
The co-design workshop…………
3
Concept 1:
My Profile………………………….
5
Concept 2:
Right Start Policy:………………..
7
Concept 3:
APS Service Knowledge Café….
9
Concept 4 – The Outside-In View
Policy
Concept 4:
The Outside-In View Policy……..
11
Outside-in view is an APS customer service
policy that improves service to Australian
businesses through a framework and tools to
help public servants and businesses
understand what its like to be in one another’s
shoes – to build empathy between them. This
helps address the crucial expectations gap
between business and government that leads
to the mutual misunderstandings that affect
business-government interactions.
Ideas catalogue…………………..
13
ASK-C is the Australian Government’s digital
platform and knowledge repository for public
servants and business to share knowledge and
resources that improve customer service.
ASK-C improves business-government
interactions by helping overcome the barriers
to good service caused by agency silos and
lack of understanding of the impact of time
delays for example.
Background
The problem……………………….
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The idea……………………………
15
2
8 NOVEMBER 2013
Co-design workshop
the participants
8 November co-design workshop:
5 DesignGov staff, facilitating 18 public
servants from Attorney-General’s
Department, Department of Human Services,
Immigration, Australian Tax Office, the
Department of Industry and Customs and
Border Protection.
the process
design tool 1:
user journey map
To the right are images of user journey maps
drafted at the workshops. User journey maps
get participants to take the ideas and aims for
Service by Design, drawing on their own
experience and the information gathered in
the Lost in Translation report (the intangible
why?) and focus on tangibly how we get there
– what resources and other support is
needed.
In groups of 4-5, participants first drafted a
‘current journey map’ setting out the current
user experience of APS service. This helped
identify and build group consensus about the
major problems in current APS service that
Service by Design could address. Next,
participants then drafted a ‘hypothetical
journey map’. This was the same customer
journey, except with an ideal user experience
of APS service – with solutions to the key
problems noted in the current journey map.
instructions for use
A google search for ‘how to do a user [or
customer] journey map’ will yield links to sites
that explain how to undertake a journey map.
See for example:
http://www.servicedesigntools.org/tools/8.
Also, searching ‘user [or customer] journey
map’ in Google images will yield some
excellent visual expression of what a journey
map is.
You can find further links to how to do a
journey map in the DesignGov Compendium.
3
8 NOVEMBER 2013
Co-design workshop
the process
design tool 2 –
desired future state brainstorm
Drawing on the user journey maps,
DesignGov’s facilitators identified four broad
ideas for how Service by Design could
improve business-government interactions:
1 – Personalised service through an
automated system
2 – Making the first touch point better
3 – Overcoming silos
4 – Supporting an outside-in view for public
servants
In the same groups of 4-5, participants were
asked to design a concept that would make
each idea tangible. The result was four
Service by Design concepts. Have a look at
the next few slides for more detail.
instructions for use
This ‘desired future state’ brainstorming is just
one way to develop a design concept. A
google search for ‘how to develop a design
concept’ will yield valuable links.
You can find further links to how to do a
journey map in the DesignGov Compendium.
4
CONCEPT 1
MyProfile
the concept
Like the MyGov login for individuals, MyProfile
is an automated personalised service.
Businesses use a login to gain access to
Australian Government (and potentially other
jurisdictions’) digital services. It allows for
seamless and low-effort interaction with
government.
MyProfile seamlessly integrates with MyGov –
so businesses who already have a MyGov
login can automatically transfer that
information across to MyProfile without
needing to fill out that registration information
again.
And like MyGov, MyProfile is the only login
that businesses need to obtain for use on any
Australian Government digital service.
The digital service suggests content for that
business, based on information entered when
the login is obtained, including updates on
regulatory changes that will impact that
business or eligibility of that business for
government assistance.
how MyProfile works
•
•
•
•
•
•
comments at the workshop
•
•
•
MyProfile should be expanded to cover local
and territory and state government services
too, to strengthen its low-effort, seamless
qualities.
