Abstract

About 97% of Saudi government services have been transformed into digital, making the Kingdom ranked second within the G20 countries, according to the Digital Competitiveness Index. This strongly enhanced the success of the customer experience launched by the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Development to establish a body concerned with implementing the strategy through a set of services and procedures that included activities to push innovation in customer satisfaction exceeding 90% in several sectors and services. However, continuing these successes requires evaluating the experience from the customer’s point of view, replacing weaknesses, and keeping up with updates, considering the limitless aspirations of customers.

First: Introduction and Concepts

As a consequence of digital transformation in the business world today, customer experience has become one of the most important tools of competition to win more customers into the ranks of service or product providers, whether in the private or public sectors, Keeping in mind that competition between the public and private sectors in this field is very difficult, due to the variety of goals and strategies between A subsidised service provider, and another of an investment nature.

Customer experience is represented in the interactive relationship between the customer and the service provider, whether it is a brand or a government company. It goes through several stages, starting with the customer’s journey, then contact points, and the product environment. It constitutes points of interaction between customers and companies, which generate relevant and resulting perceptions of the customer on its impacts, whether it is a one-time, or a cumulative effect of its interactions with a particular supplier’s employees, systems, channels, or products.

The importance of customer experience lies in the cumulative effect created by attitudes and procedures to win the customer in the battle of competition between many companies and service providers within digital transformation and technological development that makes the customer view dozens of similar products by browsing a group of websites in a few minutes; That’s why a survey conducted by Gartner technology research and consultations, found that 89% of the companies surveyed view customer experience as a new competitive battlefield. So, both government and private companies are interested in developing a customer experience strategy based on competitive insights, consumer and market data, market research and studies, and internal value data, provided that the strategic plan later includes targeted marketing campaigns and e-commerce sites.

On the other hand, a bad customer experience creates a feeling of dissatisfaction, frustration, or even disappointment in the customer, which often results from customer perceptions that the service or product provider does not know their goals or preferences, is uninterested, or difficult to deal with, as a result of a combination of the reasons, as follows:

• Poor quality customer access.
• Websites are difficult or complex to navigate.
• The products do not meet the needs of the marketed society.
• The services provided do not meet customer expectations.
• A delay response to customer service requests.
• Problem handling stages take longer.
• Customer service providers fail to find quick solutions.
• Marketing targeting to the wrong audience.
• A breakdown in communication between service or product providers and customers.

In case of avoiding such problems, the environment for providing services or products is positive, the main indicator is customer interaction, it is the direct result of a positive customer experience, according to Paul Greenberg, author of Customer Relationship Management. He indicates that a positive customer experience is matched by customer interaction. Given the importance of customer experience, many opinion polls showed that 74% of consumers are likely to buy products based on experience alone, 81% of companies consider customer experience a competitive advantage, and 80% of organizations expect to compete primarily based on customer experience(1).

Importance of customer experience

A statistic by Oracle, one of the largest and most important information technology and database companies, indicates that 84% of companies (2) that improved their customer experience recorded an increase in their revenues. So, given the importance of customer experience in improving the mental image of consumers or clients, there are specific points that represent direct results that government and private entities can achieve, as follows:

• Increase competitiveness.
• Enhance customer loyalty.
• Increase chances of customer retention.
• Developing the internal structure of institutions and companies in line with digital transformation.
• Improving growth.
• Improving the image of service or product provider.
• Increase customer confidence.
• Increase cross-selling opportunities and deals.
• Resource boost given that one positive customer experience increases customer spend by up to 140%.

