In the various activities that we tend to in our daily life - whether taking a train, sending children to school, or recovering in a hospital - each form part of a mosaic, which together shape our existence, our humanity, and which, when pictured in our mind, give us reason to get up in the morning. This mosaic forms not only part of ourselves, but takes on additional meaning when regarded in relation to our varied roles, relationships and responsibilities, as father or mother, professional (doctor, lawyer, etc...) and citizen.
The
managerial trend within government, that began in the 1980's, during the feverish days of Thatcherism, has gradually spread and infiltrated to every facet of public services. This has become sometimes onerously evident for workers in the public sector with the emphasis on meeting targets. For the broad mass of the population, the trend has perhaps become notable in a subtle even seemingly insignificant way as there has been a change in the way we find ourselves addressed when using public services. We have now, it seems, become the customer.
When traveling the tube, we are no longer "passengers", but customers, as we are politely told during announcements. When borrowing a book from the library, we are not "readers", but customers. The NHS now talks about improving its customer service, to those who had been known as "patients". Even people who are seeking work, are referred to as customers, when in receipt of government assistance. It should come as no surprise then that victims of crime are now known as customers by the police. In this vein, a recent report by the Ministry of Justice examined how human rights could be used effectively for improving customer satisfaction with public services.
For all the virtues of the efficiency drive in the public services, there is a limitation to which government can imitate business with realism. At a certain point, the mimicking of business practices starts to resemble a forty-year old who adopts the dress and mannerisms of a teenager. After all, the government is a different creature and has certain worthy features of its own to live up to. The purpose of business is to serve particular interests, these being their customers and, foremost, the bottom-line of its own profits. Conversely, government has a mandate to adopt a universal standpoint on its responsibilities, and to consider the interests and needs of all citizens and the broader population.
Indeed, this is precisely the distinction between the individual considered as customer and the individual considered as citizen. The customer is formed by a purchase, which is the particular contract between the individual and the business and is enduring only to the degree that the customer returns to do business with the same company. In contrast, the individual as a citizen concerns the universe of activities that the individual takes up in a civic role, whether as a worker, a family member or as a student. This must necessarily be the case, because in setting laws and programmes to regulate and enable citizen activity, the state aims to ensure that the most fundamental duties and commitments of citizens do not contradict, but complement each other in the various spheres of activity.
Public services exist, to a large degree, to ensure that individuals are empowered to coherently serve in these various civic roles that make up an active life. Often these are essential services, which might not be profitable for business to provide with for all citizens at a reasonable price, but without which the life of citizens would be impeded.
The epithets that are given to these various activities that fill our lives intimate the diverse roles we serve within the civic sphere of existence. As a "passenger" on the tube, we are not just a customer purchasing a ticket for a ride, but we are traveling somewhere. Where? To work, to visit a museum to go to a concert. As a "reader" in the library, from from merely purchasing a service, we are reading to enter the world of imagination, or educating ourself in the hope of becoming the next great scientist.
While 'satisfaction' of users is important and certainly should not be ignored, this is also a narrow measure, which could blind us to what these services are actually for. When a business seeks customer satisfaction, this is only so as to ensure that the customers will be returning to do more business. The concern of government though is, or at least should be, to put in place the conditions for citizens to have the opportunity to
reach their potential within society. The discordant ring of saying that human rights should be used to increase customer satisfaction is that the satisfaction felt by a customer is an immediate sense relating to a personal preference, whereas the realization of a right is for a purpose that is enduring and stems from a recognition of our togetherness as humanity.
While the shift from the more descriptive names for our activities to the usage of the bland term, 'customer', may not be a policy matter with great implications, nevertheless the development signifies our progress to a less cohering society, where the relationships that are formed in public services are regarded as a contract of mutual self-interest in an isolated sphere of its own, where the broad idea of a citizen with rich complementing and integrated facets of life has become supplanted by the individual seeking personal satisfaction where this is to be had. To replace the citizen with the customer is to lose the sense of unity that holds our lives together, individually and collectively, in favour of a hoped for efficient gratification of immediate needs and fragmented desires.