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How Dubai’s approach to customer-centric public services sets the ‘gold standard’ Excellent customer service in the public sector in Dubai is not accidental, it is striven for year-on-year by government entities, driven by The Dubai Model for Government Services (DMGS) – a system which underpins a continuous cycle of improvement. Dubai, excellent customer service in the public sector is viewed as the main driver for the Dubai Government’s other strategic pillars, with leading public services seen as the backbone of the economy. The DMGS sets out the public service criteria which government entities should strive to meet. Supporting this on the ground is the role of the Dubai Model Centre (DMC) of the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Dubai. The DMC oversees and supports the annual cycle of continuous improvement in service delivery of Dubai’s public services and focuses on researching, documenting, and disseminating best practices in the field of public service competitiveness at local and international levels. It offers smart strategic tools and systems to research and document the reality of public service delivery in Dubai and improve it for the better. It aims to motivate government agencies to upgrade their services using its methodologies and encourages cooperation and exchange of
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knowledge among different government agencies in this field. Now in the tenth cycle of applying the DMGS improvement criteria to customer service, many Dubai government entities are providing truly innovate cross-governmental and customer-centric solutions. Eman Al Suwaidi, Senior Director of the DMC, said: “The methodology of DMC is composed of two main pillars: increasing government services efficiency, and fulfilling customers’ needs and expectations; it ensures customers receive extraordinary experience that exceeds their expectations. This is achieved by developing innovative ideas and initiatives that enhance the quality of services and contribute to maintaining Dubai’s position as the best city in innovation in government services.” She added that since 2012, government entities have focused their efforts on a unified goal – the happiness of customers – and with the support of DMC more than 350 government services were improved by the end of 2019. “This commitment led to the inception of more than 1,000 innovative
initiatives that significantly contributed to improving the quality of government services. The adoption of DMC’s methodology by government entities resulted in the reduction of the average time of service delivery by more than 50 per cent and assisted in reducing customers' visits and touch points needed to receive the service by 40 per cent. By the year 2019, the accumulative financial savings were approximately 700 million Dirhams as a result of improving the efficiency of governmental services,” she said. The DMC celebrates the achievements of the government entities in striving towards these standards through its annual Hamdan Hub and Hamdan Bin Mohammed Programme for Government Services (see box on page 4 more information). A panel of international jurors sit on the awards panel. In 2019, iESE’s Chief Executive Dr Andrew Larner sat on the panel – you can read about his experience on page 2 and read what another four long-standing jurors think of the process on pages 5-8.
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