Dewa powers to top of Dubai happiness index

Dubai - Dubai Electricity and Water Authority ranked the best government service centre.

The average customer happiness level achieved by Dubai government entities last year was 85.2 per cent, the emirate's Crown Prince revealed on Saturday. This came as Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, announced the results of the Dubai Customer Happiness and Mystery Shopper Index that surveyed over 24,000 people.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) was ranked first in the index with a score of 90.1 per cent. Public Prosecution came at the bottom of the list with a score of 77.8 per cent.
Sheikh Hamdan urged all government entities to use the lessons learned from the survey to improve their customer happiness levels. "Our goal is to achieve 100 per cent customer happiness level. A government led by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, should demonstrate exceptional service and settle for nothing less than top rankings across all indicators."
Entities that scored below average in the index must submit development plans within the next two weeks, Sheikh Hamdan tweeted. The Crown Prince will personally follow up on progress reports.
"As part of the vision of Sheikh Mohammed, constantly enhancing excellence is the main focus of the government's work. Ensuring the happiness of the people is an objective that the government does not compromise on," he said. "We must all work together to make Dubai the happiest city in the world. I call on all government entities to boost efforts to improve team spirit and meet the aspirations of customers in line with the highest international standards and best practices."
In September 2019, Sheikh Hamdan had said on Twitter that the results of the Customer Happiness and Mystery Shopper Index would be revealed "with full transparency".
The surveys are part of the Dubai Government Excellence Programme, which evaluates the service quality of various government entities. The programme has been assessing customer satisfaction in government entities for more than 16 years.
In his father's footsteps
In September 2019, Sheikh Mohammed had revealed the UAE's best and worst government centres after a comprehensive evaluation of 600 service centres of 29 federal government entities across the country. Fujairah's Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship centre was declared the best, while Emirates Post's Al Khan branch was rated the worst.
The results set in motion a comprehensive developmental plan at the entities that were ranked the worst. Sheikh Mohammed directed the replacement of the management teams at the worst centres "with highly capable leaders". New directors were appointed at some of the entities, while others rolled out measures to improve their services.
Sheikh Mohammed also vowed to evaluate "services, ministers and managers" annually.
"We will also evaluate ministries and entities and reveal our reports with all transparency. We have the courage to evaluate ourselves and our teams because the cost of hiding mistakes is much higher," he had said then.
sahim@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai