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Paradoxes Of Public Sector Customer Service, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

The use of customer service ideas in government continues to be wide- spread, although the concept and its implications for public sector service production and delivery remain poorly developed. This paper presents a series of paradoxes related to customer service and its use in government. The central and most troubling paradox is that customer service techniques and tools applied to government may lead to increased political inequality even as some aspects of service are improved. The argument is structured by examination of the following: the predominant structural features of service management in the private sector, the assumption that customer satisfac- …