The 2021 Business Satisfaction e-Survey (e-BizSat) conducted by the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) through its Productivity and Development Center (PDC) identified the 11 priority areas for delivering frontline government services. These refer to service attributes (from a list of 42) that were ranked most important by businesses for government agencies to work on in their various improvement efforts. These are: (1) getting what is needed from the frontline government agency and office; (2) fast transaction; (3) easy payment method; (4) fast complaint resolution; (5) fairness of agency; (6) easy to contact the agency by phone; (7) professional frontliners; (8) observance of health protocols; (9) clear transaction process; (10) reasonable regulatory requirements due to COVID-19; and (11) conduciveness of government regulations for businesses to grow.
These attributes were gathered from a non-probability online survey from 10 September to 20 December 2021. To get specific suggestions on adopting these service attributes, a series of focused group discussions were held from 19 to 22 April 2022 with 24 business owners and representatives from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The most common suggestions of the business sector were for frontline government agencies and offices to keep all communication lines available and accessible, and to strengthen handling of customer complaints.
The respondents also emphasized the need to continually train frontliners to build their capabilities particularly in providing professional and quality service to their customers. Another suggestion is to incorporate universal design in all frontline services to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities and even for people with limited internet connectivity throughout all modes of service delivery. They also mentioned that, in the administration of regulatory or obligatory requirements of frontline government agencies, they should ensure ease of doing business by harmonizing multiple government policies and guidelines, among others.
Frontline government agencies and offices can now use these attributes as guides in setting evidence-based Service Quality Standards. The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Harmonization of National Government Performance Monitoring, Information and Reporting Systems (AO25 IATF), in its Memorandum Circular 2022-1 Annex 5 Citizen Client Satisfaction Survey, endorsed the institutionalization of SQS across government agencies in delivering frontline services, doing business with the government, industries, various sectors, and the citizens to continually achieve a government-wide improvement through seamless public service delivery.
The 2021 e-BizSat was conducted by the DAP-PDC, under the Government Quality Management Program, to help the public sector better understand the needs and perceptions of businesses and identify priority areas for improving frontline government service delivery.