UK government improves customer service

Traditional means of contact are slowly being replaced by newer technologies

The UK government has inched up three places to ninth in Accenture's annual customer service league table which measures the way governments deliver services to citizens.

Accenture's report found that Singapore, Canada and the US are doing the best job of delivering customer service.

Jeremy Oates, managing director of Accenture's UK government practice, said: "Last year we described the UK as verging on a dramatic advancement in the provision of government services to its citizens.

"The Transformational Government agenda aimed to provide a framework for delivering value to citizens through new technology, and we looked forward to the action plan that would lay out the next steps."

However, despite the UK's rise in the rankings, the report reveals that the government faces a "tough challenge" in changing citizens' perceptions of the services they receive. 

Some 49 per cent felt that government service provision had either stayed the same or got worse in the past three years, and 61 per cent felt that their relationship with government has either stayed the same or got worse in the same period.

According to the study, technology is creating challenges for governments as traditional methods of communication with citizens are replaced with technology such as email and SMS.

Over the past 12 months, the landline telephone was the most used method of contacting with government by UK citizens at 79 per cent.

But other traditional means of contact are slowly being replaced by newer technologies.

Post/mail was still the second most used at 42 per cent, but declined from 45 per cent in 2006.

The internet has taken over from walk-in centres as the third most used form of contact at 31 per cent internet, 30 per cent walk in centre.