Ethos Issue 4, Apr 2008

Service Beyond Excellence
Ng Hock Keong

During this time, we are able to influence and educate customers: Do they know the consequences of each transaction? Have they calculated the financial implications of the housing loan they are about to take on using their CPF? What is the retirement income they need based on their current lifestyle?

With information technology, it is relatively cheap to include these things on the website. How do we then draw customers in? We provide short teasers and games, send them text messages, give vouchers for little quizzes. It sets people thinking.

So here is another mindset change. Instead of giving them just the facts of their CPF account, we try to bring the bigger message across. CPFB can push out personalised messages because we know your customer profile, and give you prompts, say six months before you hit your CPF balance limit for your housing instalments. We provide online calculators so people can see the bottom line impact on their own pockets instead of reading pages of news reports. We will leverage on new media to further extend our reach in public education in the next two years.

What advice would you give to other public service agencies that are just beginning to transform their existing service models?
A lot of organisations jump on the technology bandwagon, when they think of service innovation. They spend money and resources hoping to find a breakthrough to better service their customers. That is well and good, but I think the implementation has to be backed by an entire service culture, leadership and the right mindset; otherwise, you will not get very significant customer results. You also need to have a certain confidence in and knowledge of your business process and customer context, rather than let the development process be driven by technical specifications alone.

Outsourcing to vendors is also not a bad thing, because you lay off less efficient channels, but accountability should not be compromised. You must watch them even more closely, because when they are staff, you have a certain trust in them. But when they are vendors driven by profit, you have to be more careful. You have to be sure that they are aligned with your service values, because the customer will not care whether the service is outsourced or in-house; it is part of their service experience. This is an especially sensitive issue when outsourcing some public service functions.

I always tell my chaps that service delivery is not only about transactions. Through these service experiences, goodwill has been built over the last five decades and that is why the customer has trust in the organisation. It is not an overnight task. It takes a long runway to build a strong service culture in an organisation. It is a journey that never ends.

Ng Hock Keong is Director of Customer Relations Division in Singapore’s Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB). As Quality Service Manager, Mr Ng ensures a high level of customer satisfaction for its three million CPF members. He is the key advocate for service excellence in the Board, which has won the prestigious Singapore Quality Award (2004), Singapore Service Class (S-Class) Award (2005), Pro-enterprise ranking award (2004–2007), CAPAM Innovation Award (2006), APAC Government Technology Award (2007), and most recently, re-certification of Singapore S-Class Award (2007). Mr Ng has also initiated many e-transactional services that allow members to easily transact with the Board at any time. He introduced "my.cpf" online portal that seeks to both serve and educate CPF members on retirement planning based on important life stages. Today, the website is one of the most popular government websites in Singapore, serving more than 39 million transactions a year.