Mystery Shoppers to Assess Public-Sector Services

The level of service offered by public-sector entities will be assessed by mystery shoppers as part of Government’s Service Excellence Programmme.

A mystery shopper is a person who poses as a real customer while evaluating the customer service provided by a company or organisation.

Speaking at a recent Think Tank held at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) head office in Kingston, Senior Director for the Public Sector Modernisation Division (PSMD) in the Office of the Cabinet, Danielle Jones Cox, said that mystery shopping is part of the service recovery component of the programme.

“It existed before but we are bringing it back because we understand the importance of it,” she said.

The Service Excellence Programme sets standards for the delivery of services in ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) in a manner that effectively satisfies customers’ needs and provides value for citizens.

Since launching the Service Excellence Policy in July 2022, the Office of the Cabinet has strengthened its partnership with MDAs to implement the programme throughout the public service.

The Office of the Cabinet is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the policy through the service excellence function within the PSMD.

Principal Director of the PSMD, Office of the Cabinet, Karlene McKenzie Spencer, who also addressed the Think Tank, highlighted the need for reskilling and upskilling of staff to ensure that competencies remain current and relevant.

“It comes back to training and capacitating and reminding ourselves as to why it is we are where we are,” she pointed out.

Citing the use of technology solutions by some entities, such as automated phone systems, Mrs. McKenzie Spencer said that these must be supported by persons “in the back office to ensure that [they] work well”.

She noted that the Service Excellence Programme is built on two key pillars – people engagement and performance excellence.

“You want to engage your people and put all of those facilities in place, but the performance element, that pillar speaks to ensuring that your systems and processes can deliver on that service improvement. If you haven’t done the proper work, you would find that putting that service improvement solution in place, it does not help,” she pointed out.

Mrs. McKenzie Spencer said that the “worst” automated services are those that ring and then just hang up when someone does not pick up.

“There is no ‘leave a message’. It doesn’t send you back to an operator; it does nothing. You are just there wondering what to do next,” she said, adding that these issues are being addressed.