Services provide fast, accurate results, when they're needed
- Reduce service resolution time1 by looking for opportunities to use automation and straight-through processing for the majority. Limit manual intervention and discretion to the complex, niche situations that require it.
- Aim for resolution at first contact where possible.
- Prioritise accuracy, by ensuring services consistently provide correct information and results with enough specificity to be useful. Make exclusions and exceptions clear up-front.
- Ensure you operate services that are secure and available when customers need them.
- Be responsive to the problems that matter to customers; prioritise fast fixes to bugs and errors that impact availability or accuracy of services.
Why it matters
Accurate, secure and reliable services help build trust in government. For example, thinking about privacy and data collection. When people receive the right information and prompt service, they are more likely to continue using digital services and recommend them to others, increasing overall uptake.
For services with any complexity, there are trade-offs between covering all possible scenarios exhaustively, and keeping it automated and straightforward for the majority. Be clear and conscious about these trade-offs and acknowledge you are unlikely to achieve both. The 80/20 rule applies – accept the 20% is a limitation but keep an eye on opportunities to address in the future.
Digital services are open to the public 24x7, meaning customers can access these services at a time that suits them, not restricted to the operating hours of government agencies.
Timely service resolution supported by automation reduces the need for follow-up inquiries and corrections, creating efficiencies for government and shifting the dial on customer satisfaction.
1 The time it takes to resolve a service request from the moment it is reported until fully resolved.