Revisiting Public Service Delivery in Nigeria

Nigeria is in dire need of quality public services. Good quality public services delivered in cost-effective ways are integral to social and economic development. They have the potential to enhance democratic processes by promoting fairness, civic responsibility and social cohesion. They add public value to a country in terms of its attractiveness as a place to live, work and invest.

The term ‘public services’ here refers to the combination of government-controlled and commercial private sector services being provided to the Nigerian public as clients, citizens and most importantly as customers.

The public as customers is not a concept that has gained much ground in the design and delivery of goods and services being provided by private and public institutions in Nigeria. Most of us have had direct experiences with the officials of the Nigeria Police, the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO), LASTMA, Local government, immigration/custom services; traffic wardens, nurses in public hospitals, bank tellers, customer care agents in telecoms companies, airline ticketing officers, air hostesses, receptionists etc in the course of our daily routine. The almost-routine off-handedness, impatience and discourtesy sometimes exhibited by almost all these front-line officers interfacing with the public is disturbing.

The quality of service delivery provided by public institutions has been very poor over the years. Sadly the inefficiency which characterized these services has crept into the private sector. Little wonder the average Nigerian citizen is daily assaulted with poor customer service delivery by operators in almost all sectors of the economy.

Attempts have been made to improve quality of services provided by the government to the Nigerian populace over the years. The SERVICOM programme launched by the Federal Government in 2005 was designed to address obvious gaps in service delivery using some selected sectors as pilots. This concept originated and was preceded by a UK-led team which was assembled to undertake a diagnostic audit of service delivery in Nigeria. The team identified numerous gaps in the policy to delivery chain of public services. They discovered that many public services were inaccessible, of poor quality and indifferent to customer needs.

Our public offices have for too long been showcases for inefficiency and dishonesty whilst being impediments to implementation of sound government policies. Nigerians deserve better. The Service Delivery Initiative was thus a step in the process of moving towards a government more in touch with its people, but potentially an important one to create momentum on the part of government, and a culture of demand among Nigerians. In this context, a Nigerian Service Delivery Research Team visited the United Kingdom (UK) in 2003 to investigate how the British government had gone about improving service delivery. Based on their feedback, the government supported design and implementation of a Public Service Delivery Programme (PSDP) for Nigeria. The then Nigerian President and the British Prime Minister tasked a team to analyze key service delivery issues and develop a roadmap for practical, targeted and achievable service delivery.

The Service Compact for All Nigerians was therefore the Nigerian government’s effort aimed at instilling quality into government services. The initiative appeared to be built around a total quality management philosophy which consists of a series of quality improvement activities involving employees, customers and top management in a joint effort to achieve long-term service delivery improvements. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of the program which showed great promise in its earlier years.

The malfunctioning of the Nigerian public service has been long and sustained. The result is low quality expectations and trust in public services on the part of consumers, and ultimately, in the failure of government programmes and institutional development. Though there have been many positive improvements both in the quality and in the delivery of public services in recent years which can be built upon, there are still significant shortcomings which need to be addressed as well as new and emerging challenges to be met. As a result of continuing population growth, major demographic changes, inward migration into cities and changing values in our society, there are greater demands on current services. There are also rising expectations on the part of the public for better and more responsive customer services to meet these new and changing needs.

Customer service excellence means many things to many people and is something often noticed more by its absence than its presence. From banking halls to restaurants, supermarkets to airports, hospitals and hotels, a cursory observation will reveal glaring customer service deficiencies. Customer service management is full of dilemmas, questions and trade-offs. How much should an organization invest in employing efficient and dedicated front-line staff to prevent customers from queuing? How do you deal with highs and lows of demand? Is the customer really always right?

Good customer service is founded on the belief that good customer service is good for business. This belief is not a universal law. Some businesses with great service do not survive. Some businesses with poor customer service make huge profits. Organizations may get away with it, relying on consumers’ acceptance of despair, confusion and lack of clear information. Indeed many do prosper in the short term.

But experience suggests consumers usually get their revenge in the end, and for individual organizations or, in some instances, entire industries – the cumulative impact of even-greater reputational damage can be fatal.

