What might it be like to relocate to a new part of the country – your first time living away from home only to find that your public services already knew about the help you might need? Imagine if they already knew you were recovering from knee replacement surgery and needed mobility support.
What if, before you even arrived, the local authority had arranged for a ramp to be installed outside your new home, so you could move in safely and confidently, without having to fight through red tape or explain your situation all over again?
What if your new GP already had access to your rehab and medical history, and your physiotherapy sessions continued seamlessly without delay? Just think how much easier that would be. How much less daunting the transition to a new home might feel. You might find that the whole move is more manageable, less frustrating and more empowering, because you didn’t have the added strain of starting from zero, just when you needed support the most. You might feel remembered, recognised and respected.
This is what people want, according to KPMG’s research, which analyses interactions with over 30,000 UK citizens to understand their behaviours and what they expect when interacting with public services. Right now, an experience like that can feel out of reach. But if we want to move closer to making it a reality, we must start now, with small, practical steps, and, most importantly, by listening carefully to what the public is telling us.
But it’s a complex task. The research shows that citizen satisfaction in the public sector is 8% worse than the UK average benchmark in the corporate world. The public sector itself faces huge internal challenges. It’s not easy to drive change if the process looks costly, and if there isn’t enough support that the upheaval will be worth it.
Jo Thomson, KPMG Head of Customer Transformation in the Public Sector
As Jo Thomson, KPMG Head of Customer Transformation in the Public Sector, described it at an immersive and interactive event in London: “There’s a myth out there that redefining the public
sector experience costs more money. We think that’s a myth that needs to be busted, because it doesn’t mean more money, it means you can be more efficient. It means that you can get genuine business and organisational value, and if you do it right, it means that it can also be sustainable.”
The London event, which used actors to interweave data with citizen experience, was the launch of KPMG’s Citizen Experience Excellence report, and the room was full of civil servants and public sector officials for whom these challenges and opportunities are very real. Over the course of the evening, they heard from three public sector speakers, whose real-world examples gave a memorable and often moving insight into the progress that’s underway and the importance of the journey ahead.
Matt Briggs, SRO Service Modernisation Programme at DWP
“Government has a memory like a goldfish,” said Matt Briggs, who leads the service modernisation programme for DWP. Briggs was quoting a customer who also gave him a clear task: “Just remember who I am.” The customer didn’t want to tell his story again and again, especially when that story is a difficult one. “So, the service modernisation programme is building an account that will store all of his preferences, all of his engagement, to make sure that we remember every time that he engages with us,” Briggs explained.
Briggs’ point echoes KPMG’s research findings, which show that 39% of people are frustrated at having to repeat information over and over again. And typically, this leads to a 17% reduced satisfaction for public services.
Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London
Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at Transport for London, had a vital point to make about recognising and respecting citizens: “We do not get the choice on who we serve. We serve everyone, and it’s our job to serve them equally, and our customers’ needs are very diverse.” He described the moment of realisation that the “easy form” he had designed was not easy for a neurodiverse customer, whose mistake led to his form being rejected multiple times.
Digitising the form has entirely removed that problem. “That is again, valuing our customers and the interactions that they have with us,” Verma said. “It only works when it works for all of our customers.”
How can customer satisfaction be optimised across services which traditionally haven’t been joined up? KPMG’s research suggests that 80% of people say they’re happy with the care they receive
when speaking to professionals. But 44% say they don’t always see staff going that extra mile to resolve their issues, and when that happens, satisfaction can drop by 16%.
Lee Hemsworth, Chief Officer Community Hubs, Welfare & Business Support at Leeds City Council
Lee Hemsworth from Leeds City Council suggested that professionals want to do better, but they can’t provide a quality service within a siloed system. “We see our customers’ individual actions as a series of separate incidents, and we don’t join that information together,” he said. But Hemsworth is determined that his staff will deliver “cradle to grave services” and believes digital interactions are key to achieving this. “Our approach is that 80% of customer contact can be dealt with digitally. That leaves us more time to spend with the 20% whose experiences are more complex. Often these are the more vulnerable people in the city.”
The demand for holistic services is clear, but there is also a clear resistance to accepting help from digital channels. KPMG’s research shows that 59% of citizens are still using slow and more traditional channels to access services, despite a 17% improvement in satisfaction when digital channels are used.
How can public services encourage a shift in citizen behaviour? The biggest challenge is trust, suggested Ben Sandall from Microsoft. “Only 46% of us globally are willing to trust AI systems,” he said. “If we’re going to integrate AI into public services further, we’re going to have to design services that remember our previous interactions, recognise our unique circumstances, and respect our time and effort.”
The result of this endeavour might seem counterintuitive: “AI will enable us to deliver more human, empathetic services,” Sandall suggested. An AI agent can speak to you in your preferred language, and if your problem is a sensitive one, it can direct you to the support you need “without the fear of being judged”.
This event wasn’t just a showcase but a reminder of what’s possible when we design public services around people, not just processes. By remembering, recognising, and respecting the individuals we serve, we can build a future where services feel human, connected, and genuinely supportive.
Ultimately, as KPMG’s Thomson explained, this isn’t about systems or strategy, it’s about people. “If we want public services to truly deliver efficient and effective services, we have to start by listening”.
To read more about the event, visit the KPMG website