The business fills out their profile on
registration
If the business person already has a
MyGov login, they only need to add some
further details about their business – all
their relevant information from MyGov is
automatically transferred across without
any effort
The profile automatically filters
government information using the profile
The user receives information that is
relevant to their personal situation
The information in the MyProfile login
automatically populates any forms the
business needs to fill out – saving more
time
The information is agency blind – it comes
from all areas of government relevant to
the user
‘This is a no brainer’
‘The small business support line already
exists’
‘Financially cheap but maybe hard to
implement’
other suggestions
•
•
MyProfile could include a live chat option
(e.g. via skype) to improve service
It could also include a business to
business information sharing and advice
platform – so should be linked to
BabelGov (see the DesignGov website for
more details on BabelGov)
5
VISUAL EXPRESSION
MyProfile – what it could look like
MyProfile
Like the MyGov login for individuals,
MyProfile allows businesses gain access to
Australian Government digital services. It
allows for seamless and low-effort interaction
with government.
MyProfile seamlessly integrates with MyGov
– so business people who already have a
MyGov login can automatically transfer that
information across to MyProfile without
needing to fill out that registration information
again.
And like MyGov, MyProfile uses existing
whole of government authentication
capabilities so that businesses can access
any Australian Government digital service.
Profile
MyProfile
A one stop login for all business enquires
account
About
MyProfile
MyProfile login
Forgotten your login?
Profile
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CONCEPT 2 – MAKING THE FIRST TOUCH POINT BETTER
Right Start Policy
The Right Start policy is a service policy
framework and accompanying policy toolkit.
It is aimed at helping public servants improve
the ‘first contact’ service they provide to
businesses. That is, it means that
businesses will always have a good, loweffort first contact experience when they
interact with government – whether that first
contact is online, on the phone or face to
face.
the concept
Right Start responds to evidence that the first
contact is by far the most crucial interaction
between government and business in building
a strong relationship and delivering high
quality service. By ensuring that interactions
get off to a good start, the Right Start Policy
sets the foundations for a productive and
efficient relationship between government
and business.
how Right Start works
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Right Start framework also emphasises
involving front line staff in service design
Accompanying the framework is the Right
Start Policy Toolkit
The toolkit supports first contact service to
business with a checklist for direct contact
staff; business satisfaction survey
development; persona development tools
to help public servants empathise with
their users; communications to business
guides; customer standards development
procedures; and how to provide customer
service coaching and shadowing
The MyProfile and MyGov websites and
apps should be expanded and refined
based on the Right Start Policy
•
The toolkit also makes practical
suggestions for individual APS business
units to improve their first contact service –
for example, guides on how to enable
skillshares in every divisional and branch
meeting so success stories are shared,
how to create a ‘one day a month project’
for front line staff to work on their own
project that will improve the service that
their branch provides, and including APS6
staff as front line staff to improve service.
comments at the workshop
•
•
‘We should trust the front line view’
‘Governments could call all new ABN
holders to minimise non-compliance’
other suggestions
•
•
My profile’ idea overlaps with this
Improving both face to face and digital
ensures all users will have an improved
first touch point
The Right Start Policy is implemented
across all APS agencies
It includes a policy framework to guide
public servants in ensuring the first contact
a business makes with is effective. This
includes guides for public servants who
design the digital platforms that
businesses access
The Right Start framework emphasises
the importance of better training, reward,
recognition and empowerment of front line
staff
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CONCEPT 2 – MAKING THE FIRST TOUCH POINT BETTER
The Right Start Policy
The Right Start Policy
The Right Start policy is a service policy
framework and accompanying policy toolkit.
It is aimed at helping public servants improve
the ‘first contact’ service they provide to
businesses. That is, it means that businesses
will always have a good, low-effort first
contact experience when they interact with
government – whether that first contact is
online, on the phone or face to face.
