DHA focused on improving service delivery
Arecent survey on services offered by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has revealed that its service centres are generally accessible to most citizens.
The study, which was commissioned by the Government Communication and Information System Research unit on behalf of the DHA, was aimed at gauging the extent to which the department delivers on its objective of providing secure, efficient, effective and accessible services to all citizens and foreign nationals.
A similar survey was conducted in 2018 but it excluded some immigration services.
The objectives of the survey dictated a hybrid research approach encompassing primary and secondary research techniques. The survey had a national scope, targeting individual citizens who have been exposed to DHA services within the past year. Eligible respondents were drawn using statistically random techniques from all provinces.
The data was obtained via in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, social media monitoring, case studies, online chat groups, real-time interviews and mystery shopping (incognito visit as a ‘customer’ to judge service delivery).
Similar to the 2018 findings, about 81% of the participants said that they used DHA offices which are closer to where they live or work.
About 58% of the respondents said the closest DHA office to them is not located within their community and they have to use public transport to get there. This was followed by private car (23%) and walking (12%). The use of public transport was prevalent for civic services, while private car usage was common for immigration services.
Sixty-four percent of the participants associated the DHA with applications for critical identification documents, such as identity documents (IDs), passports, and birth and death certificates. The most positive perception about the DHA was that despite delays, the department would ultimately deliver the documents applied for if needs are met. The department was also strongly associated with facilitating travel in and out of the country.
Most customers agreed that the DHA has also made good strides in speeding up the process of document collection, especially for smart IDs and passports.
Slow service
The negative narrative about the DHA’s service delivery tended to be amplified by the time it took for customers to access services. Most respondents bemoaned slow service.
This perception was worsened by queues that are not well managed, frequent system
breakdowns, lack of proactive communication about delays, and alleged corrupt practices by some officials.
Other problems mentioned included a lack of effective support infrastructure, including toilets and chairs, as well as a lack of proper internal and external signage.
Excellent customer service cues
It was not all gloom, however, as customers identified some excellent customer service cues. One out of three participants expected improvements in turnaround times, non-discrimination, safe office facilities and caring staff as part of excellent customer service.
The narrative from the DHA’s social media platforms also revealed that system reliability, informing customers of what is happening when the system goes offline, user-friendly online platforms and the use of alternative channel partners like banks are signs of excellent service.
Participants were also asked what they perceived as excellent customer cues. The top three most mentioned cues were speed of service at 70%, followed by fair customer treatment (44%) and staff pleasantness (43%). Other mentioned cues include staff competence/ helpfulness (38%), queue management (36%) and satisfactory query resolution (34%).
The overall Customer Satisfaction Score (CSS) for the DHA was 83%, with immigration services (84%) scoring slightly higher than civic services (82%). Analysis of the CSS showed that harbour services had the highest ratings (92%), closely followed by airport services (91%). The lowest CSS was for refugee centres (73%).
Recommendations
Ongoing customer service delivery efforts are needed to ensure that the DHA maintains its product delivery reputation and pricing structure, which was endorsed by 94% of the respondents as affordable.
Product packaging processes also need to be sustained as there were no concerns expressed regarding the quality of documents provided by the DHA.
Areas of potential improvement include staff skills development, entrenching a ‘customer is king’ culture, system reliability, effective online platforms, queue management automation, promotion of
DHA initiatives and proactive customer engagement across platforms.
Other recommendations included improving road signage to DHA offices so that the public can find them easily, properly supporting and communicating the use of banking and online platforms to decongest service offices, adopting the same system that banks use to minimise continuous system breakdowns and generating more awareness around the documents that customers need to take with them to DHA offices to prevent a situation of having to go back again.