According to the study, while 58% of respondents perceive the overall quality of public service positively, 80% view the overall quality of service they receive positively. And 40% said the public service kept its promises – but 80% reported staff kept their promises.

Clearly there is a disconnection between perception and reality, with many customers having negative expectations but positive experiences. I asked MED contact centre manager Andrew Wagg (who alerted me to the report) why. He blames the media and cited as an example the recent case in Auckland where police failed to find the body of a murdered woman in the boot of a car for a couple days. He says that events where its perceived public servants have made a mistake receive so much coverage that they overshadow all the good work that is carrierd out everyday.

Wagg also told me about a conference last month in Wellington attended by 100 government contact centre managers where they identified the key drivers for a good customer experience. The Commission’s research showed that New Zealanders want CSRs to “meet my expectations”. Wagg says this is in contrast to a similar Canadian study, where the customer expectation is “give it to me and give it to me now.”

Such was the success of the conference held by the State Services Commission, that there will be regular forums for government contact centre managers. And while any kind of professional development in the contact centre sector is useful, it would be a shame if government centres only engaged with each other and not with those of us in the commercial world. So I have asked Wagg to keep Mouthpiece regularly up to date so that we can all benefit from the Government’s research.