Taking Care of Business 2 Institute for Citizen-Centred Service| 2007

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Executive Summary

Taking Care of Business 2 (TCOB 2) is the second pan-Canadian survey of business clients that the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service (ICCS) has conducted. Like the original TCOB research, and the companion Citizens First studies conducted from 1998 to 2005, TCOB 2 was commissioned by a consortium of federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments.

Results are based on a telephone survey of 6,000 Canadian businesses, conducted by ERIN Research between September 2006 and January 2007. Participants were selected at random and represent all non-government sectors of the economy and all provinces and territories. The interview took approximately 15 minutes to complete and the response rate was 19.1 percent. The margin of error that is normally associated with a sample of this size is ±1.3 percent.

Major findings

• Good government service is critical: Eighty-seven percent of businesses agree with the proposition that “Good service from government is essential to a healthy business climate”. This result holds for all regions of Canada, for large, medium and small businesses, and for every economic sector.
  
• Confidence in government: TCOB 2 establishes a strong empirical link between government services and businesses’ confidence in public institutions. Good government service increases confidence.
  
• Service standards: The business community and citizens have largely similar expectations for the timeliness of service in most service delivery channels – telephone, in-person, voicemail, email, and fax. Surface mail is the one area where a difference arises: businesses tend to expect a faster turn-around than citizens.
  
• Tracking trends in service quality: TCOB 2 obtained service quality ratings for 47 government services. The overall trend is upward: the average rating across all services is currently 65 out of 100, a statistically significant advance over the average of 61 for 2003, when the first TCOB was conducted.
  

A major portion of the survey entailed the intensive exploration of a single service experience that clients had had within the previous six months. These experiences were selected to represent the full range of services provided by each level of government. This method provides very detailed information on access, channel use, and drivers of satisfaction.

• Access matters. Two-thirds of business clients reported problems with access, and each such problem causes a substantial drop in satisfaction. For example, getting bounced from one person to another and lack of response to telephone messages each reduce satisfaction levels by 25 points out of 100.
  
• Two-thirds of service experiences are multi-channel. On average, business clients report using 2.1 channels per service.
  
• The telephone is the most used channel by quite a large margin. Sixty-two percent of clients used it at some point during the recent experience. Forty-four percent used mail (including courier services) and 29 percent used the Internet.
  
• Drivers of satisfaction have been determined for business clients in three major service delivery channels:
  
  • Mail, email and fax services;
  • Internet services;
  • Person-to-person service

  Drivers are also identified for four groups of service:

• Routine or periodic transactions (e.g., filings, payments, etc.);
• Getting information or advice (including ordering publications);
• Solving a problem or correcting an error (including complaints);
• Applications and registrations (e.g., permits, licences, zoning, etc.).

Just one driver, timely service, is constant across all these contexts. The single thing that will increase business clients’ satisfaction scores most dramatically is to make service faster.

• Authentication. The vast majority of business clients, 92 percent, find government authentication easy to deal with. For those who do not, the key issues appear to be processes that take too much time or are too complicated.
  
• Integrated model of service delivery to business. TCOB 2 develops an integrated, empirical model of service delivery to businesses. This model highlights the role of the drivers of satisfaction, and also shows how access and past service experience work with the drivers to jointly determine satisfaction.

The Road Ahead

This report is written primarily for service delivery managers, to provide a deeper understanding of business clients and to provide practical advice on service improvements. Its results are encouraging for three reasons:

• Service quality scores appear to be improving;
• The drivers of satisfaction chart the way toward further progress;
• Good service has been shown to create confidence in public institutions.

Governments have the tools to move forward, and compelling grounds to do so.