Note: This first page of the Right Start Policy is just
a mock up to help visualise and explain what the
Right Start Policy would be like. Credit to the
Department of Human Services for the layout –
see:
http://www.humanservices.gov.au/spw/corporate/sit
e-information/resources/8348-1212-socialmedia.pdf
Right start policy
Customer Service by
Design
This document
sets out
‘Right start’ –
the Australian
Government’s
customer service
policy that aims
to ensure that
the first contact
businesses make
with Australian
Government
services is a good
one
1. What is this policy
about?
This policy is about
ensuring that the
first interaction a
business has with
the Australian
government
always gets first
good contact –
whether person to
person or on a
digital platform.
2. Why has this
policy been
established?
An Australian
Government study
of business government
interactions found
that sometimes
businesses were
unhappy with the
quality of service
given by the
Australian
Government.
The investigation
also found that if
the first interaction
between business
and government
was high quality –
this laid the
foundations for a
strong relationship
and productive,
efficient future
interactions.
Conversely, a poor
first interaction
could doom the
relationship to
inefficiency,
frustration and loss
of productivity.
3. Contents of this
document
Page 2 – Foreword from
the Secretary
Pages 3 -4 – Right start
service framework
Pages 5-10 – Customer
service tools to help
public servants make a
right start
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CONCEPT 3 – OVERCOMING SILOS
the concept
APS Service Knowledge Café
(ASK-C)
The APS Service Knowledge Café (ASK-C) is
a digital platform that serves as a repository
of APS customer service knowledge and
resources. It is accessed by all agencies. As
a whole-of-government information and
resource sharing initiative, ASK-C helps
overcome the barriers to high quality
customer service caused by agency ‘silos’. In
particular, it helps public servants obtain
information and resources from other
agencies that could help them provide better
service to business.
How it works
•
•
•
ASK-C is a website accessible by public
servants and by businesses
The website includes a repository of
research about the common attributes of
good services, together with learning tools
and links to ‘who to talk to’
By allowing businesses to access ASK-C,
they can share their suggestions for
improved service delivery. They can also
read about the experience of the public
servants who provide customer service –
helping develop empathy both ways
•
•
•
This sharing of information about business
and public servant expectations of
customer service will help overcome the
‘mutual misunderstandings’ that have
affected business/government interactions
– that is, the gap between expectations of
business and public servants that makes
building a strong relationship difficult
ASK-C includes the ASK-C wiki that
allows for discussion of customer service
in the APS for learning
ASK-C has ‘customer service awards’ to
encourage high quality service to
businesses
•
•
Other ASK-C features and resources are
templates for common performance
measures across agencies, complaints
resolution advice, guidelines to
parachuting experts into new areas to help
establish them, and a customer service
charter with accompanying tools
Cultural change from the top supports
these initiatives and encourages public
servants to post information and share
resources on ASK-C
Notes
•
This concept received the most votes from
participants at the workshop
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CONCEPT 3 – OVERCOMING SILOS
APS Service Knowledge Café
To the right is a mockup of what the APS
Service Knowledge Café (ASK-C) might look
like.
As a digital platform that serves as a
repository of APS customer service
knowledge and resources, it can be accessed
by staff from all agencies and businesses/ the
public.
As a whole-of-government information and
resource sharing initiative, ASK-C helps
overcome the barriers to high quality
customer service caused by agency ‘silos’.
Above all, by encouraging experience,
knowledge and resource sharing between
business and government, it helps bridge the
expectations gap between what business and
public servants expect from each other. This
empathy building will help secure a strong
foundation for business government
interactions and address the ‘mutual
misunderstandings’ that affect business
government interactions.
Askc.gov.au
ASK-C – The APS Service
Knowledge Café
Who to talk to – public servants and
businesses you can contact who are
experts in customer service
Share your customer service success
stories, problems and complaints
management knowledge here
ASK-C – the APS Service Knowledge
Café is a digital platform for public
servants and businesses to share
knowledge about customer service with
each other
ASK – C is a platform for sharing
customer service knowledge and
resources beyond agency silos
Learning tools – resources to help
public servants provide high quality
service
APS customer service of the
month winner
For
Outstanding
service!
