Engaging public sector clients

by John Alford

Delivering better services to clients has become a watchword of public management, but its proponents miss a critical aspect: they neglect the important role clients themselves play in co-producing public services. This means more than simply participating in decisions or giving feedback about programs: it entails clients contributing time and effort to delivering services. Exploring three rich cases (postal customers, long-term unemployed, and taxpayers) across the US, UK and Australia, this book analyses firstly when it makes sense for public agencies to try to harness clients₂ co-production, and secondly how organizations can better elicit this work from them, by providing good client service and appealing to their intrinsic needs and social values. It also suggests how organizations can better equip themselves to tap client co-production. In the process it challenges many of our assumptions about how government can relate to the public it serves.