Forum: Efforts made to continually improve customer service delivery

We thank Mr David Kwok for his letter and for notifying us of the difficulties he had with our hotlines (QSM's role seems to be downplayed, Feb 26).

The Public Service treats service delivery very seriously. We seek to constantly improve our services and place great importance on public feedback. Therefore, we require every ministry and statutory board to appoint a quality service manager (QSM) of a senior level to ensure that the QSM can provide the necessary leadership and see through service quality improvements in response to citizen feedback.

The QSM hotline is for citizens to reach various public sector agencies to provide feedback and service quality-related queries. Today, in our efforts to provide excellent service to our citizens, agencies offer multiple channels for feedback to complement the QSM channel - for example, online feedback forms, self-help integrated phone services or live chat.

As agencies receive a high volume of inquiries and feedback, the QSMs are supported by a team to ensure that the inquiries are expediently channelled to the relevant departments with the necessary expertise and information for a timely response to the citizens. Service standards are set, and QSMs have to establish a strong system to ensure that feedback is adequately and properly reviewed within the agency.

In the midst of the fight against Covid-19 last year, agencies have set up additional call centres to support Covid operations on the ground, and some have redeployed manpower from existing call lines to support new Covid-related call operations or their other various organisational hotlines which are urgent and critical, while keeping channels of feedback open, through e-mail, apps or websites. We apologise if this has impacted the service experience for Mr Kwok.

We will work with our agencies to continually improve and strengthen our service delivery to serve our public better.

Lee Mui-Ling

Senior Director, Service Delivery, Public Sector Transformation

Public Service Division, Prime Minister's Office

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