By sharing service knowledge, ASK-C
helps public servants overcome the
barriers to high quality customer service
Post on the ASK-C customer service
forum here:
Now trending: How to manage complaints and
ensure they are actioned and lead to better service
processes
Read about customer service on the
ASK-C Customer Service Wiki here:
Search ASK-C
Article of the week: Customer service performance
measures and how engagement with ASK-C is now
measured and a deliverable for public servants
username
Remember me
password
Login
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CONCEPT 4
Outside-in view
the concept
Outside-in view is a public sector customer
service program. It is comprised of a number
of initiatives designed to improve service to
Australian businesses by helping public
servants and businesses understand what its
like to be in one another’s shoes – to build
empathy between them.
Putting themselves in the shoes of the
businesses they serve helps public servants
provide better service. For example, they
better understand what a 30 day wait for what
a business might feel should only take a few
minutes feels like, and getting a better sense
of what it feels like to have to wait on
regulatory approval or to wade through
government red tape.
Similarly, businesses will better understand
the environment in which public servants
operate, and how what may appear to be
tricks of procedure or unresponsiveness may
actually serve an important purpose.
This way, Outside-in makes a significant
contribution to ending the ‘mutual
misunderstandings’ that affect business
government interactions.
How it works
•
•
•
Outside-in sets out a roadmap to support
businesses and public servants to develop
understanding of each other
It recommends simple and accessible
messages about the user and their needs,
use of technology (e.g. videoconferences to
link states and clients and officers),
crowd/peer-to-peer training and sharing of
tools
In particular, Outside-in recommends
targeted design jams (events where
representatives of business and public
servants network and co-design customer
service improvement programs and ideas)
Other suggestions for outside-in
from the co-design workshop
•
Outside-in should include engagement
systems and collaboration, better sharing of
client experiences, protocols for
collaborating between agencies and
engaging departments early, and
principles/frameworks to reinforce the
outside-in perspective
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CONCEPT 4
Outside-in view
Outside-in view is a public sector customer
service program. It is comprised of a number
of initiatives designed to improve service to
Australian businesses by helping public
servants and businesses understand what its
like to be in one another’s shoes – to build
empathy between them.
Putting themselves in the shoes of the
businesses they serve helps public servants
provide better service. For example, they
better understand what a 30 day wait for what
a business might feel should only take a few
minutes feels like, and getting a better sense
of what it feels like to have to wait on
regulatory approval or to wade through
government red tape.
Outside – in view
The Australian Government’s
plan to build more
empathetic and productive
business/government
interactions
Similarly, businesses will better understand
the environment in which public servants
operate, and how what may appear to be
tricks of procedure or unresponsiveness may
actually serve an important purpose.
This way, Outside-in makes a significant
contribution to ending the ‘mutual
misunderstandings’ that affect business
government interactions.
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SUGGESTED QUALITIES
Ideas catalogue
Ideas catalogue
Qualities to seek in touch points
Some other ideas for Service by Design
•
•
Participants identified some qualities that
Service by Design should aim to provide.
Qualities to seek in emotions and
experiences
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Single starting point, with smooth handover
to relevant area if required
Able to get in touch with a real person then
and there – timely service and easy to find
relevant area
There is a one stop place to assist a person
to set up a business
Close and personal collaborations with
physical spaces that allow for collaboration
(e.g. Design Jams)
Immersive ethnographic research
Public servants bring users in early when
designing customer service policy and
programs
Public servants can share tools
Extensive data and market research and
easy access to it for public servants
Decision makers are involved in the
process and empathetic to user needs,
flexible enough to meet the users needs
Protocols for collaborating between
agencies
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Staff have relevant knowledge and skills
Staff have good knowledge of end users
and their needs, empathy and
understanding the user’s circumstances
Staff have flexibility to navigate the edges
of the rules that govern their work
Staff are reliable, follow through and do
what they said they would
Staff are easy to deal with, even in a
difficult situation
Small business support line could call all
new ABN holders to help them get set up
as a business
There could be a ‘doing business’ mentor
who assists the new starter
Users get ‘customer forms’ to fill out red
tape requirements
Public servant provides direct number for
assistance
Simple messaging to users
User of technology to link public servants
to users
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THE CHALLENGE
“Treat me with respect”
the problem
The preconditions for
high standard service
provision in the APS are
not consistently
available across the
Service
the context
Businesses need a public service that
has regard for their circumstances.