One of the areas I believe contributes to the dearth of quality customer service in Nigeria is the practical non-existence of proactive consumer watchdogs. Many organizations in various sectors are getting away (or so it seems) with almost anything and everything. Take the aviation industry for instance. Airlines have become very cost-oriented as opposed to service oriented. Air travel which used to be refreshing and exciting is now a pain. The flying experience in Nigeria now leaves many passengers frustrated and angry. Airports are full to the brim at the departure lounges, with non-functional air-conditioning systems, insufficient and badly designed chairs ensuring your discomfort while you wait. Many airlines have taken away free meals, as well as courtesy and timeliness. I recently had to wait nine hours after checking-in for an early morning flight from Lagos to Abuja. The flight that was scheduled to depart at 6.50am did not take off till after 3pm. It would have even been decent for the airline to properly communicate their difficulties to the hapless customers. But it was not so. This has now become a regular occurrence on the domestic routes in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is constitutionally empowered to monitor the activities of the airlines operating in Nigeria. Over the years, it appears that the agency has abdicated its responsibilities to regulate, supervise and monitor the activities of Nigerian and foreign carriers and their interaction with passengers. The Consumer Protection department of the NCAA was launched in March 2001 to ensure that all aviation consumers obtain the best services in air transportation. This role has not been played successfully. Article 71 of section XV of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 talks about compensation schemes for passengers and other allied aviation services consumers. The Authority is required to formulate schemes for suitable compensation of passengers and other aviation and allied service consumers arising from different forms of grievances.

International best practices prescribe how airlines should address cancelled or delayed flights. A paragraph in the contract of carriage ideally represents the legal agreement between the passenger and the airline which describes the airline’s responsibility when a flight is delayed or canceled. In the U.S this clause is known as Rule 240. It is not designed as a customer service initiative which airlines eagerly promise. Instead it is a customer’s last clause which dictates what airlines must do (and often don’t do) when flights are delayed or cancelled ‘due to late arrival of operating aircraft’ – a frequent lame excuse for domestic airline operators in Nigeria. Airline passengers will do well to refer to the contract of carriage or conditions on their tickets if they need to argue for compensation.

The real test of whether or not there is a commitment to quality delivery of public services on the part of providers is their willingness to set up effective avenues to provide redress for those who feel that they have a legitimate complaint about the service they have received or the service they have been refused. Complaints systems should be used as a source of management information to quickly and easily identify areas for improving service delivery. These systems should be accessible to customers, provide timely responses and enable redress where appropriate.

Training should also be an important mechanism for re‐focusing organizations on customer satisfaction as a new priority and for developing or strengthening their customer service skills. In addition, structured communication with employees should help service delivery agencies identify and respond to customer service challenges. Research has shown that many individuals and employees attribute poor customer service to low staff morale, unfavorable working conditions, and poor treatment of employees. A particular indigenous airline operating on the foreign route is a case in point, with many of its employees addressing their grievances publicly through various media. Unless employee needs are met, it is difficult to meet the needs of customers.

There are many statistics to support the business case for customer service excellence. If a customer patronizes a particular airline twice a month on the domestic route, he is worth over eight million Naira to that airline over the course of ten years. That’s just the beginning. A repeat customer is any company’s key source of word-of-mouth advertising. If this happy customer recommends just one other passenger to the airline he would be worth over sixteen million over the same period. An air-hostess looking after a hundred passengers on a flight is handling sixteen billion Naira worth of business. This simple rule, known as lifetime customer value, can be applied to any operation. Let your imagination flourish as you imagine the volume of business controlled by a single waiter in a restaurant, a receptionist in an office or hotel, a front-office teller in a bank and other similar front-line staff.

An increased focus on raising standards involves everybody engaged in the provision of public services. A key element is to get people to accept that they are part of the solution and for this purpose new ways of thinking and sharing responsibility more evenly among all stakeholders are needed. Rather than relying on government to lead this initiative, I challenge the Nigerian private sector to engineer this change, and ensure their continued relevance and survival.

About the Author: Femi Awoyinfa is a Management Consultant and an expert in Organizational Development. He can be reached on: fawoyinfa@gmail.com

Written by Femi Awoyinfa on May 14 2011 Filed under Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.