Chapter 1 - Service Delivery that Puts Citizens First

The following information is out of date.

Objective: Provide integrated, one-stop service based on citizens' needs and help deliver better policy outcomes.

In our first year of operation, our main challenge was to design the one-stop service experience for all our main channels of service delivery – in-person, telephone, and Internet – and to develop service strategies that meet the needs of Canadians.

The Results So Far

Service Canada began by improving the way Canadians get government services, whether it is in person, by telephone, Internet, or mail.

VISIT! – Expanded In-Person Services

In our first year, an estimated 6.7 million Canadians visited our Service Canada Centres for programs and benefits such as Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and employment programs. On top of that, more than 900,000 Canadians came to us for other programs, 630,000 of them dealing directly with Service Canada staff, and 282,000 choosing self-service.

Our new outreach and mobile services bring Service Canada staff into communities on a regular basis or to respond to a particular need, for example, if a local plant closes, or there is a natural disaster.

We also created more points of service and saved money by sharing space with community partners, for example, in post offices and the offices of other government departments.

By March, 2006, we had opened 96 new outreach sites. By September 2006, we had created a further 71 points of service, well on our way to our three year target of doubling our presence.

We are establishing a consistent look for all our points of service, and creating welcoming, serviceoriented environments.

We have set consistent core office hours so Canadians across the country know they can come in for service any time between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday to Friday. In several locations we are also experimenting with extended office hours.

We initiated services for speakers of Cantonese, Punjabi and Mandarin at sites in the Vancouver area, and are initiating services for speakers of Inuktitut, Ojibway and Cree in Nunavut and other areas.

(To find a list of our current points of service, please visit our Web Site.)

CALL! – Improved Telephone Services

Canadians make 56 million calls to Service Canada each year. They have told us there is room for improvement. They are unhappy with busy signals and the length of time it takes to reach someone. They want interactive voice response systems that are easier to use.

They use our telephone services for more than just finding information. Increasingly, they use the phone to carry out transactions and provide governments with personal information.

We began by integrating the services of our 1 800 O-Canada line and the 23 call centres that provide specific information on Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and other related programs. We now only have a dozen 1-800 numbers, down from more than 135!

Outreach Success Stories

• Through a new program called Multi-Language Extension Services, our staff are visiting select locations in Surrey, Richmond, and Vancouver, British Columbia to provide information about benefits and services in Punjabi, Cantonese or Mandarin.
• Service Canada staff in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, personally contacted more than 100 seniors in the area to make sure they were getting the benefits they are entitled to.
• Francophones in Mainland, Newfoundland now have access to federal government services in both official languages, thanks to a new bilingual Service Canada outreach office.

These are the first steps in our larger plan to build an integrated call centre network for Service Canada. This will allow Canadians to:

• contact us through a single telephone number;
• speak to the first available agent more quickly without getting a busy signal or being cut off;
• connect with interactive voice response services that are easy to use, lead to the right information quickly, and allow them to speak to a call centre agent if they want direct help;
• not have to repeat information they have already provided through another service delivery channel.

CLICK! – Enhanced Online Services

Canadians are not only among the biggest computer users in the world, but also among the biggest users of the Internet for government services. For example, Canadians increasingly use the Internet to carry out their transactions for Employment Insurance (EI), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and other benefit programs.

From April 2005 to March 2006, our new Web Site, servicecanada.gc.ca, received 5.5 million visits, or more than 15,000 visits a day on average.

In our first year of operation, we re-designed the Service Canada Web Site based on what Canadians want, and added new services, such as more online applications, to complement wellestablished online services.

Service Canada Fact

• Thanks to our new Tax Information Slips Online service, Canadians who received Employment Insurance benefits in 2005 could download and print the T4U form they need for their income tax returns from the Internet.
• 93% of new applicants for Employment Insurance now file their applications through our online process Appli-Web.
• We have launched a new online service that provides Canadians with a record of their earnings and contributions to the Canada Pension Plan, and allows them to get an estimate of their CPP benefits.
• See: http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/isp/common/proceed/socinfo.shtml

We assessed how the Web Site's design and content affects our other service delivery channels. For example, we found that Canadians make 50,000 calls annually to the 1 800 O-Canada toll-free line because they cannot find information about their EI claims online. Eight out of ten Canadians reported that finding online information about other programs and services was not easy either.

We were determined to create the kind of Web Site Canadians have told us they want, one that:

• leads to a successful outcome ("I got what I needed");
• offers a one-stop source for information and service ("I got everything I was looking for");
• makes content easy to find ("I didn't have to click everywhere");
• is easy to navigate ("I always knew where I was");
• has visual appeal ("I like the way the site looks and how its content is presented").

Our Web Site design will reflect these factors, and will make it easier for people to find information from all Government of Canada Web Sites through frequently-asked-questions, quick access to most common programs, better tailoring to specific groups like Aboriginal people, seniors, and persons with disablities, and a comment and feedback section.

Other Improvements

More Consistent Mail Services

Across Canada, staff in Service Canada Centres receive and process information from Canadians such as applications for Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and Employment Insurance benefits, information about people's benefits, and appeals of decisions. They process $190 million worth of payments every day, and send 20 million letters about our programs and services to Canadians in a typical year.

To make these operations more effective, we have introduced more standardized and consistent ways of processing benefit applications and other transactions in all our locations across Canada.

Designing Service Strategies that Meet Canadians' Needs

Our commitment to developing a more citizencentred approach involved asking Canadians who are part of identifiable communities, such as Aboriginal people, seniors and people with disabilities, how we could serve them better. We asked what circumstances lead them to use Service Canada, and how we can do a better job of meeting their needs.

We are using this information to develop service strategies for specific groups:

• families;
• youth;
• workers, the unemployed, and employers;
• seniors;
• official language minority communities;
• newcomers to Canada;
• Aboriginal people, with particular emphasis on urban Aboriginal people;
• people with disabilities.

In each case, we consider:

• common characteristics of people in these different groups;
• what they often want and need from governments;
• what Government of Canada policies are trying to achieve for them;
• what programs and services they use now;
• how to enhance or create new services that achieve better results;
• creating partnerships with governments and non-governmental organizations that would help these strategies succeed.

Canadians are already seeing the impact of this approach. For example, specialized Service Canada Centres have recently been established in Winnipeg and Regina to deliver services tailored to the needs of Aboriginal people. Canadians with disabilities will soon be able to get ten of the forms they use most often in more accessible formats online.

We are continuing to research how our programs and services can meet the needs of specific groups better.

Service Canada Fact

Service Canada Fact

Transforming Service to Canadians through Technology

It is important that we have the right technologies in place to deliver services well and establish better processes. This also means managing information better.

We are developing an integrated telecommunications network that allows a Service Canada call centre agent in one part of the country to work with a Service Canada Centre staff member in another part of the country on the same client problem. Wireless Internet access will allow the 250,000 Canadians who use our outreach and mobile services to get information on their benefits.

By using new technologies to develop common and easier ways of organizing, communicating and updating information on our programs and services, we will ensure that all our employees across different service delivery channels are providing Canadians with the same information.

Reaching Out to Provide Better Service

Meeting the Needs of Official Language Minority Communities

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