Public service guarantees: Exploring the design and implementation of service guarantees in public settings

Both private and public organisations use service guarantees to improve the customer centeredness of operations and satisfaction of customers. Service guarantees are explicitly communicated promises to (potential) customers to deliver specified service levels or even to satisfy them. They generally also include the promise to compensate customers if a promise is violated. This dissertation uses qualitative research and experimental vignette studies to study the design and implementation of service guarantees in public settings. The research on the design shows that a public service guarantee should contain several concrete promises addressing the most important service attributes for customers. Explicitly communicating the promise to compensate improves the organisation’s image. Offering compensation after a service guarantee violation increases customer satisfaction. This can be a monetary compensation. But it can also be a psychological type like prosocial compensation where the organisation donates an amount to a charity on behalf of the customer. Prosocial compensation has positive effects on the corporate social responsibility image and the satisfaction of the organisation’s customers. Research on the implementation of service guarantees in an organisation and a service delivery network has resulted in two frameworks of enablers. These show that top management commitment, linking the service guarantee to the strategy, active involvement and empowerment of employees to work in conformance with the service guarantee, active customer involvement and continuous reflecting, learning & improving are important clusters of enablers. For the implementation within a service delivery network, the chemistry and cooperation between the organisations is important as well.