Public servants also need their roles and
responsibilities understood and respected.
Businesses require respectful treatment and
certainty, as they are partners in delivering
economic growth and employment, and
achieving regulatory goals. There are,
however, a number of barriers impeding public
servants from providing that service.
“If I hadn’t had my accountant
to talk to [after the phone call from the
official], I could have gone out and killed
myself”
Meet Jane
the bicycle retailer
Jane and her partner Gavin run a bike
importation and sales business. They
find the government services in their
business leaves a lot to be desired.
Jane and Gavin were once told by the
agency that the information they provided
was not quite right – but not till late in the
process. If the paperwork was not at the
docks when the ship came in, the goods
were sent to a costly storage facility.
They find that things are occasionally held up
as a result of minor problems that could have
been resolved by short, upfront
communication from the department. They
say that the agency covers its tracks by
saying in all of their documents ‘Don’t leave it
to the last minute,’ but these are all your
obligations – Jane doesn’t feel that
responsibility is equally understood on both
sides.
the needs to address
businesses need:
•
•
easier ways to find answers to their queries
reduction of problems caused by some attitudes
and behaviours by public servants with regard to
cost, productivity and consequences incurred by
businesses through incomplete or untimely
advice or actions
intermediaries need:
•
•
definitive answers from government
not having to repeat requests for further
information
public servants need:
•
•
•
•
more opportunities to directly interact with
businesses to improve mutual understanding
better access to service-enabling infrastructure
better capacity to collaborate and interact with
business while facing competing demands
businesses to understand the context and
conditions under which the public sector is
required to operate
Jane is a composite persona that reflects the needs of dozens of businesses and intermediaries that DesignGov interviewed
during the Business and Government Interactions project. For more information, please download the report
(http://tinyurl.com/designgovfindings) and prospectus (http://tinyurl.com/designgovprospectus).
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THE PROPOSITION
Prototyping Service by Design
the idea
Service by Design
Embedding a bias for service
within the public sector
We are aiming to facilitate development of
a service-enabling infrastructure, built on
common design principles and frameworks, to
allow the APS to consistently provide better
service.
the benefits
how we get there
businesses benefit by:
• having targeted interactions
• limiting the effort required
• experiencing considerate, understandable
interactions and service
• government accommodating exceptions
What must Service by Design be able to
achieve?
• explore how better hard and soft
infrastructure can improve service delivery
and interactions with business
• create a set of design principles for the
entire APS
• harmony with existing service principles
used in APS agencies
intermediaries benefit by:
• having two-way relationships, industry
knowledge and professional expertise
valued
• receiving considerate service
public servants benefit by:
• providing good service
• adding value to policy and services
• allowing for tailoring of services
• receiving official support and training for
high standards
• having principles of democracy reinforced
design principles
•
•
•
•
start with needs
simplicity
users drive design and content
public servants to provide good service
without jeopardising independence and
impartiality
Some of the factors to be
considered during prototyping
assumptions
•
there is key infrastructure to be targeted to
implement Service by Design
unknowns
•
•
the cross agency services architecture for
the APS and the UK Government’s Design
Principles can help inform Service by
Design.
changes to key infrastructure (systems,
processes and capabilities) can allow public
servants to offer better service for business
without compromising impartiality.
organisational challenges
•
how will Service by Design interact with
existing service and conduct principles and
standards?
DesignGov will be running a series of workshops aimed at further developing this concept and testing how it might work.
If you would like to get involved, contact us through our email (design@design.gov.au) or phone number (02 6125 4974)
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