Second: Customer service in the Middle East

On the regional level, customer experience receives wide attention from the government and private sectors alike, 62% of organizations in the Middle East and Africa plan to increase their investments in solutions that support the improvement of customer experience, by up to 50% by 2024, According to a survey conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

With the increasing competition for customers with new technologies and digital transformation, 22% of organizations in the Middle East plan for more than double on analytics, personalization, and smart assistance tools, in order to improve the customer experience, achieving a return on investment that increases by 100% until the end of 2024. Some companies in the Middle East have become pioneers in the field of customer experience, thanks to modern technologies and tools for data analysis and statistics. This helped more than 70% of the private sector companies in the region in the process of integrating the customer experience. These companies implemented technological solutions and created digital platforms that create a single base of information and centrally manage customer experience operations. About 60% of organizations in the Middle East offer software and collaboration platforms that allow cross-functional teams to manage customer experience operations through a unified hub. However, international organizations are ahead of their counterparts in the Middle East on the level of customer experience, as technologies help make the customer experience a success, in addition to the availability of comprehensive expertise regarding data collection and analysis. Therefore,  Fine Hygienic Holding company has used Commerce Tools, a leader in advanced e-commerce solutions, to update the customer experience in its Middle Eastern markets, and keep pace with the changing consumer needs to enhance the company’s returns. Commenting on such matter, the company stated consumers’ purchasing methods are being changed, especially in the Middle East, expecting that e-commerce sales will grow by about 23% to reach $ 27 billion by the end of 2022. Individuals’ requirements vary in their purchasing choices, in terms of their desire to shop by physical or E-shopping or any other chosen channel.

Whether services are provided by private companies or government sectors, customers in the Middle East are now inclined to technological solutions in obtaining services, which justifies the orientation of more than 90% of customers in the region towards brands that provide customer identification technologies precisely to his needs.

Technology and digital development enriched the customer experience in the region, especially with regard to providing sufficient data on the services provided, while feedback affects the service provider positively and negatively, with the possibility of receiving negative comments directly in front of the rest of the public, through multiple means of communication. Within the competition between the government and private sectors to attract customers, the Middle East became one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets, with expectations that the value of e-commerce will grow to $50 billion by 2025. This brings the institutions technological competition to seize the largest share of expected profits.

Third: Digital transformation in the Saudi government sector

As part of its medium and long-term goals, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has set several scenarios to accelerate the stages of development and digital transformation, based on the latest communication and information technology systems, given that digital transformation affects various areas, such as: insurance services, banking and financial services healthcare services, manufacturing services and public sector services; While the Kingdom enjoys a digital infrastructure that contributes to accelerating the process of digital transformation, that made it among the top ten developed countries in the context of the robustness of digital infrastructure (3). The Kingdom, in partnership with the private sector, provided fiber optic network coverage that included more than 3.5 million homes, and increased internet speed from 9 Mbps in 2017 to 109 Mbps in 2020.

In this context, on March 9, 2021, the Saudi Council of Ministers issued a decision to establish the Digital Government Authority, with the aim of regulating all digital government work, in government agencies to reach a future digital government capable of providing all digital government services with high efficiency among all government agencies, which later revealed that 97% of government services are digital, with a maturity rate of more than 83%. It put Saudi Arabia in the second place, according to the Digital Competitiveness Index within the G20 countries(4).

One of achievements made in the context of digital transformation in the Kingdom is the establishment of the unified national system for government correspondence, which is an integrated platform for exchanging government correspondence and documents in a safe, easy and high-quality electronic way to save time, effort and cost, and the establishment of the government “Integration” channel in order to activate the exchange of joint government Among the entities authorized to use them, to establish programs and centers to develop and follow up the implementation of the digital transformation process in of the “Kingdom’s Vision 2030”, including the GOVx Smart Government Development Center, which includes 3 centers that aim to benefit from advanced tools and technologies that help in developing areas of digital governance (5).

In this regard, the Saudi government launched a set of initiatives and platforms to achieve the digital transformation, including the implementation of the Electronic Billing System  for all commercial activities, the Ministry of Interior launched “Absher” platform, which allows citizens and residents to conduct their transactions without the need to visit the entity’s headquarters, as well as the launch of the Ministry of Interior Municipal and Rural Affairs, the “Ejar” (lease) platform concerned with regulating the real estate rental sector in the country. In addition, the Ministry of Finance launched the “Etimad” (Accretional) platform to organize services for various government agencies and the private sector. The Ministry of Justice launched “Enjaz” (Achievement), and the “Quwa” (Forces) platforms, to provide 94 services in association with more than 5 government agencies (6)

The Saudi government spent about 12 billion riyals on digital transformation for public sectors during 2021, as a result, the speed of implementing digital transformation programs exceeded the global level, according to the Digital Transformation Report issued by Dell Technologies, as 90% of institutions in Saudi Arabia boasted the completion of many digital transformation programs comparing to the global average of 80% (7).

