This article is part of a comprehensive report published by the International Foundation for Customer Experience in Government, which aims to enhance the global dialogue on Customer Experience (CX) in the public sector. Drawing on innovative practices from around the world, the report establishes benchmarks for governments to improve their CX initiatives.
CASE STUDY: SINGAPORE “MOMENTS OF LIFE” SERVICE DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
In 2018, Singapore made a bold step toward delivering integrated services and information on a single platform to ease the bureaucracy that comes with impactful life events such as childbirth or death .21 This allows citizens to focus more on the event instead of the often-large amounts of associated paperwork. The transformative program was introduced to address the growing need for streamlined and citizen-centric government services in the digital age with the goal of providing a seamless, intuitive, and integrated experience to citizens during pivotal moments in their lives.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INITIATIVE
The distinctive aspect of service delivery lies in its focus on structuring services around specific “Moments of Life.” This strategic approach aims to empower citizens during crucial moments or events when they find themselves engaging with multiple government agencies simultaneously, often unsure of the necessary steps to take. By aligning services with these pivotal life events, the strategy endeavors to provide clarity and ease of interaction, helping citizens navigate through complex processes and facilitating a seamless experience.
For example, registrations for all eligible births in Singapore are done through the LifeSG web portal or application.22 New parents can perform birth registration, set up the child’s bank account, and apply for associated government benefits in just 15 minutes and in the comfort of their own home. These processes used to take at least 60 minutes online, as they involved different agency touchpoints.
Developing such an integrated service journey for birth registration involved the consolidation of relevant services from 18 systems through 40 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) across multiple public and private organizations into a single platform to serve new parents.23 The initial service bundle took one and a half years to develop.
The LifeSG initiative integrates other essential topics for parents in a centralized LifeSG platform, encompassing a child’s health data, preschool options, and parenthood-related information. It is now recognized as a Strategic National Project under the Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative with an extended scope to simplify access to government services. This will be done by consolidating related services and information across all government sectors, while also proactively presenting users with relevant services they may not have considered.
Moreover, the LifeSG platform expanded its features to cater to users’ diverse life journeys comprehensively. These enhancements include user-friendly guides, benefits and support modules, eligibility checkers and calculators, access to over 400 government services 24 and the retrieval of personal information from various public agencies and databases.
Adopting the Service Journey work methodology, LifeSG designs and organizes government services around life events in a user-centric manner, with a primary focus on saving citizens’ time and expenses by acting as a unified touchpoint for streamlined access to various services. Constantly evolving based on user feedback and needs, the initiative continuously onboards new service journeys and modifies existing ones to ensure an intuitive design and platform for citizens.
SUCCESS FACTORS
Several key success factors contributed to the effectiveness of the program:
- Deep Understanding: Singapore deeply understands customers when designing life-event services. They utilize design thinking methodology, such as user personas and customer journey mapping across agencies, covering all aspects of government interactions.
- User-Centricity: Developing a user-friendly platform that consolidates government services requires tight coordination between digital and ground-level operations, ensuring citizens’ needs are met seamlessly across different agencies.
- Communication: Singapore’s cross-agency task force enables joint life-event service development, involving relevant collaboration between civil servants, and facilitating comprehensive and integrated service design.
MAIN CHALLENGES
While the program achieved significant success, it also encountered some challenges:
- Resistance to Digital Adoption: Less tech-savvy segments resist digital channels, prompting the need to provide physical touchpoints for preferred engagement, such as phone/video calls or face-to-face meetings. Integrating the life-event approach into these channels presents challenges compared to the digital channel experience with LifeSG.
TAKEAWAYS
The program offers valuable takeaways for successful government initiatives:
- Design life-event services based on users’ actual needs for interacting with the government, considering specific moments in their lives.
- Bridging Silos: Coordinate agencies’ efforts and align their work to create an integrated experience for customers, using collaboration formats like task forces.
- Integration by Design: Utilize design principles and methods, such as personas and customer journey mapping, to develop life-event services that transcend agency “silos.”
- Development: Create a highly modular technical solution with various feature options to enable rapid deployment of new service journeys and continuous iteration of existing ones.
In conclusion, Singapore’s “Moments of Life” service design on the LifeSG platform stands as a leading example of delivering integrated, citizen-centric government services. By structuring services around specific life events, empowering citizens during crucial moments, informing a deep understanding, and ensuring user-centricity and effective communication across agencies, the initiative successfully streamlines processes and fosters seamless and intuitive CX.
In our next article, dive into Dubai’s CX transformation journey and discover how the Dubai Model for Government Services, is shaping the future of public services through innovation, disruptive thinking, and sustainable value delivery—making Dubai a global leader in service design!
References:
21 “Personalised Government Services and Information.” Smart Nation Singapore, n.d. https://www.smartnation.gov.sg/initiatives/strategic-national-projects/lifesg/.
22 Ibid.
23 ICA Country Report summary, 2020. https://ica-it.org/pdf/ICA-Country-Report-Summary-v2.pdf.
24 “Lifesg Gets a Makeover with Design and Service Upgrades!” Government Technology Agency, April 11, 2023. https:// www.tech.gov.sg/media/technews/lifesg-gets-a-makeover.