State launches customer excellence initiative for all public servants
JOSEPH NG’ANG’A-KNA
The Government is re forming the public service with the aim of transforming service delivery to meet the expectations and aspirations of the public.
Kenya School of Government Director General Prof. Nura Mohamed stated that this transformation would be achieved through the training and nurturing of public servants, fostering a positive attitude towards service delivery, and in stilling values that drive behavioral change to create a positive mindset towards service.
He was speaking during the Institute of Customer Experience (ICX) Kenya Service Excellence Awards ceremony at a Nairobi hotel, where several private and public sector organizations were recognized for their excellent customer service.
Prof. Mohamed explained that, to make this a reality, the government recently launched the Centre of Customer Excellence and Experience, where public servants—including those from the National Police Service and other bodies— will be trained to become customer-centric, efficient, and effective in service de livery.
He revealed that, as part of the agenda to revolutionize the public sector, the Kenya School of Government partnered with the Huduma Centre through a memorandum of under standing to train the entire public service on cultural change, enabling officers to develop a positive attitude and improved behavior to wards service delivery.
“Two years from today, you will be able to visit any police station and receive the same quality of service you would expect from a bank or any other private sector in situation.
"I challenge you to visit any police station then and compare the services to those of today. The pace of customer experience will have changed,” the director added.
The Director General added that it was further expected that through this transformation efforts, clients visiting public offices to seek services would be attended and served in a diligent and efficient manner, while being considered as important customers, in stead of being frustrated by being tossed back and forth as has been witnessed in some cases in the past.
He noted that Kenya has a great potential in achieving the highest level of social and economic prosperity if the country’s economic blueprints are implemented.
He expressed the need for the country to reflect on what went wrong in the past and how the Nation could learn from what happened in 1974 when Singapore had to come to Kenya and borrow the country’s policies.
“In 1974, a delegation from Singapore came to the then Kenya Institute of Administration to learn how to develop policies, how to come up with programmes of transformation.
"Then after one month, having looked at our policies, going through various reforms and the programmes we had shared on our own experiences, they went back and implemented, which brought about the Singapore of today,” Prof. Mohamed said.
He added: “What Singapore did in 1974 was after benchmarking was to implement Kenya’s Sessional Paper No. 1. The difference is they implemented it as we filed it away”.
Prof. Mohamed said the time has now come for implementation of Kenya’s excellent policy papers as he urged all the stakeholders in the public and private sectors to adopt a culture change whereby service de livery is focused on service excellence and the need of the customer becomes the focus of their attention.
He urged those who run the affairs of both public and private sector organisations to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy that hampers the implementation of good policies that contribute to social and economic trans formation.
“It is time for all of us to come to realise that we can not keep going round as we must make progress in the fulfilment of our vision,” he further said. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) won the award for the Best CX Social Impact and Sustainability.