Digital transformation in the Saudi government sector

• Saudi Arabia is ranked as the first in the region in providing and developing digital services.
• It is the second globally among the G20 in the 2021 Digital Competitiveness Report
• It comes among the first group of leading countries in the fields of government services and interaction with citizens.
• The kingdom records the highest of adoption of NFC payments at 94%, and the highest rate of government technology spending in the world, at about 93 billion riyals
• It ranks the 31^st globally in the “E-government Development” index.

Results of digital transformation

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has achieved positive results as a result of digital transformation, the most important of which are:

• Exceeding 21 ranks in the “E-government Development” index during 2022, the kingdom reached the 31st globally, after the 52nd in 2019.
• Women participation in many other related sectors increased by more than 50% over the past few years.
• Reliance of the health sector on digital uses, improved as 9 million medical appointments were set on the Internet during 2021.
• Schools, teachers and students benefit from digital transformation, as 50% of schools connected to the Internet in 2020.
• E-commerce system enhanced confidence in electronic transactions.
• Smart cities plan activated.
• Industrial cities and communications infrastructure initiative have been launched.

Fifth: The experience of human resources: Advantages and Features

The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development put the customer experience as a high priority. In 2019, it launched the first ever government body concerned with the customer experience, in line with the “Kingdom’s Vision 2030”, on the priority of updating with international standards, to provide a service that lives up to the customer’s ambition, then Customer Experience Association launched in June 2022. Within this period the kingdom saw many experiences, initiatives and conferences that reflected the development of the level of service, evaluation of experience, treatment of defects and improvement of performance; Despite the challenges faced by the program due to the high ceiling of customer expectations, there were a clear institutional environment with all details and organizational procedures that help facilitate the services provided.

The roadmap for implementing the customer experience strategy was based on understanding customers’ orientation, needs, and rights, and then providing services that meet expected aspirations, not only such as solving problems, but also by providing innovative models. This was formed through holding 30 meetings with agents, and 6 workshops with specialists and experts, with the participation of 1,500 male and female employees, in addition to 251 beneficiaries who participated in focus groups and personal interviews, leading to the formulation of a strategy that was implemented and monitored the resulting performance, according to integrated governance, with the presence of an academic to prepare and qualify cadres and enable and develop the performance of operational partners in the areas of customer experience (13).

The Ministry of Human Resources entered the arena of competition created by digitization and artificial intelligence. It created competition not within a single sector, but everyone is competing with everyone to provide services that attract customers, especially since electronic portals and digital platforms for the public and private sectors have put all institutions in one basket in front of the audience.

The Ministry’s interest in customer satisfaction can be explained by the fact that improving customers’ experiences in the government sector increases their confidence in the performance of government agencies, this raises the level of national belonging, and creates sustainability and efficiency in government institutions. In addition, it enhances the Kingdom’s international competitiveness to achieve leadership in customer service.

The Ministry has achieved unprecedented progress at the regional level. Given the novelty of the experience, by achieving the fourth level among government agencies according to the scale of the National Center for Performance Measurement of Public Agencies “ADAA”, which measures institutional maturity in the field of customer experience 2020; This reflects the level of speed and quality in the implementation of the project (14)

Results of improving costumer experience 

• The response rate to phone calls increased to 97% from 45% of the total daily calls
• Customer waiting time improved over the phone from 70 minutes to 2 minutes
• Working hours in the center increased to 10 hours from 6 hours
• The employee commitment rate increased to 82% from 53%

Experiences and achievements

Since 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources has launched a set of initiatives, experiences and events, with the aim of enhancing the customer experience, as follows:

