The Purposes and Objectives of Citizen Satisfaction Measurement

Abstract

The last chapter closed with a discussion of the shifting focus toward external measures of government performance in an era where both consumer and citizen power has grown alongside increased access to information and knowledge of alternatives. Following a brief restatement of common (but persistent) challenges to the very foundations of citizen satisfaction measurement, this chapter provides a detailed discussion of many of the justifications, objectives, and purposes of this measurement. Here we identify numerous objectives supporting the practice of satisfaction measurement of administrative or bureaucratic institutions, along with a variety of important purposes the data can serve. Included in this list of purposes are the development of a more dynamic feedback loop connecting government and society, increased government transparency, enhanced top-down and bottom-up accountability, the rebuilding of citizen trust, effective process and service quality improvements, the facilitation of benchmarking across units of government toward identifying best practices, more efficient budgetary and resource allocation, and monitoring and motivating public employees.