organisations focus mainly on increasing revenues. Thus, the private sector exhibits
greater productivity and profitability than public sector organisations.
Quality ideas like Total Quality Management (TQM) and Node Package Manager
(NPM) have been adopted by public sector organisations in many developed countries since the early 1990s. For example, NPM’s main objective is to improve the
delivery of public service quality via a customer-oriented approach (Mwita 2000)
and concentrate on results and measurement. More recently, however, in a move
towards enhanced performance through increased accessibility, the public sector has
transferred its attention to “digital government” (or “e-government”).
Service quality has now become a key element of public sector leadership as a
result of increasing customer expectations, income increases and strong competition
between government and private sector institutions offering similar services (telephone, radio and television broadcasts, etc.). Some governments have an ambition to
create a performance-oriented culture in the public sector and enhance techniques for
delivering quality public services.
21.10 Satisfying the Customer
The above examples should provide some ideas of what to avoid when dealing with
customers, even with respect to infrastructure services.
Table 21.6 gives a list of criteria which, as time goes on, will probably be used to
gauge the quality of service that a customer is getting from the infrastructure in
question. The whole set is certainly not applicable to every kind of infrastructure, but
usually taxpayers, and customers are interested in knowing where all the money is
going.
21.11 Cost Recovery as a Method to Improve Customer
Service
It is undeniable that one of the reasons that sometimes infrastructure delivery or
service is poor or lacking, stems from an incomplete cost recovery. Cost recovery
means charging consumers the full (or nearly full) cost associated with providing a
particular service by a service provider. For publicly owned service providers, the
organisation may not include a surplus above and beyond the cost of production,
whereas for private-sector providers it necessarily includes a surplus (i.e. profit). In
either case, the objective is to recoup the full cost of production. Although the state
has been subsidising such services for quite a long time all over the world, consumers are increasingly expected to pay in full for service delivery.
21.11 Cost Recovery as a Method to Improve Customer Service
615
greater productivity and profitability than public sector organisations.
Quality ideas like Total Quality Management (TQM) and Node Package Manager
(NPM) have been adopted by public sector organisations in many developed countries since the early 1990s. For example, NPM’s main objective is to improve the
delivery of public service quality via a customer-oriented approach (Mwita 2000)
and concentrate on results and measurement. More recently, however, in a move
towards enhanced performance through increased accessibility, the public sector has
transferred its attention to “digital government” (or “e-government”).
Service quality has now become a key element of public sector leadership as a
result of increasing customer expectations, income increases and strong competition
between government and private sector institutions offering similar services (telephone, radio and television broadcasts, etc.). Some governments have an ambition to
create a performance-oriented culture in the public sector and enhance techniques for
delivering quality public services.
21.10 Satisfying the Customer
The above examples should provide some ideas of what to avoid when dealing with
customers, even with respect to infrastructure services.
Table 21.6 gives a list of criteria which, as time goes on, will probably be used to
gauge the quality of service that a customer is getting from the infrastructure in
question. The whole set is certainly not applicable to every kind of infrastructure, but
usually taxpayers, and customers are interested in knowing where all the money is
going.
21.11 Cost Recovery as a Method to Improve Customer
Service
It is undeniable that one of the reasons that sometimes infrastructure delivery or
service is poor or lacking, stems from an incomplete cost recovery. Cost recovery
means charging consumers the full (or nearly full) cost associated with providing a
particular service by a service provider. For publicly owned service providers, the
organisation may not include a surplus above and beyond the cost of production,
whereas for private-sector providers it necessarily includes a surplus (i.e. profit). In
either case, the objective is to recoup the full cost of production. Although the state
has been subsidising such services for quite a long time all over the world, consumers are increasingly expected to pay in full for service delivery.
21.11 Cost Recovery as a Method to Improve Customer Service
615