Customer experience agency

The establishment of an agency for customer experience came in line with “Vision 2030”, in activating the international standards to provide services that meet the customer’s ambition, improve customer experiences and overcome the difficulties they face in order to facilitate the access of the Ministry’s services to its beneficiaries according to the highest quality standards, and involving the customer in policy-making, decision-making and evaluation The quality of services provided to them, the use of proactive and interactive digital tools, the provision of many interactive channels for communication and customer care, and supervising initiatives and monitoring performance and quality to ensure the provision of a distinctive and smooth experience for customers, using digital transformation, facilitating the journey of the beneficiary of the Ministry’s services, establishing transparency, and shortening time according to the highest quality standards (15).

The agency included four departments; General Department for Customer Care, General Department for Customer Experience, General Department for Product Innovation and Service Development, and General Department for Corporate Communication; In addition to creating the “Citizen’s Account” program to protect Saudi families from the expected direct and indirect impact of economic reforms.

Based on the positive results achieved, the agency won the Bronze Award for the Best Voice of the Customer Program for the year 2020, the Gold Category Award in Customer Experience Leader category for 2020, and the fifth level in the assessment of the National Center for Performance Measurement of Governmental Agencies “ADAA” (Performance) for institutional maturity in customer experience management in 2021.

In addition, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, represented by the Customer Care Department of the Customer Experience Agency, obtained the ISO certificate “ISO10002: 2018” to handle complaints and increase customer satisfaction, after reviewing the “TUV Austria” company that grants international conformity certificates. For the ISO system, reviewing the customer satisfaction system in dealing with complaints, and ensuring that the ministry fully complies with the procedures used in managing and handling complaints (16).

Procedures and services

The Ministry of Human Resources launched a number of procedures and initiatives aimed at improving customer experience and customer satisfaction such as:

1. The “Voice of the Customer” program, concerned with measuring customer aspirations.
2. The “Forrester Index” methodology for customer experience.
3. A unified relationship management system for beneficiary data in various sectors.
4. The Ministry of Human Resources used smart devices to access innovative and secure digital services.
5. A project to develop, implement and activate the governance and compliance system in the Ministry of Human Resources.
6. “Nitaqat” Developer program to develop and raise its efficiency, provide decent and attractive jobs and improve the customer experience.
7. A “facilitation card” for people with disabilities.
8. Service of canceling a payment number for the work permit service on the “Qiwa” platform.
9. Service certificate of commitment of the establishment to the wages protection program.
10. Service of issuing visas for domestic workers through the “Musaned” portal electronically.
11. Filling jobs with promotions to govern the promotions process of all kinds.
12. Registration service in the “Saed” (Help) system for support jobs.
13. Electronic grievances service for filing, following up and responding to them from the concerned authorities.
14. “Bayan” (A statement) service for automatic disbursement of retirement dues.
15. “Competencies” service to provide CVs to recruit Saudi talents.
16. The “electronic appointment” service to book an appointment to visit the branches of the Ministry of Human Resources.

Events

1. In addition to previous initiatives and experiences, the Ministry held a series of events that discussed and reached effective results and recommendations to improve the customer experience such as:
2. “The World of Customer Experience” Forum, to keep abreast of global changes in this field and review its experience and challenges in developing it.
3. E3 Customer Experience Empowerment Conference to discuss ways to develop customer experiences.
4. Several workshops in several areas to develop staff skills to improve customer experience.
5. A series of training workshops within the project to support the transformation of human resources in government agencies.

Customer satisfaction indicators for the Ministry of Human Resources website

The data available on the website of the Ministry of Human Resources shows the convergence of positive and negative statistics, as 52,711 visitors gave positive ratings to the site, of whom 26,996 browsers, 51% of the number of voters with positive answers, saw that browsing the page was comfortable and easy since 8,659 visitors, (16%) found the page useful and clear, 7297 visitors (14%) were able to access the information easily, 6964 visitors (13%) referred to another reason to express their satisfaction with the content, while 2795 visitors (5%) found the wording of the content perfect (17).

