From customer-centricity to citizen-centricity
For a few years now, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) has been advocating the need to deliver our products and services from an “outside-in” approach, so as to move away from an agency-centric view to a customer-centric view.
This is not straightforward. It requires the ability to connect data that today resides in multiple agencies’ databases. It requires redesigning user journeys based on the intent and “moments of life” of our users. It also requires us to re-look at the various government–citizen touchpoints and channels to identify opportunities where we can re-imagine simpler user journeys.
Over the years, we have had some success moving towards customer-centricity. At the same time, we also recognise that there’s still a long way to go. Furthermore, as we re-imagine these journeys from a citizen’s point of view, we realise the need to push even further, from “customer-centricity” to “citizen-centricity”.
But isn’t customer-centricity and citizen-centricity the same?
I shared this question with a class of young civil service colleagues who I was presenting to recently.
Some interesting answers came back from the crowd.
“Customers choose what services and providers they like to use, but citizens got no choice leh!”
“Company can also choose their customers, but Government has to serve everyone.”
While these were not wrong, the answer I was looking for was this: By defining someone as a customer, you inevitably see them from within the boundaries and functions of your organisation, i.e. how to best provide a positive experience for my customer?
A citizen is not just a customer of a single organisation. A citizen is the customer of many organisations. To be citizen-centric requires us to look beyond the boundaries of our own organisation.
In our case, this means looking beyond the boundary of government services.
To illustrate this point, imagine these common scenarios. For vehicle owners, renewing their road tax with LTA also means buying vehicle insurance from an insurance provider. For entrepreneurs, registering a new business with ACRA means there’ll most likely be a need to apply for a corporate bank account and/or engage corporate services. During difficult moments in your life when a loved one passes away, you’ll need to inform MOH, engage private bereavement services, and settle legacy affairs with different government and private sector organisations.
Being citizen-centric therefore sets an even higher bar. Delivering services as a whole-of-Government is not enough, we need to embrace a whole-of-nation approach.
To achieve that, we need data to flow securely between these organisations, with consent given by individuals. Services need to be linked up in seamless user journeys. Different channels have to be integrated so that multiple tasks can be completed at one go. Imagine the day when you are able to file your taxes through your bank, or renew your vehicle insurance through LTA.
All of these can only be possible if there is a universally trusted identity, an accompanying consent framework, and the facility to move data securely between organisations. It will also require a pervasively-issued national digital identity that every citizen has access to.
The National Digital Identity programme, as one of Singapore’s six strategic national projects, aims to be the enabler in supporting our vision of citizen-centricity. However, we need help to make this future a reality.
We are looking to businesses to share their emerging use cases for digital authentication, verification, signing, and consent with us so we can collaborate and explore potential solutions together.
We are looking to citizens to share their feedback and ideas for how the experience of using and managing their digital identity can be made easier and more inclusive. Take the first step by setting up your digital identity today — Download the SingPass Mobile app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
We are looking to software engineers, product managers, designers, and researchers who want to build the future with us. If this sounds like a meaningful endeavour to you, do check out our open positions. Simply search for “national digital identity”.
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