Fool, Tamees, and Hala Bil Khamees
Note: The title is a colloquial Saudi rhyme referring to the old leisurely public-sector morning routine — fool [fava beans] and tamees [bread] for breakfast, with everyone counting down to Thursday (the weekend). It’s shorthand for a complacent government-work mindset.
Introduction
It’s known to everyone that government entities monopolize the services they provide and have no competitors in the market. Customers also have no choice but to deal with them whether they like the service or not. This narrow view is more widespread among those who follow the famous morning breakfast routine — fool and tamees — spending at least an hour in breakfast rituals and another hour digesting that heavy meal before starting their day. Thank God, those people are becoming a minority these days.
With this narrow lens, some government employees challenge customer experience experts by asking: what benefit will we gain from applying customer experience principles in our institutions? I’ll try to change that narrow view through the arguments in this article. To their question, I respond:
The First Reason
Applying customer experience principles will reduce the institution’s operating costs. The number of complaints will fall, calls and inquiries will drop, the tone of customers will improve — which will lift employee satisfaction — and employees will have more time to think about strategic matters instead of being consumed by firefighting.
The Second Reason
Free marketing through the beneficiaries of the institution’s services. Customers who go through a distinctive customer experience will tell their friends, colleagues, and relatives about it. As a result, you won’t need huge marketing and PR budgets, because customers will do that on your behalf — for free.
The Third Reason
Many beneficiaries are willing to pay extra for a better customer experience. Instead of offering services for free or at symbolic prices, the service can be made distinctive and the experience smooth in exchange for a price the beneficiary views as very reasonable given the value received. This becomes a source of income for these entities, helping them sustain and self-operate without depending on government funding.
The Fourth Reason
The reputation of the government institution and the stereotype associated with it will improve considerably in beneficiaries’ minds. Compared with other government sectors, your institution will become a model in applying best practices, and all other sectors will follow suit to elevate the level of their services as you have done. For readers in Saudi Arabia: do you remember what the Ministry of Commerce’s services used to be like, and what they are now? How does its reputation compare to other government sectors?
That reputational impact extends to employees, increasing their self-pride and pride in their workplace.
The Fifth Reason
It is marketing for the entire country. How so? Don’t you notice how many countries take pride in the services provided to their citizens (Dubai, for example)? It’s a matter of attracting the best talent to those countries that worked hard to improve their services and digitize many of them to make life easier for citizens. Distinctive customer experience will not happen by chance, and when an experience worthy of beneficiaries is delivered, you’re marketing the entire country — not just the government institution you work in.
Improving customer experience in government entities affects citizen experience, affects key performance indicators at the country level, and affects the country’s ranking in several independent global indices.
In Closing
I hope this article has inspired you and changed the angle through which you look — if you work in this sector. I also hope it has inspired HR readers in the same sector to reconsider the recruitment approach they follow so they can select the best talent capable of representing their government in a manner worthy of it through delivering a distinctive citizen experience. They also need to dispense with the bad apples who treat beneficiaries with arrogance and superiority as quickly as possible, if they’ve been warned and don’t change. Every public-sector employee must believe that they are a face of the state, and that their role — no matter how small — reflects on the overall image of the country in one way or another.
It’s time to shift from the “fool, tamees, and Hala Bil Khamees” mindset to a “those who strive, succeed — and welcome to Sunday” mindset.
My thanks to Abdulrahman Hareth and Ibrahim Altweim for their input, which enriched the article.
← Articles MOC