On the other hand, 4,989 visitors voted with negative comments, including 2,479 visitors (50%) coulded not find the information to be obtained, 1122 visitors (22%) considered the content incomprehensible, 675 visitors (14%) encountered a technical problem, 589 visitors (22%), 12% referred to another reason, while 124 visitors(2%) found it difficult to read when browsing this page (18).

The Level of customer satisfaction with the Ministry’s services

The Ministry of Human Resources surveyed customers’ opinions about the services provided, as the Voice of the Customer report on the services of the “Ajeer” (Worker) platform showed that 95% of the beneficiaries were satisfied with the services until the end of July 2022, compared to 85% during 2020, it is an indicator that measures customer satisfaction with the services. “Ajeer” platform and improving the customer experience and develop services by knowing, enhancing the positive aspects and identifying shortcomings to improve them (19).

As for the results of the customer survey about the CV service through the “Masar” (mainstream) platform, 74% of the beneficiaries were satisfied until the end of July 2022, 87% showed their satisfaction with the services provided through the national platform for volunteer work, 86% were satisfied with the service of applying for the security pension, while 87% the satisfaction rate of beneficiaries through the new “Musaned” platform, on January 17, 2021, in order to improve services for the remaining percentage (13%), the survey’s organizers recommended raising a request to study recruitment prices and presenting it to the committee to avoid an increase in recruitment prices, invest in improving procedures to raise Speedy completion of requests, sharing of the service level agreement, completion of employee training on the new social security system, and creating a mechanism for evaluating and publishing recruitment companies (20).

Services performance statistics during 2022

62% expressed their satisfaction with the services provided during 2022, while the ministry completed its services (97%) during the current year, 90% of them completed the digital acquisition, out of a total of 1,400 transactions. The total number of transactions (service requests) reached 985,639 requests, transactions through the electronic service reached 875,314 requests, and the digitization rate of electronic services reached 90% (21).

As for the positive results, percentage of previously unanswered calls amounted to 45% of the total daily calls, which caused the beneficiary not to receive the service ideally. After activating customer care system, the response rate to phone calls reached 97% (22).

The Ministry improved the work of call centers in its branches to suit the modern work environment of the call center, it established 3 call centers in the main cities of the Kingdom, namely Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, with 120 employees at the time. The Ministry accomplished the infrastructure of its network and providing computers, and call centers have been linked and capacity has been increased in communication circles, in order for calls to be forwarded and answered.

Customer waiting time over the phone was improved from 70 minutes to two minutes, working hours in the center increased from 6 hours to 10 hours, the work of the center was divided into shifts between employees to cover all incoming calls; While work governance supports employee performance with operational indicators to clarify the work context (23).

In the field of customer care awards, an EFQM certificate was obtained at the ministry level in 2021 with the participation of the unified call center project, which directly contributed to obtaining this award, and selecting the project from among 450 projects within the ministry.

As for development, the Ministry’s employees were trained on the COPC methodology to improve customer experience and operate call centers with the best international standards. It is the first ministry in the Kingdom to prepare this training for its employees.

About 520 employees work in the field of customer care for the Ministry, it aims to increase the number to 800 employees before the end of 2022. These employees provide the Ministry’s services to clients and beneficiaries, as the it studied the range of satisfaction with the services provided to the beneficiary, it was about 33%. The Ministry plans to achieve 85% according to the COPC methodology.

Customer experience results

1. Executive performance of the Kingdom increased in line with the economic policies of “Saudi Vision 2030”.
2. Designing and developing services, measuring and addressing deficiencies.
3. Anticipating the future of services and ways to develop them using feedback methods.
4. Achieving a smooth transition when outsourcing services to a third party, whether now or in the future.
5. Reducing costs and making wise decisions based on accurate data.
6. Raising the overnment revenues.
7. Gaining the trust of existing customers and attracting new customers.

Sixth: Results of the study

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has come a long way in the customer experience, after realizing the nature of competition in providing the best services to customers, as government agencies began investing in this field, building competencies and human capabilities, investing in the employee’s experience, through workshops and discussions with experts and specialists, in addition to developing a roadmap for the customer experience strategy, based on understanding the customer orientation, needs and rights, in order to provide services that meet their aspirations.

The government spending on digital transformation and customer experience also showed an awareness of the nature of the field, as a necessary need and not just a competitive advantage, given the huge return on investment in the customer experience, according to official reports and statistics.

However, the awards that Customer Experience Agency won within a very short period of time show the extent of rapid development and careful planning of the experience since its first day, which resulted in a set of positive results in the short and medium term as follows:

1. Accelerating the pace of interaction between the government sector and the public, and enhancing mutual trust.
2. Raising the Kingdom’s executive performance in line with the economic policies of Vision 2030.
3. Designing and developing services, measuring glitches and addressing them.
4. Anticipating the future of services and ways to develop them, using feedback methods.
5. Achieving a smooth transition when outsourcing services, whether now or in the future.
6. Reducing costs and making decisions based on accurate data.
7. Raising the government revenue.
8. Gaining the trust of existing customers and attracting new ones.

Seventh: Recommendations

To boost beforementioned achievement, the study paper suggests the following recommendations:

1. There is a need to integration platforms and e-services portals into one platform.
2. Keeping up with the experience with recent developments, given that improving the customer experience has no ceiling.
3. There a need to study the possibility of enabling the private sector to develop a technical system that meets the needs of the client from government agencies.
4. Providing software connectivity for the private sector, to enhance the opportunities of the technical sector in developing innovative solutions.
5. Studying the customer’s experience with services, through emotional contact with customers, and measuring the quality of services and the real value of the customer.
6. Enhancing the role of the national monitoring to exchange experiences to improve customer experiences for government services.
7. More investment in technology to help reduce friction.
8. Enhancing the customer’s ability to self-control, by providing a comprehensive database of frequently asked questions.
9. Enabling customers to communicate with a person when needed, not just satisfying with an automated response.
10. Offering a greater concern to the beneficiaries not to make them compelled to search for the service provider.
11. Developing the Customer Experience Academy to be a center for culture transformation and change management.
12. Addressing the glitches that prompted a large number of visitors to the Ministry’s website to make negative comments about browsing.

References

1. Zoho Corporation for Information Technology, What is Customer Experience? https://cutt.ly/oNNXZvT).
2. Oracle, a company specializing in information technology, what is meant by customerexperience (CX)? (https://cutt.ly/ANNX9my).
3. Digital Government Authority, Digital Government Policy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://cutt.ly/2NNCtYa).
4. Asharq Al-Awsat, Accelerating the Sustainable Digital Transformation of Saudi Government Sectors, September 30, 2021
5. Idem 
6. Al Arabiya Net, The Saudi government spends 11 billion riyals annually on digital services, November 9, 2021.
7. The Middle East, Saudi Arabia exceeds the speed of implementing digital transformation programs globally, July 24, 2022.
8. Vision 2030, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Improving the customer experience by implementing a central interconnected system, November 9, 2021.
9. Idem
10. Vision 2030, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, increasing community participation by activating the role of municipal councils and the participation of civil society institutions and establishing an interactive platform to present ideas and attract pioneers of ideas and innovators, November 9, 2021.
11. Vision 2030, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Study and application of universal accessibility standards for pedestrians in Medina, November 9, 2021.
12. Vision 2030, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Facilitating, unifying and automating procedures for obtaining municipal services and enforcing electronic linkage with relevant authorities, November 9, 2021.
13. Khaled Al-Salman, Customer Experience, Al Arabiya Net, September 30, 2022.
14. Abdul Latif Al-Duwaihi, Ministry of Resources and Changing the Rules of Change, Okaz, August 23, 2022.
15. Ministry of Human Resources and Community Development, Customer Experience Agency.
16. Al-Madina, “Human Resources” obtains “ISO” in handling complaints and customer satisfaction, September 5, 2022.
17. The website of the Ministry of Human Resources.
18. Idem 
19. Idem
20. Idem
21. Customer care report during the year 2022.
22. Idem
23. Idem
24. Idem